Bible Study
Why we study
The first point is the most important point - and that is that the goal of Bible study is to grow in maturity so that we become ever more like Jesus. The point is NOT to gain knowledge, or to show off our learning, or to earn God's favor. In other words, it is not to feed the flesh, but to grow our spiritual maturity. All spiritual disciplines contribute to our spiritual growth, but neglecting any of them will quench the work of the Spirit. Therefore, Bible study cannot take the place of prayer, service, or fellowship. But, Bible study is an essential component of wholistic spiritual growth. Studying the Bible is different than Reading the Bible. I've read the entire Bible is several different versions over the years and although the Spirit speaks to me during reading, I gain a much better understanding when I study the Bible. It is all too easy to just gloss over things when reading, especially if we've read or heard the passage numerous times before. The problem with merely reading the Bible (or listening to sermons) is that it is passive. Bible study requires us to be active.
There are a couple ramifications of this. First, you should regularly study the Bible whether or not you attend group Bible studies. Attending meetings will encourage you to do your study, but you should study even if you can't attend. Second, it requires time and conscious effort to study. Perhaps you don't have as much time as others to study. But you aren't competing with other people, so stop comparing yourself with others. Nevertheless, you do need to set aside some amount of time on a regular basis. Look at your life and determine how much time you can reasonable devote every week (or day) to study. Then exercise self-control and do it! The amount of time you can devote is up to your circumstances, but I guarantee you that you aren't going to get anything out of it if you do it in ten minutes. Make it an ongoing habit to study every week. Studying scripture is our responsibility, honor, and heritage. Only babies need to be fed. Even young children can feed themselves. And how are Christians fed? Through the pure milk of scripture! As we mature, we become more able to digest the meat of the deeper meanings and implications of scripture. There is much benefit in listening to teachings of pastors and other teachers, but that should never take the place of feeding ourselves with our own personal study.
The role of extra-Biblical resources
Bible dictionaries, commentaries, lectures, and other resources are useful - perhaps even essential - but they should not be a primary resource for your Bible study. Like listening to sermons, they are a more passive approach to Bible study; instead we want to be actively engaged in study. Therefore, if you consult a commentary or some other resource, it ought to be one of the last things you do in your study. The points in my studies tend to jump around in the chapter. The first things that I write down when I study are the things I noted on my own - without the benefit of any commentaries, sermons, or such. If that is all you have, that is all you need. Save other resources for looking into questions you may have. If and only if you have time after you do your own study, then you can take advantage of other peoples' studies (e.g. commentaries). Your first approach to Bible study (and perhaps your only approach) should be your own impressions, insights, and realizations. After that, you can consult sources outside of the Bible if you have the time. Simply regurgitating what you heard in a sermon or read in a book on the passage is not study - it is a book report on someone else's study. Do you feel somehow inadequate? Remember the point of study is to be more like Jesus, not to impress others. Maybe the Spirit will use what you think is of little use to convict or encourage someone else. The simplest lessons are usually the most important.
One may ask "but what if I come up empty-handed after reading the chapter?" This may occasionally happen to any of us. Perhaps we are ill or laboring under a heavy emotional burden that makes it hard to concentrate. Perhaps exceptional circumstances prevented our study time from happening this week. Perhaps there is only one notable point in the entire passage. But if you come up blank most of the time, it indicates that you are most likely not truly wrestling with the passage.
Questions
Asking questions is the best way we engage with scripture. "Why?" is perhaps the best question to ask: "why is this event spoken of in scripture?" "What makes this so important that God felt it necessary to include it when so many other things are left unrecorded?" "Why did God act in this way?" "Why did this verse really catch my attention?" And so forth. Also ask "when", "where", "how", "who", and "what" questions. If you do not approach scripture with curiosity, and with faith that God will reveal answers to you, then you are not really engaging in study - you are merely reading. While reading the Bible is important in itself, we are talking here about study. Expect God to speak to you through study of the scripture.
Sometimes I have more questions than answers after studying. That is okay. None of us has 100% insight (another reason for coming together in group is to gain insight from others, as well as sharing yours). I've found that, over time, my questions get answered as I continue to study other passages of scripture. But in order to get those answers, I not only have to study the passage where those answers are found, but I also had to have studied the passages where those questions came up in the first place! In fact, without questions from other passages, I miss some of the meaning of the passages that have the answers. This requires patience and ongoing regular study.
I've met Christians who are afraid to ask questions. Perhaps their faith is so weak that they are afraid that if they ask the "wrong" question, they will hear an answer that cause them to lose what little faith they have. But, as Christians, we should be the least afraid of the truth than anyone. After all, we know the One Who is the Truth! Thomas Jefferson once said "question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." If you don't ask questions, you remain blind-folded. There are honest questions and there are dishonest questions. Dishonest questions are rhetorical and intended to dismiss truth. They are asked as if one wants to know an answer but, in fact, one is simply voicing excuses for why they refuse to believe. An honest question, however, is asked in order to receive understanding. Sometimes the very same question can be asked either honestly or dishonestly - the only difference being the attitude in which it is asked. Dishonest questions come from a mocking or hard heart, while honest questions come from a desire to know God better and are asked in the certainty of faith. God doesn't disapprove of honest questions - even the hard ones. If you are humble and honest, ask any question of God. He may not give you an immediate answer (or answer at all), or He may give you an answer you don't like. But He will always honor those who truly seek Him. Do not remain ignorant because you are afraid to ask questions. The righteous are as bold as a lion 1. So ask your questions boldly from a pure and trusting heart.
Pre-requisites to study
There is one essential pre-requisite for studying the Bible (and for all of the Christian life): having a soft heart. Hard-hearted people cannot gain any advantage from studying scripture. They are unteachable. Of them Paul wrote that they were "ever learning but unable to come to a knowledge of salvation"2. Our seminaries have many of these kind of people. Hard-hearted people may learn things, but they are unteachable in spirit. This can manifest in any number of ways. It could be that they think they already "know it all." There is nothing these people could learn from anyone else. They've made up their minds about issues and cannot abide anything that questions their position - even the clear teaching of the Bible. You cannot make an impression on hard clay - it must be soft. Thus, we must come to the Bible with hearts of soft clay that the Spirit can mold through the scripture. We must come to group with soft hearts that are open to what the Spirit will say through others. Hard-hearted people refuse to repent of sin, finding any way to twist or dismiss scripture to support their choices. They may be trapped in a mindset that tries to find a way to salvation other than faith in Jesus. They spend their time in false humility, or self-loathing, or religion - anything that will take the place of truly dealing with their issues and walking in the Spirit. The hardened heart is indolent. It favors being fed rather than feeding itself. It prefers alterations in appearance or speech but shuns any lasting change in behavior which requires effort. It prefers the comfortable nest, feathered with half-truths and compromise, that it has made within its circumstances. It resists anything that threatens its comfortable familiarity. It rejects out of hand anything that requires evaluation or effort or change.
We must humble ourselves and admit there is much we all have to learn, that the Spirit can speak even through a jackass to correct us on our erring way, and that we may have incorrect viewpoints that need to change. Such a heart is open to God. It allows Him to write His words on the tablet of our hearts. Only through this can Bible study make a difference in our lives. Remember the primary purpose mentioned before: to become more like Jesus. This does not mean, however, that we must give attention to nonsense or to that which is patently anti-scriptural. We are not called to be so open-minded that our brains fall out. But it does mean that we listen to understand what another is saying before we pass judgment on it and respond. Nor are we required to change our minds or positions - not everything that is brought to us is true or beneficial. Rather, everything must be evaluated in the light of scripture. Even our own dearly-held beliefs need to be challenged and re-evaluated according to scripture. Let us all be soft-hearted and teachable.
There are two important preparations for studying the Bible. First, to pray for insight from the Spirit. In fact, this should be done anytime you read the Bible (or anything else). Second, read the passage each day during the week. Except for something like Psalm 119, a single chapter is something you can read through in a couple minutes, regardless of your reading speed, so this should be something each of us can do. Again, reading isn't the same as studying, but it does get it "percolating" in the back of your mind during the week which means you will get more out of it when you sit down to do your study.
Engaging with scripture
I've found the most rewarding method of Bible study to be the Inductive method. This means that you read a passage, observe what it says, interpret the meaning, and apply it to your life. There are other types of Bible study, but most of them are either exegetical messages from a teacher, or use workbooks that ask specific questions about each passage for you to answer. Listening to a teacher is a somewhat passive way to study, which means you are less likely to engage in the Bible. On the other hand, the teacher can answer questions you have and provide contextual information that you likely wouldn't find on your own. A workbook is less passive, but you will only learn what the author of the workbook wants to teach you. Inductive studies, on the other hand, seek to engage you in the scripture and let the Holy Spirit speak directly to you through that study. Thus, a group that does inductive studies will tend to have people that get wildly different applications from a passage since the Spirit leads each one in a way appropriate to their specific circumstances. Most of (if not all) Inductive study methods pose a series of general questions that you can answer about any passage you read. Different inductive studies I've seen ask different questions, but they all have the same goal: to get you to wrestle with the scripture and apply it to your life. If you are not already doing an inductive study, here is the one I use (it takes one chapter at a time).
Observation:
1. Outline the chapter
2. What is the cultural, geographic, political, and/or scriptural context of this chapter. Who is speaking and to whom are they speaking?
3. What does the chapter actually say? This is a time for observation, not interpretation.
4. What is the key verse of the chapter?
5. What does the chapter say about God?
6. What does the chapter say about man?
Interpretation:
7. What is your favorite verse? Why?
8. How does this apply to your life, your prayers, and your relationships?
Application:
9. How will you specifically apply your answer to 8 this week?
People have sometimes asked what is the purpose of one part or another of the 9 steps above. These items are not just thrown together at random - there is a reason for each and every part. But the purpose is to get us to engage more deeply with the scripture, with the end goal of maturing as followers of Jesus. If our Bible study does not result in that, then it is worthless! However, these questions were not written by the finger of God on stone tablets. There is nothing magical about them. They might or might not be inspired by the Spirit, but regardless, the sole point of them is to get us to engage in study. They are designed to get us to ask questions and consider what we may not have otherwise considered. This thoughtful consideration is what we call "meditating" on scripture. It is the very core of Bible study. One need not use the Bible study points in order to do the study, but even after years of study, I still find them useful. I suppose any number of additional questions could be added to the existing ones, but the questions that are there should be sufficient to get us started in engaging with the scripture - to "prime" the pump, as it were.
Outline (step 1). There is a structure to scripture, especially Hebrew writing which utilizes parallelism. Noting structure in the passage under consideration can help in proper interpretation of the passage. I won't go into the details of parallelism, or of chiastic poetry here, but we all should be aware of repeated and/or contrasting themes whenever we read the Bible. Studying an entire chapter wholistically might sometimes also overload our brain. So breaking a chapter into an outline structure can help us take it in more "bite size" pieces. It can also help us see the points being made - especially when multiple points are in the passage. It is not coincidence that all major commentators on the Bible include chapter outlines before they get into verse-by-verse commentary. And if these Godly, learned men see a benefit in outlining each chapter, perhaps we should take it seriously ourselves.
How does one go about writing an outline? I simply read through the chapter and note whenever there is a change in focus, in topic, in tone, or in character. There's no need to get overly academic on this - just note when you feel like the text has shifted from one point/topic to another. Then look at the overall text before that verse. What is it all about? That is the "title" of that part of the outline for the first section of the chapter. Then repeat the process until you get to the end of the chapter, noting each section. If your outline changes every one or two verses, then you are being overly specific in your outline. Take a break, step back mentally, and find a broader description that includes multiple verses. Some chapters won't really have a change anywhere in them - which makes the outline easy: it is just a single title for the entire chapter. Now that you have your outline, study each section of the chapter (as you have outlined it) and that should reduce the mental load. In other words, break the chapter into smaller, more "digestible" pieces and study each one separately. The outline has no intrinsic value on its own - it is simply a tool to aid you in study. It may reveal something about the passage or it may help you to not feel overwhelmed. Outlining is a generally useful skill and, like all skills, the more you do it, the better you get at it.
Even after outlining, perhaps the sub-passages are still overwhelming. This is where coming up with sub-outlines can be helpful. Break it down even further so that you are only dealing with a few verses at a time. But, again, this is designed to be helpful - not a pointless chore. The two extremes are to not outline at all, and to be overly detailed. Something in-between is likely to be useful for most people.
Context (step 2). As has been said by many others, "Bible interpretation without context is merely pretext." Of most importance is the context of the surrounding verses. For example, if a passage starts with "therefore", it directly relates back to the previous passage and can only be understood correctly in light of that previous passage. But there is also a broader scriptural context. Scripture is the best commentary on scripture, and other passages in the Bible often provide clarity on, or expansion of, the passage you are studying. A book called "The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge" can be helpful in finding these related passages.
Next, we must consider who is speaking in the chapter, and who they are speaking to. For example, Leviticus was written by Moses after direct instruction by God, and it is directed to the Jews. In such case, it is important to keep that in mind when considering how, or if, to apply a passage to ourselves. Additionally, since each passage was written to be understood by a specific person or people, understanding of those original recipients is important in terms of how they would have interpreted that passage. This is best accomplished through an understanding of the culture of those people at that time, and the political and/or historical context they lived with. For instance, the gospels were written at a time when the Roman empire controlled Israel, with a local Roman governor and a subordinate Jewish leadership.
Geography may also play a part in regard to understanding the chapter, especially when specific locations are mentioned. Having a set of maps of the Holy Land or the Roman Empire may be useful in this respect. Such maps are usually included in the back of most Bibles. Make use of them.
Remember that the point of having context is so that we understand the passage correctly and fully. Often times, especially when reading Paul's letters, writing down the context during study of chapter 1 is sufficient for the entire book. There is no need to write down the same context for every chapter, though it may be useful to remind ourselves of the context we wrote down for chapter 1 as we progress through a book.
What does the chapter say? (step 3). Here we observe, objectively, what the chapter says. The idea is to summarize, in your own words, what the passage says. Consider the implications of what is written. Are there other verses that use the passage to make other points? We want to avoid allegorizing the passage to make it say what we want. Does what it actually says contradict any previous beliefs you have had? Does it provide you with new insights? What really stood out to you? The verses that "jump out" are probably what the Spirit is saying to you through this study.
What is the key verse? (step 4). See if there is a verse that summarizes the passage. Sometimes this may be a couple verses. Sometimes, especially in Paul's letters, the topics may change so often that there are many different verses that could be considered "key".
What does it say about God? (step 5). What characteristics of God are described in the chapter.
What does it say about man? (step 6). What characteristics of mankind are described in the chapter.
What is your favorite verse? (step 7). Here we switch from observing what the chapter says to explaining what it means to us. Start with what your favorite verse in the chapter is. Again, this is probably what the Spirit is saying to you. Ideally, you should memorize this verse during the week. By doing so, by the end of the year you will have 52 verses memorized. Verses that will remind you of what the Spirit said to you through the study during the year.
How does this apply to your life, your prayers, and your relationships? (step 8). Having observed what the passage says in an objective way in step 3, now see how it applies subjectively and specifically to you. What personal lesson do you learn from this?
Application (step 9). Based on what the Spirit has said to you in this passage, how will you apply this passage in the coming week. What can others hold you accountable to? Perhaps you didn't get an indication as to something to do - maybe you got a needed encouragement. Or maybe you gained a new perspective or appreciation of things. You application in this case would be to consider this perspective and how it would change how you act and react. Remember that the point of Bible study is to become more like Jesus. If we are not already exactly like Him (and we all have room for improvement), that requires us to change. The point of this step is to make the choice to continue to change according to what the Spirit has revealed to us. Here is where doing your study in a group is important: the members of the group can keep each other accountable to put our applications into practice - hopefully on a daily basis.
As Jesus said, those who put His teachings into practice are like a wise man who has built on a solid foundation. Those who hear His teachings and do not put them into practice is a fool destined for destrution.3 But the point of the study is not to legalistically follow a bunch of rules. The whole study is oriented toward listening to what the Spirit is saying to you and then following in obedience with a firm reliance upon His power to enable us to do what He says.
After I complete a chapter-by-chapter study, I do a book-level review. That is, I read the entire book and follow these nine steps for the book as a whole. For instance, instead of a key verse, what is the key passage in the book? Instead of a favorite verse, what is my favorite passage? The Outline will be, by necessity, zoomed out from chapter-level outline. In other words, we step back and view the entire book wholistically. When we zoom out, we often gain a different perspective. Are there repeated themes or symbolism in the book? An outline helps to understand the overall structure of the entire book.
One could argue that it would be best to do the book overview first, and then drill down to the chapter-level afterwards. There are benefits and disadvantages to doing the review at the start or at the end. I choose to do it afterwards, putting what I've learned into a larger framework. But that's just the way my mind works, especially with large books. But it is just as valid to get the framework first and then put things into that framework as we go through each chapter. Do whichever works best for you.
Now, one need not be legalistic about these steps. The idea isn't to provide a formula to follow, but to engage with the Bible and apply it to our lives. Nor does one need to write your study down. However, I highly recommend it for two reasons. First, different parts of your brain are engaged when you read and when you write. Yet another part of your brain is engaged when you consider something deeply, and yet another when you memorize things. Thus, you are guaranteed to get more out of something, the more parts of your brain are engaged in it. Thus, writing things down will help in retaining and understanding what you study. Second, it provides you with a record of your study that you can go back and review for a quick reminder of what you have learned. This is especially useful when doing a book overview. As an added benefit, you are essentially writing your own Bible commentary - not only for your own use, but perhaps it is something you can pass on to your children as well.