Rather, your Bible works this way: to the degree that every passage tells you something about God, something about yourself, something about the disaster of sin, something about life in this fallen world, something about what God has called you to, and something about the operation of grace, to that degree every passage tells you about every area of your life. For example, if all you do to understand parenting is go to the passages that have that word in them or seem to address that topic, you will miss the majority of the information the Bible has for you as a parent. This means you can’t approach your Bible topically and get the best that it has to offer you, because the Bible wasn’t designed to operate that way. It’s a redemptive story with God’s essential explanatory notes. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that your Bible is a carefully theologically annotated story. Your Bible is essentially a grand redemptive story. The Bible is arranged the way it’s arranged because of wise divine intention. It’s not arranged as it is because God made a massive editorial error. You kind of wish it were arranged by topic, with little tabs on the end of the page that would direct you to your topic of need or interest. You probably don’t need me to tell you this, but I will: Your Bible is not arranged by topic. If I were to ask you what is the best, most practical, most helpful parenting passage in all the Bible, what would you answer? Most biblically literate Christian parents would answer, “Ephesians 6:1–4.” That is a wonderfully helpful passage, but I want to take you to one that is even more fundamental.

This article is part of an effort to support our One Million Bibles Initiative, which is focused on providing Bibles to parents, children, and families in need throughout the Global South.

Parenting tripp