LRC, Houston - the weekends-free church in Houston, Texas

How about a controversial free commentary to kick off the new week?

I am asked by new Christians what book should they read first? Should they start at the beginning and read all the way through the Bible? “I hear that James is a good, practical book. What say thou”? My answer is MARK!

First of all, if you are a Christian, then you’re a follower of Jesus Christ. Right? So, it stands to reason for me, that we’ve narrowed down the 27 books of the New Testament to just four books: one of the four gospels. And therein Mark is hands down the book to read.

The book is the first one to be written. It’s the closest to the events he is writing about. Mark was written 68-70CE. Matthew another ten years later, Luke maybe 15 years after Mark, and John around 90-95CE. Another benefit is that Mark can be read in a little more than one hour and you get the complete picture- less the birth stories of Matthew and Luke. Mark is brief, to the point, and has Jesus battling powers and principalities, like we are (knowing it or not).

One of the interesting things about Mark is that he has a clear and defined sequential story of the last week of Jesus’s life.

Mark was so well written covering the heart of the vents of Jesus’s life that Matthew copied 90% of Mark and Luke copied 65% of Mark. John of course was John. He was so off the spiritual charts that he couldn’t make it into the “synoptic club“.

What book would you recommend to a new convert?

Ifd you want to know how to understand the Bible, click here.

If you want to know and read about hell, I recommend the book at the bottom of this page.”