This was a response in a comment to a reader who asked me about where to start to read the Bible:

I tell people to read Mark first because it was the first of the Gospels. Matthew and Luke had access to it and expanded on it.

Then read Acts because that continues the story of the Gospels. Mark is the story of Jesus, and Acts is the story of the apostles, though primarily the apostle Paul.

You can also do Luke then Acts because Luke wrote both books, so that would be more smooth. Or you can do Matthew then Acts just because you like Matthew better for some reason. That would all be the same.

After that, I would alternate letters and Old Testament books, but there are a LOT of options. If you get YouVersion on your phone, you can find all sorts of annual reading plans. I would suppose the Bible Gateway app does the same.

My first point, is to really get one of the first three Gospels and the Book of Acts before you read the epistles, and especially before you read John which is so unique. Sometimes we act like the Bible is all one book, but it’s not. It is very important to know the difference between the way John writes and the way all the other apostles write. John’s way of thinking is not just unique, it is important and critical, but if you interpret the rest of the New Testament writers as though they were John, you will misinterpret them (like so many American Christians do).

Here are the two biggies:

1. John lives in the present tense. He writes as though what is true now always has been true and always will be true. This teaches us that if we move from being in love with Jesus and making the world to be only the slightest influence on us to being influenced strongly by the world, then we move from being in the state of knowing to God to being like one who does not know God. The first epistle of John is short, and you can see this clearly in that letter, but the Gospel of John is just like it.

2. John speaks of “eternal life” as the current possession of the believer because he knows that the life of Jesus is eternal life. Other writers, though, distinguish between the life of Jesus as it is in us as Christians, just calling it “life,” and speak of “eternal life” as a reward for doing good (e.g., Rom. 2:6-7; Matt. 25:31-46–the judgment of the sheep and the goats).

Finally, you do have to read the Old Testament eventually, and it will shed a LOT of light on the New Testament writings, but do start with one Gospel, not John’s, then read Acts, then go anywhere you want with that foundation. It will save you from problem evangelicals have with the Bible because they have you read John first, then misinterpret everything else because you think they are writing like John.