The Bible has found itself back in the news in Texas. In June, the State Board of Education moved forward with required reading and social studies changes that will bring biblical material into public-school classrooms, including Adam and Eve, the Beatitudes and the parable of the prodigal son. The changes are scheduled to begin in the 2030–31 school year and have drawn strong reactions from both supporters and critics.
Christians can debate what biblical literacy should look like in a public school. But the conversation raises a question much closer to home:
There is actually some encouraging news. Bible reading among younger Americans has been rising. Barna reported that nearly half of Gen Z and Millennials were engaging Scripture weekly in 2025, part of a broader rebound in Bible reading. But the same research found something worth paying attention to: increased reading has not necessarily produced the same increase in confidence in the Bible’s authority.
For Christians, Scripture has never been simply an important religious book or a collection of stories worth preserving. Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). The Word tells us who God is, why humanity is separated from Him, what sin has done to us and why Jesus came. It takes us to the cross, the empty tomb and the promise that Christ will come again.
Yet it is possible to grow up Christian and know surprisingly little of that story. You can attend youth group, know worship songs, follow Christian creators and recognize a handful of verses without ever learning to read Scripture for yourself. Eventually, that leaves us vulnerable to creating a Jesus from fragments.
We keep the Jesus who welcomes the rejected but forget the Jesus who says, “Repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15). We love His words about grace but become uncomfortable when He speaks about holiness, judgment, sexual purity, money, obedience or hell.
The problem is no longer that we don’t know anything about Jesus. It is that we can know just enough to create a version of Him who rarely disagrees with us.
The Jesus we meet in Scripture refuses to fit inside that version. He welcomed sinners without pretending sin didn’t matter, showed compassion without softening the truth, healed the sick, cast out demons and confronted both religious pride and unbelief. He gave His life for sinners and rose from the dead. The Gospel doesn’t leave us with a Jesus we can reshape around our preferences, but with a living Lord who calls us to repent, believe and follow Him.
Knowing the Word also protects us from another problem: using the Bible mainly to prove other people wrong. Christians can become very interested in Scripture when the subject is sexuality, abortion, marriage, politics or some cultural controversy, while becoming much less enthusiastic when the same Bible confronts our own pride, greed, pornography, unforgiveness or compromise.
Hebrews 4:12 says the Word of God is “alive and active” and judges “the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Scripture doesn’t only give us arguments for what we believe. It exposes us.
This is where Bible reading becomes discipleship. We don’t open Scripture only to collect information about God. We come willing to be corrected. Sometimes the Word comforts us; sometimes it exposes something we have been hiding or reaches an area of our life we have refused to surrender.
James warned believers about hearing the Word without doing what it says (James 1:22). Jesus made the same point at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. The wise man isn’t simply the person who hears His words. He hears them and puts them into practice (Matthew 7:24).
Jesus Himself lived with Scripture on His lips. When Satan tempted Him in the wilderness, He answered from the Word. After His resurrection, He walked with two discouraged disciples toward Emmaus and took them through Moses and the Prophets, showing how the Scriptures pointed to Him (Luke 24:27).
The early Church carried that same hunger. Acts tells us that believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. The Bereans examined the Scriptures to test what they heard. Paul told Timothy that all Scripture is God-breathed and equips God’s people for the life God has called them to live.
That is why the discussion happening in Texas reaches beyond Texas. Public schools may teach students about Adam and Eve, David and Goliath or the prodigal son. Knowing those stories has historical and cultural value, but the Church has been entrusted with something a school curriculum cannot provide: the Gospel.
David and Goliath is more than a story about courage. The exodus is more than a dramatic escape from slavery. The prophets are more than ancient religious voices. The Bible tells one unfolding story of creation, rebellion, covenant, redemption and a promised King who finally comes in Jesus. At its center stands the Son of God crucified for our sins and raised from the dead.
If young people are becoming interested in Scripture again, the Church should welcome that hunger and take it seriously. Give them more than isolated verses and inspirational messages. Teach them how Genesis connects to Revelation, why the Old Testament matters, what the cross accomplished, why the resurrection changes everything and what Jesus actually meant when He called people to follow Him.
Young Christians don’t have to wait for someone else to begin. Read beyond the passages you already know. Stay with difficult texts long enough to understand them. Ask questions. Learn from mature believers and faithful teachers. Be part of a local church where Scripture is preached even when it becomes uncomfortable, and come to the Word expecting more than information. Come ready to obey.
Because biblical literacy by itself is not enough.
Jesus once spoke to people who knew Scripture extraordinarily well and told them that those very Scriptures testified about Him, yet they refused to come to Him for life (John 5:39–40). They knew the text and missed the One standing in front of them.
Knowing more Bible is valuable, but the purpose goes further. Scripture brings us face to face with Jesus. Through it we learn to recognize His voice, understand the Gospel and submit areas of our lives we might otherwise keep for ourselves.
The renewed interest in the Bible is worth celebrating. What matters now is whether Scripture becomes more than something we read.
The Word was given to bring us to Christ, reveal the truth and teach us how to follow Him. And that begins long before anyone decides whether it belongs in a classroom.
