Like I mentioned in my last post, which you can read here:
I just crossed 100 days of Bible reading to start the year in 2026. We’re doing a full read-through (plus the New Testament and Psalms twice) in the year 2026.
What I want to share with you today is my thoughts on the New Living Translation, also known as the NLT. As of today, I’ve read the NLT for 103 straight days. We are at one-fourth of the way through the scriptures, and I want to share some of my thoughts on the New Living Translation.
To be completely honest, I haven’t used the New Living Translation that much in my adult life. I was first exposed to the New Living Translation in the early 2010s, when my dad planted Commission Church. He preached out of the New Living Translation for several years when we first started the church, circa 2009 to 2014.
I remember very vividly that we filmed a commercial that aired on Fox 4 in 2010 when we planted the church. My dad used the theme verse of the church for at least the first five years from John chapter 10:10, where it states this:
The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. John 10:10 NLT.
Apart from those early years, when I heard my dad preach and teach the New Living Translation for the next fifteen years of my life, I had little engagement with the NLT. By the time I entered high school and started studying the Bible more deeply for myself and through college, studying it in an academic and technical sense, I developed, like many, an apprehension and bias against the New Living Translation.
Wrongfully, I assumed that the NLT wasn’t ideal for advanced study or preaching. And while I still think it’s not necessarily the perfect translation for academic or technical study, it definitely plays a significant role in the pastoral or general life of the average believer.
You should be reading the NLT.
Over the past decade, I have almost exclusively used the English Standard Version for pretty much every application of my spiritual life. Two years ago, I began the practice of reading a new translation each year, typically over three months in the summer, while still using the ESV for most of my pastoral duties and personal study. As with a large percentage of my peers my age and millennials from the evangelical tradition, the ESV has dominated the Christian circles I commonly associate with. Yet I find that the ESV is far more advanced than younger readers can understand and engage with well.
To be completely honest, I love the ESV for a variety of reasons, though I have my quarrels with it as well. I fully recognize that those without at least a high school graduate to undergraduate reading level and comprehension will struggle to understand the ESV consistently. Some high schoolers and middle schoolers with strong reading skills will be able to engage well and progress toward the translation. But for many children and readers who have a more difficult time engaging with critical texts, the ESV will present an incredible challenge to understanding God’s Word.
Thus, as I’ve engaged with the NLT much more over the past year, especially reading it every single day for the last three months, I can confidently affirm that you should be reading the NLT more than you do. If you use the NLT for your primary translation, great job! You’re ahead of the game.
Pastors, church leaders, or lay scholars and theologians more than likely will need to continue to prioritize more formal translations on the translation spectrum, but for the vast majority of us, casually in the church or congregants of a local body, the NLT should be a constant resource that you utilize in your daily life.
Simply put, you should read a Bible that is easy for you to understand, while remaining completely faithful to the actual text of the scriptures.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t read the translation that your primary pastors and teachers utilize in your local church. If you can, definitely bring the same translation that your local teachers use. It’s helpful as you engage with your servants and messages at church. But for your independent Bible study, reading, or devotional time, you should always opt for something that is undoubtedly clear in the content of the Scriptures and something you can actually engage with correctly. Rather than trying to stumble through something that might be popular but uncomfortable for you to read. Focus on and prioritize an extremely accurate and authentic version of the Bible, while remaining incredibly clear and understandable. I really love the NLT.
In fact, I actually switched to it as we’ve started teaching more in our kids’ ministry at our local church. In our kids’ ministry, we have switched to using the NLT exclusively during our messages. And that’s weird for me to say, because I have been using the ESV for over a decade now.
A simple encouragement
If you have been struggling to read the Bible consistently (by that, I mean every day), I would encourage you to simply download a free online version of the NLT or pick up an NLT Bible and read it as your primary devotional.
Sometimes I think people stop reading the Bible consistently simply because it’s hard to read.
If that’s you, I suggest you just try reading the NLT, maybe one chapter a day, as a way to start building the practice of consistently reading the Bible.
I really think you can build a consistent practice of reading the Bible if you engage with the text clearly and understandably.
So if you’ve been struggling to read the Bible, I would encourage you to look at the New Living Translation to make it as simple and easy as possible, because when you start to enjoy something, you’ll do it more. The more you begin to do it, the more impactful it becomes in your life.
Read the Bible and read it often!
I love the ESV and NLT. I’ve read through both of them and used to preach exclusively from the NLT. A few years ago I stumbled upon the CSB and I feel the same way about that as you do the NLT. So many good translations out there!