Neutrality is a myth.

Put in biblical terms, either you love the Lord or you don’t. Every thought you think, every choice you make, every word you say, flows from that heart and is determined by its fundamental direction, whether toward God or away from him. There are no fully objective human arbiters of opinion.

And yet even evangelicals who share this conviction sometimes slip into a mythological world in which neutrality is possible. I’ve developed a special highlighting style in Logos to mark these little slip-ups, because I just can’t let such statements go by without scrawling out my disapproval. (I’m an emotional reader, not just an analytical one.)

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In a recent blog I wrote about the pronunciation of biblical names. In response, someone asked this question:

Where in Logos can one hear how Greek words are pronounced?

So just in case you didn’t know, I’ll show you where to go to hear various Greek texts read aloud by Faithlife’s own Dr. John Schwandt, Executive Director of Mobile Education.

Editor’s Note: The read-aloud functionality below requires The Greek Audio New Testament, which is available to add to your Logos base package here.. If you have the Logos 7 Full Feature set (also included in most older Logos base packages), you also have access to individual Greek word pronunciation; for a short demo, see this informal video.

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Christianity cannot be boiled down to a list of words—say, positive character qualities to be cultivated and opposite, negative qualities to be avoided.

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I’m not opposed to using the scenic route down the coast from work to home; I’ve taken it multiple times. But never on a workday, always on a Saturday.

I’m not opposed to using the scenic route in Bible study, either. I’ve taken it multiple times. But not usually when I have to prepare a Sunday school lesson or sermon during my “free” time in a long workweek.

So when I run into an interpretive question I need to answer, I unashamedly bring all the shortcutting power of Logos Bible Software to the task. I try to shorten the distance between the Point A of ignorance and the Point B of knowledge.

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Growing up, I had limited experience interacting with people from other cultures. That all changed when I became a student at a university in Vancouver, B.C.—a city where fewer than half of the residents speak English as their first language. Surrounded by fellow students from unfamiliar cultures and worldviews, I was plunged into the role of the outsider. I quickly realized how difficult it was to communicate ideas when two people don’t share first languages, backgrounds or cultural reference points.

As I studied Paul’s teachings and letters in graduate school, I learned to appreciate why God selected him for the role of apostle to the Gentiles. A “Hebrew of Hebrews” (Phil 3:5) steeped in Old Testament traditions, Paul had to explain the gospel and its implications to people of mostly non-Jewish background. He was the perfect man for the task: Although raised a Jew, Paul was brought up in a Graeco-Roman context (e.g., Acts 21:39).

This background gave Paul an insider’s perspective into Graeco-Roman culture and the lives of those he was trying to reach. He engaged popular culture so he could better communicate the gospel.

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I was recently reading 1 John in which I came to the phrase in the world in 1 John 2:15. From my research, I realized John frequently uses the Greek word kosmos usually translated world. During my study I asked a few questions such as:

• Where else in John’s writings does he use kosmos?
• What other prepositional phrases does John use with kosmos such as in the world, from the world, into the world, etc?

Such detailed questions are actually very easy to answer with the Guide, Bible Word Study, which is available in Logos 7.

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As you well know, many of the New Testament books were originally composed as epistles or letters. Paul sent letters to the churches in Corinth, Philippi, Colossae, and so on. It’s easy, however, to lose sight of the “epistolary form” with the addition of chapter and verse numbers, pericope headings, text formatting, etc.

Fortunately for us, our Logos Bible Software contains a feature called Bible Text Only allowing us to hide these extra-biblical markings and thus read letters as letters.

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I’ve come to realize that in order to know the Bible there is no replacement for reading the entire thing.

I’m going to give three reasons why you need to aim to read even the portions of the Bible you somehow rarely get around to—and why I myself continue to reread the Bible even though I’ve already marked it “read” on Goodreads.

Give poor Obadiah and Nahum some love. Actually try to divine some intent behind genealogies rather than skipping them (hint: it’s there).

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With the advent of Logos 7, a feature known as Multiview Resources allowed us to open numerous resources within the same panel. The recent release of 7.3 expanded that feature with the option of creating a saved list of resources which can easily be loaded.

Also, we now have the option of displaying Multiple Resources side by side or one upon the other.

Let’s quickly take a look at both of these improvements by creating a saved list of daily devotionals.

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