What can reading fiction teach us about studying the Bible? Surprisingly, quite a lot. When we slow down and notice how stories are written, we begin to see that the Gospel of John uses many of the same storytelling techniques — planting small details that later reveal enormous meaning.
I’m going to admit something that might sound strange for someone who runs a Bible teaching ministry:
I read a lot of fiction.
Novels. Stories. The kind of books where someone else made up the characters and the plot and you get to disappear into their world for a few hours after the kids are asleep.
A few weeks ago I was reading a novel — I won’t say which one because the plot twist is the point — where a character said something early in the story that seemed like a throwaway line.
Small. Forgettable.
I almost skimmed past it.
But three hundred pages later, that line turned out to be the key to the entire book.
The author had planted it knowing that you wouldn’t understand it the first time.
But when you reread the story, it suddenly shows up everywhere.
Hidden in plain sight.
And that’s when I realized:
John does this constantly.
The Gospel of John Uses Storytelling Like a Novel
The Gospel of John is full of lines that seem simple the first time you read them but become incredibly important later.
For example, in John 2, Jesus tells the crowd:
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Everyone listening thought He meant the physical temple in Jerusalem.
But later we learn He was speaking about His body and the resurrection.
You only understand the meaning after the events unfold.
Hidden Meaning in the Story of Jesus
This pattern happens again and again in John’s Gospel.
When Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3 that the Son of Man must be “lifted up,” the phrase carries a double meaning. It refers both to crucifixion and to exaltation.
But you don’t see the full meaning until you reach the cross.
In John 4, when the Samaritan woman says:
“I know that Messiah is coming,”
Jesus responds:
“I who speak to you am He.”
This is the first explicit moment in John’s Gospel where Jesus openly identifies Himself as the Messiah — and He reveals it not to religious leaders or even His own disciples, but to an outcast Samaritan woman.
The detail seems small until you realize what John is doing.
Why Slowing Down in Scripture Matters
John writes almost like a novelist.
Every detail is planted.
Every word is chosen carefully.
Things that seem small on page one become enormous by page twenty-one.
That’s one reason I love studying the Bible verse by verse instead of just reading it casually.
When you slow down enough to notice what the author planted, the text opens up in ways a quick reading will never give you.
The Bible rewards rereading the way the best novels do.
Except this story is true.
And the author is God.
An Invitation to Read Scripture More Carefully
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Short reflections.
Real context.
And reminders that sometimes the most important lines in the Bible are the ones we almost skim past.
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