Why Do We Study the Bible?

Use this introductory children's Sunday School lesson about the Bible to teach kids what the Bible is. The lesson includes an object lesson, two optional games that you can play, and a craft. The two games teach children that when we study the Bible, we're learning how to follow God and that the Bible is God's way of telling us the truth about Himself. The craft can serve as a way to inspire children to study the Bible on their own. If your class is too young to read on their own, they can use the craft to draw pictures of what they learn in their family devotions.

Making the Lesson Part of an Event

If your church does a Bible Giveaway for students, this would be a good lesson to use that week. When I've used this lesson for elementary students, I or one of my volunteer teachers taught the lesson during the Sunday School hour. Then, during the service, we called all of the students up to the front and presented them with Bibles.

I chose The Boys Bible for boys 3rd grade and above. It comes in a very inexpensive paperback edition or a sturdy hardcover. I chose the Girls Life Application Study Bible for girls 3rd grade and older. It's a little more expensive than the boys' choice, but both are worth the expense for the notes and the way they engage kids. After a Sunday School lesson like this, your students will hopefully be inspired to spend time reading the Bible themselves, and these study Bibles will make it even easier for them to get into the habit.

I would also encourage homeschool parents to present their children with one of these or a similar Bible to encourage their kids to start doing devotions on their own. You could use the following lesson as part of your family devotions or Christian teaching time and then give them their Bible. Part of their daily routine could be reading a passage of Scripture from their own Bible and writing a journal entry about what they learned.

I never wanted to leave any of the kids out, so if you want to get something for the younger children in your church, class, or home, I recommend The Complete Illustrated Children's Bible . It's not a Bible per se, and it's not a complete record of Scripture. It's a summary story of what happened in nearly 300 Bible stories. And the pictures are amazing. In fact, even if you don't gift one of these to each of your young ones, it would be worth having a copy for your classroom. As for accuracy to Scripture, it's spot on with no added commentary or possible biases from the author. It's simply easy to read Bible stories that a parent or teacher can read to their children. The reading level is perfect for students to practice reading by themselves once they start learning.

If you want to add something extra besides the Bibles or something instead of the Bibles, you could consider The Beginner's Bible Super Duper Mighty Activity Book . I like this one because it has activities that cover every section of the Bible, which is what you'll want. It also has a variety of activities: coloring pages, dot-to-dots, mazes, matching activities, different styles of word puzzles, comparison pages, and more that will help kids engage with the Bible stories. I wouldn't necessarily take church time to hand these out, but you could give them out at the end of the lesson and let kids get started on them if you have any time left.

Why Do We Study the Bible? Children's Sunday School Lesson

Needed: For this lesson, you'll want to gather a children's fictional story book, Bibles, construction paper, ribbon, markers or crayons, stickers, and hole punches.

Intro Game 1: Follow the Leader – The Class Teacher chooses a Leader. Students must follow the Leader in every way, going where they go and doing what they do. Play for a specified amount of time and then choose a new Leader. Play until everyone has had a chance to be Leader or until students lose interest. After the game, explain that today's lesson is about why we should study the Bible. When we study the Bible, we are learning how to play Follow the Leader. God and Jesus are our Leaders and the Bible tells us everything we need to know to follow Them. The Bible tells us how we can live the way Jesus lived and how we can do the things that God is happy for us to do.

Intro Game 2: Musical Chair Share – Play Musical Chairs. Remove one chair. When the music stops, the person without a chair must say one true thing about themselves. The difference with this game is that you will remove no more chairs and no one leaves the game. Continue playing with one person each round saying something true about themselves. Play until interest fades. When the game is over, explain that the Bible is like the game students just played. They told true things about themselves in the game and the Bible is the place where God tells us true things about Himself.

Lesson: (Note: Always allow students enough time to think about and answer the questions before clarifying the teaching.) How many of you are in school?

Who knows why we go to school? Why do we study all those books that they give us? To get a good job, to learn what we need to know.

When you come to church, we also study a book. What book do we study? The Bible.

Who knows why we study the Bible?

The Bible is even more important than our school books because it tells us about God and Jesus. It tells us about how God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit love us and all the things that They have done for us and it tells us not how we can get a good job, but how we can be saved and go to Heaven when we die. It tells us how we are supposed to live our lives now. It tells us what kind of people God wants us to be and the kinds of things that He wants us to do.

Those are pretty important things, aren't they? That's why study the Bible; to learn all those things.

Show students a popular children's fiction book and ask, Who can tell me who wrote this book?

Now show them the Bible and ask, Who can tell me who wrote this book?

More than 40 people wrote the Bible, people like Moses and King David and Peter and Paul. It is a collection of books, a big book made up of a lot of smaller books. There are 66 books in the Bible. But those 40 different people weren't just making up the Bible from their own ideas, were they? They weren't just making up a story like this fiction book, right?

The people who wrote the Bible were writing true things, things that really happened. And they were writing the things that God gave them the idea to write about.

Look up and read 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (quoted here from the NIV). "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

What does it mean for the Bible to be God-breathed? It basically means that it comes from God. When the people were writing the Bible, God was talking to them and helping them to know what to write.

Look up and read 2 Peter 1:20-21 (quoted here from the NIV). "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."

This verse again tells us that people wrote the Bible, but that God, the Holy Spirit, was giving people the ideas for what to write.

Craft: Devotion Diaries – If time allows, let children use construction paper, hole punches, ribbon, and craft supplies to make their own Devotion Diaries. Students will tie construction paper into a booklet with ribbon and then decorate the covers with markers, stickers, or whatever else you have available. Encourage students to take their booklets home and record Bible verses, prayers, and important things they learn about God in them.

This lesson is the intro lesson in my book, Created: Children Sunday School Lessons for Genesis 1-11 . It's also part of my collection, Omnibus: 99 Children Sunday School Lessons for the Old Testament . You're free to use the lesson straight from this website or print it off to take it with you. You can also get it in the book forms above for easy reading in your Kindle app or as a standard-size print book.

I hope you and your students enjoy the lesson. May God's Spirit be with your spirit as you teach this week! - Steve