Trailblazin Ministries

Studying the Bible

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Friday, 23 September 2005

Introduction:

What hinders you from having fruitful, personal Bible Study?

Why do I need to "study" the Bible?

Many times the plain meaning of a passage is clear. The most serious problem people have with the Bible is not a lack of understanding, but a lack of obeying what it plainly says.

But, one does need to "study" that Bible because:

• Most of us assume that our understanding of a passage is equal to what the Holy Spirit's intents to communicate. However, we invariably bring to the Bible all that we are, with all of our experiences, culture, and prior understandings of words and ideas. Sometimes what we bring to the Bible, unintentionally to be sure, leads us astray, or else causes us to read all kinds of foreign ideas into the text.


• The Bible is God's Word, and therefore has eternal relevance; it speaks to all mankind, in every age and in every culture. Because it is God's Word, we must listen and obey. But God chose to speak His eternal truths within the particular circumstances and events of human history. So God's Word to us was first all God's Word to the people of another language, culture, and circumstances. These same words speak to us today -- but these words were not written 25 years ago.

1. First task in Bible Study: Try to understand what the Scriptures meant to the original hearers back "then and there."
   1. First, block out time and read through the whole book to get the "big view."
   2. Next, you want to find out as much as possible about the historical situation. Consult a Bible dictionary or commentary and answer these types of questions:
      
      • What is the time, culture, situation of the author and his readers?
      
      
      • Are there any, geographical or political factors that might be relevant?
      
      
      • Who wrote the book?
      
      
      • Why did the author write the book?
      
      
      • What was going on in Israel or the Church that called for the book to be written? What was the situation of the author that caused him to write?
      
      
      • Was there some kind of behavior that needed correcting or a doctrinal error that needed setting right or a misunderstanding that needed correcting?
   3. Think Paragraphs!!

      Study one paragraph at a time. (Not necessarily a word or sentence at a time.) You know that words only have meaning in sentences, and for the most part biblical sentences only have meaning in relation to preceding and succeeding sentences. Read a paragraph and ask, "What's the point?" What does the writer say in this paragraph? Why does the author say this here? Try to trace the author's train of thought. What is the author saying and why does he say it right here?

      As you study a paragraph, you may need to study the meaning of a word or look at the grammatical relationships of the words in the paragraph. You may need to ask the meaning of certain words in order to understand the point of a paragraph.



2. The Second Task in Bible Study: Seek to understand what the Scripture means in the "here and now."

   Guiding principles for bringing the text to the "here and now":

   1) A text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or readers.

   2) Whenever we share a similar life situation with the first-century setting, God's Word to us is the same as His word to them.

   3) In passages that are difficult to apply, one must look for a clear principle that has been taught which may transcend the historical situation.

   Ask application questions:
   

   • What does this teach me about God; Christ; the Holy Spirit? . What does this teach me about Bible?
   
   
   • What commands are given?
   
   
   • What promises are given?
   
   
   • What does this teach me about my attitudes?
   
   
   • What does this teach me about behavior?
   
   
   • What does this teach me about ministry?

Below is a study aid that you can use while studying the Bible:

Click here to download the file! (This is a 2-page PDF file. Right click & choose "Save As" to save it to your computer for future use.)