How Kids Should Study the Bible - 4 Levels

 

I don’t know how to talk to babies, so one of my favorite hobbies is to talk to them about concepts at a much higher level than they could possibly comprehend. Something about explaining gantt charts or network scheduling to pre-toddlers cracks me up. The joke, however, is only funny without the expectation of comprehension. High level understanding of concepts is built by learning smaller concepts and connecting them together over long periods of time — more time than pre-toddlers have at that point in their lives. Likewise, children grow in their understanding and ability to study the Bible. They don’t simply arrive at a complex interpretation, understanding, and application of scripture, it builds as they grow up.

This article will break down how kids at four different levels can study the Bible in an age-appropriate way. The levels will be early elementary, from pre-k through second grade (ages 4-7); later elementary, from third grade through fifth grade (ages 8-10); middle school, sixth grade through eighth grade (ages 11-13); and high school, ninth grade through twelfth grade (age 14-18). I based this article on my observations from working with children for several years, but since I am no expert in child development, I found Lifeway’s Levels of Biblical Learning framework to be a great help.

Starting off the early elementary age group, their primary method of studying the Bible will be through others teaching it to them. At this age, their understanding of the Bible would be that the Bible is true and tells us about God and His people. Since they will primarily be observing the Bible being taught, teachers should ask questions guiding them to identify characters. “Who are the characters in this account?”, “Are they being obedient or disobedient to God?” and “Are they an example to follow or to avoid?” are all good questions to assist this age in studying the Bible. A good goal for growth during this stage is to learn their way around the Bible by memorizing the order of the books of the Bible and learning how to find referenced by book, chapter, and verse.

The next age up, the later elementary age kids, will be beginning to read the Bible for themselves. In addition to observing the text, kids should begin to develop some basic interpretation skills and understand some of the context in the Bible, both literary and historical. Their understanding of the Bible could be summarized by saying that the Bible is true, written by humans, inspired by God, and tells us about God and his people. When kids read the Bible at this age, they should look for the storyline connecting the episodes they are familiar with, looking for context in preceding and following events. Their understanding of historical context is limited to the history they know from school, but over time they will start to develop an understanding of the timeline of the Bible. To help this group grow in their overall understanding of scripture, read a whole book of the Bible, possibly together as a family, with the focus on the storyline of the book and historical context in the background.

After that, in middle school, these kids are able to begin studying the Bible with help from guided studies and devotionals and applying what they’ve learned from the Bible to their lives. This group should understand that the Bible is true, a unified story, written by humans, inspired by God, and teaching us everything we need to know about God and how to live as Christ followers. Building on their understanding of immediate context, this group should look for the Gospel context when they study the Bible. By that I mean that they should look for ways the Bible points to Jesus’s sacrifice offering us forgiveness. This age should also develop a deeper understanding of historical context, attempting to understand what biblical passages meant to their original audience and bridging the gap to application today. A good habit for this age group is scripture memory, encouraging them to meditate on scripture even when they are not reading it.

Lastly, the high school group is where kids grow more independent in their study of the Bible and start seeing the beauty in its complexity. This group will know that the Bible is the standard for truth, a unified story, written by humans, inspired by God, inerrant, and beautiful, teaching us everything we need to know about God and how to live as Christ followers. This age group is old enough to handle complex and deep Bible study. After all, if they can handle A.P. classes at this age, they can handle literary and historical analysis of the Bible. By this point, kids should be able to interpret the Bible more independently, both in studying on their own, and also depending less on guides, using more clear passages to help understand less clear passages. A great goal or challenge at this level would be to read through the whole Bible.

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