Getting the most out of your Bible Study

A lot of people try to read their Bible to learn more about God and what they have been taught in Sunday school as a child. If you attend a Bible believing church you probably have been encouraged to read your Bible or been given a reading chart to read through your Bible in a year.

A lot of times reading the Bible can seem like a chore, especially when you come across sections that have long genealogies.

Some people get frustrated and just want to be told what they need to believe from their pastors so they don’t have to bother learning themselves.

It really shouldn’t be that way though. It should be our heart’s desire to study God’s Word because as 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says,

16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,

17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

God gave us the Bible so we can be complete, thoroughly equipped, that is, ready to do the things that God wants us to do in life.

We need to look at the Bible as our handbook for life. It guides us in every way. I am convinced that the Bible gives us wisdom and answers to anything we come across in our in our life in some way or fashion. We just need to know how to look for them.

What follows is some basic principles to how to study your Bible. This type of Bible study is called inductive Bible study and I am convinced it is the best way to learn what the Bible is teaching.

The five steps of Inductive Bible study are

1. Observation

2. Question

3. Interpretation

4. Principlization

5. Application

Let’s look at each step

1. Observation

At this stage just read the passage that interests you. Take note of what it says and doesn’t say.

One way of understanding what is being said is break it down into paragraphs. What is the focus of each paragraph?

Next, look at what each sentence in each paragraph is saying. You can even go further by breaking down the sentences into phrases or clauses to see how the sentence is structured.

Then you can go further by taking note of the choice of words that are being used. What are the verbs, are they commands or action verbs. Is this passage speaking of something in the present tense, past tense or the future tense.

Sometimes the same word is repeated several times in the same passage. Maybe there is a reason for that emphasis that we need to take note.

Read through the passage two, three or four times trying to observe whatever you can about the passage. Then you are ready for the next step.

2. Questions

At this point you need to become even more quizzical about the passage by asking the questions that might give us some enlightenment.

What? What is happening in the passage?

Who? Who is talking and who is the writer talking to? This may be very important when it comes to interpretation and application.

When? When were these events taking place? Does when this passage happen effect how I should understand it now?

Where? Where did this occur and what impact does that have in understanding the passage?

How? How did the things in the passage happen? Was it miraculous? Was it done because someone was being emotional? Was it right or wrong?

Why? Why did it happen the way it did?

So what? So what is so important that this passage was included in the Bible? So what can be the most important question because it leads to answering what the passage can mean to me individually.

3. Interpretation

Interpretation is what you do with the passage once you have observed all you can observe and answered all the questions you have come up with in the passage and try to make sense of it.

A few principles need to be understood before we do any interpreting of a passage.

First, do not interpret the Bible in light of your personal experience, instead you should interpret your personal experience in light of the Bible.

In other words, don’t let the way you think or feel about something affect the way you look at a Bible passage. Look at it objectively and if it is in contrast to the way you think about something, then maybe you need to be open to the possibility that your way of thinking needs to change.

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Part of what renews the mind is when we see things the way God does by learning what He teaches in the Bible.

Secondly, we need to always keep the context of a passage in mind when interpreting a passage. So often a verse in the Bible is pulled out of context and used in a way it was never intended. To understand what is being said in a particular section of the Bible you may need to compare it with the contexts of the surrounding passages.

For example Matthew 18:20 says, "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."

Many will use this passage to describe worship or prayer. In the passages, both before and after this verse, the context is talking about correction and forgiveness so the actual meaning of the verse should be seen in that light.

Thirdly, let the Bible interpret the Bible. Often, the same topic is covered in more than one passage in the Bible. By comparing Scripture with Scripture these topics become more clearly understood.

I once had a professor who confessed that after reading a passage about the baptism of Jesus that he thought the descending of Holy Spirit was simply a vision that John the Baptist saw but it wasn’t an actual descent in the physical form of a dove.

Later when he read a parallel passage in Luke 3:22 that he realized that it literally said that the “Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove”. What wasn’t clear in one passage was much clearer in others.

That brings us to the next point. Fourthly, the Bible should be taken literally. Some try to say that the Bible should not be taken literally, that the things in the Bible were stories or fables. At best, the people and things in the Bible are symbols and analogies.

The fact is the Bible is a historical book. More and more, the veracity of the Bible’s historical facts are being proved by historians. It was once said that Sodom and Gomorrah didn’t exist, yet they have now been found. Also in the last few years proof of the existence of Isaiah has been found through a seal bearing the inscription “Isaiah the prophet”.

Besides being historically accurate, when interpreting a passage simply understand what is being said the way you would read any other book. Don’t try to read into a passage more than is expressed. Sometimes symbolism and figures of speech are used, but for the most part they are obvious in the context.

Too many try to read into a Bible passage what is not there. If you have to use your imagination to explain a passage you can be pretty sure you have gotten off track.

Fifthly, since the Bible was written in a historical context, it needs to be understood by the history and customs of that time. As a history buff, I enjoy digging into what was going on during the time something was written in the Bible. Also, it can be vital to understand the customs of the time to understand a passage.

In the book of Genesis, when Sarah realized that she was unable to have a child for Abraham, she offered Hagar, her handmaid, to mother a child for him. This was actually a custom between 2000 – 1600 BC and is recorded in the code of Hammurabi.

Luke 9:59-60 is another passage where the customs of the times explains a lot. The passage says,

59 Then He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."

60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God."

Much confusion has resulted from a misunderstanding of what Jesus said here.

What Jesus understood was the fact that this young man’s father was more than likely still alive and that this young man was the eldest and the inheritor of all that his father had.

Because of his position, he was responsible to be there and bury his father to gain his inheritance. He had brothers, but they were legally dead to the inheritance since he was the eldest.

Jesus was asking this man to forfeit has right to the inheritance and allow those legally dead to it to gain this inheritance by burying their dead father instead of him.

Jesus was asking the man to make a sacrifice that he was unprepared to make.

The sixth and last point is this, church history and tradition has its place, but it isn’t an authority over the Bible. I have come across various people who seem to be afraid to use their own mind to understand spiritual things.

Maybe it is because of the denomination or faith they are in that tells them to think this way but it isn’t what God ever intended. Our faith is a personal thing that should never be controlled by someone else.

When I come across someone like this their response is something like this – ‘I can’t tell you what I think of the passage, but I can tell you what the Church Fathers (or Rabbis in the Talmud or my church’s doctrinal statement) says about it.

Don’t be blindly led! It is fine to read what others wrote, but outside of the Bible these writers and leaders were mere men who were fallible. Don’t accept everything anyone says without checking it out yourself.

These six principles are the basic principles that you can use to aid you in your study. There are a lot more minor principles that you can learn with further study.

Now to the next step.

4. Principlization

Once everything is observed, questioned and interpreted, the next step it to discover the universal principle that is being taught in the passage. What we need to decide on here is what the intent of the writer was as he wrote this.

No one writes something without some kind of intentional purpose. What our job is when we are studying the Bible is to determine what that purpose or theme is. Only look for one theme. The main thing being taught.

Something written in the Bible may be telling a story with a certain outcome that meant something to that time and place, but it also teaches a lesson.

There is always some moral or ethical teaching that not only affected the people during the time it was written, but also teaches us a truth that goes beyond any bounds of time or culture or ethnicity.

When reading a passage that is mostly doctrinal in scope, such as Paul’s letters, the principle is fairly obvious.

Romans 1:18-32 provides an example of a doctrinal passage. Paul talks about why there is so much evil in the world. It is not by God’s doing, but because mankind has rejected God and has spiraled out of control following their own desires rather than the way God designed mankind to live.

When reading other passages that are more historical than doctrinal, the principles are there, but more implied then explicit.

The story of David and Goliath is an example of this type. The principle is not that the little guy can beat the big guy as so many tell the story. Actually when you read it you see the principle is that with faith in God anything is possible. David only confronted Goliath because Goliath was mocking the name of God and David knew Goliath was in the wrong. David went out knowing he would win because it wasn’t him that would destroy Goliath, but God.

Now permanent principles are different from the last step which is application. A principle is changeless. It is the main idea of the passage and never changes. Applications, on the other hand can change by the way you look at it.

Also, permanent principles are general in scope. Because they are general in scope, they transcend all boundaries of time and culture. Interpretations are specific in nature dealing with specific things that affect our lives.

Lastly, there is only one permanent principle in a passage, but there can be multiple applications to a passage.

So, let’s see what an application is.

5. Application

An application of a passage is when you take the principle teaching and internalize that truth into something that you can apply to your life.

Take the story of David and Goliath again. The principle is that with God, anything is possible. To make that an application you look for a Goliath in your life, something that seems to be an impossibility to overcome and apply that principle in your life. That is what an application is.

Each time you read a passage you may come up with a different application because you see the passage in a different light or from a different perspective.

The more you read the Bible, the more it becomes part of your life. Sometimes applications come as you are living your life and something happens. It is at those moments you are able to relate to what the Bible is teaching because of the circumstances you find yourself in at that moment.

The more you read the Bible, the more it becomes part of your life, the more you end up applying it to your everyday decisions and choices.

One last word, whenever you apply some truth you have learned from the Bible to your life always do these few things. Make your application personal and attainable. Make your application in such a way that it is clear and specific, as well as measurable and verifiable.

The reason for these pointers is the Bible is there to create change in our lives so we can be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Just as we exercise to make our bodies better, the study of the Bible makes our spirits better.

Enjoy your Bible Study.

Have a wonderful and blessed day.