Red-letter Bible versus a blue and green-letter edition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_letter_edition

Many people who have opened a Bible will have discovered that some editions contain red-lettered passages to show words spoken (quoted) by Jesus of Nazareth. Leaving aside the path of transmission from fly-on-the-wall taking down the Aramaic words into written Greek (New Testament or 2nd Testament), this visual display does enhance the reading experience by raising a flag and calling for the person's careful attention. Thomas Jefferson did something similar by using a razor blade to remove the passages not attributed to Jesus, thus leaving him with ribbons of print to assemble into what is entitled for download or purchase the Jefferson Bible.

But what would it look like if there were a blue letter edition with instances in both Testaments in which lessons, illustrations, or examples about Christian and Christ-like relationships appear. That way the followers of Christ who browse the passages could see instantly the points concerned with desired relationships. Some thinkers and doers of Christianity have foregrounded relationships as the coin of the realm serving as currency for making "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven."

Others have pointed to one's own heart and that of the people one is in relationship with as the foundation for Christian society, community, spiritual development of maturity, and so on. Turning again to the printing press, let us suppose there were a green letter edition in which all fragments, passages, parables, and admonitions regarding one's heart or that of others is spotlighted. That way the followers of Christ who browse the passages could see instantly the important description, explanation, and exercises affecting one's (sacred) heart.

Merely producing aids like this will not affect Christians, though, unless they actually read and talk about it. By studying the red letter edition the person can learn a lot about Jesus. From the blue letter edition the same person can focus on practical and philosophical aspects of relationships with others as they begin, blossom, and bear fruit. By reading the green letter edition this person can emphasize the joys and sorrows of one's heart all across the range of human maturity - from the ego-centered stage to the other-centered stage until at last reaching a balance of self and other so that "love your neighbor as yourself" really does come to be.

There are so many paths and circumstances that lead a person to follow Emmanuel, Lamb of God. Some arrive by accident, others by upbringing, and still others through deliberate decisions and searching. Taking for a moment an analytical approach to the arc of Christian life that begins with "the milk and later is ready for the meat," all three colors - red letter, blue letter, and green letter editions - would play a part in the stages of the person's spiritual growth. This does not discount the rest of the chapters and verses of bibles as filler to be overlooked. It is still important to know the context connected to a particular string of colored letters, whether red, blue, or green. How then might a "new" Christian proceed? 

Taking the "faith without works" idea, being and doing Christianity involves individual relationship to God as well as communal, congregate worship and works, too. One must work out in their own time and circumstances the connections to others and to God in conversations, caring, sacrificing, praising, seeking, and so on. It is an embodied,  tangible experience to grow into and grow beyond, too. So the red-letter edition helps the person to know Jesus as a person and as God's Living Word. In that edition, Jesus is the main character. Much of what Jesus' teachings and examples dwell on is right-relationship with God and with one another (Love God. Love your neighbor as you love yourself). So the blue letter edition would help a person to embrace those instances. And then the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray, The LORD's Prayer, makes the plea for [may it be that] "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven," or in the title of Leo Tolstoy's book, "The Kingdom of God is within You." In other words, when the LORD's Prayer says "Thy kingdom come," that kingdom is of your heart: achieving peace, abundance, righteous attitude and word and deed all starts there, inside the person.

Now suppose that a person went through the day and year, indeed a whole lifetime, after taking to heart what is revealed in the red, blue, and green letter editions of the Bible. As life's experiences, both joys and sorrows, glee and irritation, come and go this person gains an appreciation for self, other, and indeed the wider arena of God's creation from nano-size to galactic dimensions. Compared to the uniform black and white of  printed and spoken Bibles, these colorful editions filter and simplify the lens so that the essential strands of Jesus' life, relationship dynamics, and the heart ecosystem stand out from the rest of the text. That way a person can chart the progress of their own growth and the conditions of the people who touch one's own life.

=-=-= ADDENDUM image & words from reader, Henry F. "Jack" Brown in Michigan

page from J. Brown's marked Bible (key to colors, below)

[quoted with permission] I do something like this in my Bibles.  Red for prayer, green for salvation, Brown for Christian living, yellow for sin and warnings, blue for God's promises, black for judgement/consequences, mauve for trials, challenges, blue-green for God's help, purple for the work of the Holy Spirit and healing, orange, when God speaks directly, light green for the work and example of Christ.