Bible Study Methods
So many of us today have the goal of reading and studying our Bibles better, but we have no idea where to start! We say this, but may I ask where your Bible is right now? For many of us, our Bibles sit idle gathering dust while the battery on our phones dies due to overuse.
It’s likely that if you’re listening to this program you have some experience with the Bible. Perhaps you go to church and listen to your pastor preach from it or you hear other programs here on the Radio. Maybe you do study it, but you don’t really see how it all fits together and it all seems like a conglomeration of stories and commands that make no sense. Maybe you see it as a guide for your day… maybe you’ve even twisted scripture into saying something you want it to say so that you feel better! Whatever situation you’re in, I think we would all benefit from understanding a little more about how to handle this beautiful book we have been given that not only contains God’s word, but IS God’s word. So with that, let's jump into a few ideas on how we can better handle the world of God.
One of my biggest fears of mishandeling God’s word is twisting it to meet my own personal agenda. We see this all the time. We see pastors teach that somehow coming to Christ will bring you vast riches and good health. We see people teaching that since God loves them then automatically life's all about them. We go to scripture with a question and we match together 25 different verses to come up with a very interesting answer.
I heard this story several years ago and I’m going to share it with you now as an example of how crazy things can get!
A young student once asked his teacher why fire engines are red? The teacher responded. Well you see, fire engines have four wheels and eight men. Four and eight make twelve. There are twelve inches in a foot. A foot is a ruler. Queen Elizabeth was a ruler and also one of the largest ships at sea. Seas have fish and fish have fins. The Fins fought the Russians. The Russians are red. Fire trucks are always rushin’ so fire trucks are red!
Now, as ridiculous as that sounds, we are often not far off in our interpretation of scripture if we employ a lazy, non-educated process to interpret and study God’s word. It is so easy to misread the Scriptures and make them say something that the Spirit of God never intended them to say. To understand the message of the Bible, we must first sit in the chair of those who the Bible was written to and who first read the amazing story. We don’t want to read our own ideas into God’s word. Instead, we want to think God’s thoughts and let the message of the Bible, as God gave it, speak to us.
This morning, I’m going to walk you through eight rules for understanding the Bible from Dr. Kermit Echlebarger, Senior professor of the New Testament at Denver Seminary.
First. Remember that the biblical message was originally spoken to a different audience.
To understand the Bible, we need to wear interpretive bifocals. What that means is we look off in the distance and focus on the intended meaning for the original audience. We ask what God expected the original readers to understand. Then, we drop our eyes a bit and take a close-up look and ask what this means for us today.
The first place we tend to get off track is when we read a verse, and without consideration to what it means to the original audience, we interpret it into our daily lives. Taking this step of looking at the original audience will keep us from accidentally misinterpreting or missing a deeper meaning to the text before us.
Second. We need to look for the literary style used by the author.
People don’t always use words literally. My beautiful bride from the country of Northern Ireland and have I learned some words since we got married. Sweaters are no longer sweaters but jumpers. The trunk of the car has been replaced in my mind with the boot and the hood is now the bonnet! No longer do we take strolls on sidewalks, but foot paths… and let’s not forget that those little carts in the grocery store are not trolleys!
Jokes aside, we all say things that we don’t mean literally. I often find myself saying the phrase “Mind blown.” By no means am I saying that my mind has literally exploded off my shoulders… but simply that I have discovered or understood something astounding and new!
SImilarly, biblical authors use figurative language. Jesus often spoke in parables. Old Testament prophets frequently used a poetic style to their writing. So we need to understand the style of writing that we are experiencing in God’s world to properly wrap our minds (not literally, figuratively) around a verse or passage.
Third. Consider the scriptural context.
Here I want to point out that this list from Dr. Ecklebarger does not have a hierarchy. If I could summarize this entire message this morning and package it to you in three words for healthy biblical interpretation, I would say these three words. “Context, context & context.” This is where 90% of biblical interpretation takes place.
In normal conversation, we hear words and sentences in their context. We communicate through a series of related ideas… at least we try to. Unfortunately, we often ignore this when we pick up the Bible. Individual verses are lifted from their biblical context and slapped on t-shirts, mugs, wall paintings and often sermons. Like many modern-day politicians, I’m afraid if many of the authors of the Bible heard how we interpret the words they wrote, they may yell “That’s not what I meant! You’re taking my statement out of context!”
So, to remedy this, we begin by finding the author's main idea. What general subject are they talking about here? Then, the specific sentences and phrases should be understood as consistent with this idea. When you read James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him,” stop and ask what the author’s big idea is in the paragraph where this promise is made. In the previous verse, James tells the Christians to respond positively to the hardships of life because endurance of difficult experiences develops maturity. The promise of wisdom, then is specifically for people facing hard experiences. This is how we practically develop a habit of seeking the context before applying a verse to our lives. This is a very important step, and 9x out of 10 this is the only step necessary for a strong biblical interpretation.
Fourth. Understand the meaning of individual words.
Words communicate ideas, but the same word can have different means. Dr. Ecklebarger uses the example of the statement, “That was the largest trunk I had ever seen.” By simply reading this phrase, trunk could mean the trunk of an elephant, perhaps a tree or, if you're not from Northern Ireland, the space in the back of a car where we place things! As we enter into Bible interpretation, the main idea and context of an author’s writings is the best way to understand individual words just like paying attention to the larger context of a conversation.
We begin with the author’s main idea. What subject are we talking about here? Just like we noticed in James 1:5, we’re to seek wisdom when facing trials in this world. This word wisdom isn’t what a student cramming for a final exam is looking for… he is looking for knowledge but we can often misunderstand a word in the crisis of the moment.
Fifth. Follow the sense of the grammar.
Most of us don’t usually communicate in one word sentences. Some of us guys get close, but we usually express our ideas with a series of words. If I were to say the phrase “the man hit the ball” you would congratulate the success of the man’s effort. However, if I say the same 5 words arranged only slightly different you hear “the ball hit the man” and you cringe.
Again, back to James Dr. Ecklebarger explains that when James (in James 1:2) tells his readers “to consider it pure joy whenever they face trials of many kinds.” He is not teaching the power of positive thinking. His advice is NOT based on the premise that if you think positively enough about a bad situation, it won’t hurt quite enough. In the context of this greater passage, we see how verse 3 begins with the word “Because.” That leads us to the reason why we are to “count it pure joy.” “Because we know that the testing of our faith develops perseverance.” The grammatical structure helps us see that James is stressing the power of providential thinking - not positive thinking.
Sixth. Study from the perspective of the historical background.
“The biggest problem in Bible study,” someone once said “is that we’re reading somebody else’s mail.” Because the Bible was originally written to people living in a different century and a different culture, we need to know as much as possible about them and their situation in order to understand God’s word to them. The more we can put myself in their world and try mentally to relive their circumstances, the better we are able to understand the meaning and significance of the Bible for them and then apply to our lives.
Seventh. Integrate this passage with other biblical teaching on the subject.
To build a Bible doctrine based on one verse is like trying to snowboard with one foot unstrapped. Sometimes it works but it usually ends in disaster and makes you look like fool.
We should always seek to understand a key passage we’re dealing with along with another passage on the same subject if available. The idea from James about asking for wisdom can be expounded on later in Jame’s writing in chapter 4:3-4 when he says that they have not because they do not ask. Then James adds that some ask and they still don’t receive because they ask with wrong motives. So by studying further into the passage, we may begin to develop an understanding that those requests for wisdom that are not granted may be motivated by selfish purposes.
Eighth. Apply what you have studied to your own life.
Once we’ve determined what the passage meant for the original audience, we can now ask the question “What does this mean for me?” Our circumstances may be dramatically different from those of the original readers, but the Biblical principles from the passage that guided the original audience can still guide us today.
This is my one warning to you in learning how to properly study scripture. Knowing what a passage means is not enough… we must now put it into practice in our lives. God’s truth isn’t just to be known, but it is to be lived.
