How to study the Bible
2 Timothy 3:10-17 (NIV)
How often do you read the bible? . . . .
How do you read the Bible? –
• Out of duty?
• Just read the passage and close the book?
• Only when you need to because you just don’t find it that interesting?
And what about more than read – you ever tried to actually STUDY the Bible?
Maybe you tried having a commentary to refer to –
whose used a bible commentary before?
Whose had a study book with questions to answer about a bible passage?
They can be helpful, but if I’m honest – I find the questions in some these study booklets way too obvious.
You know, many of you could write your own questions to help you study.
I do it when preparing studies for the groups we have at Highfield – and they get in depth discussion going.
You can do it too.
Taking some time to study God’s Word, rather than just reading it, really can bring it alive!
Studying the Bible:
• Helps you understand it better
• Causes you to stop and see things you won’t have seen before
• Helps you reflect on how the bible relates to you today.
So this morning, I ‘m going to equip you with some simple questions (I’ll give out a card too)
They may be simple questions, but they will open up the bible to you in new ways.
Are you up for that?
First, let me mention a couple of things in this week’s reading (2 Tim 3):
13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Evil doers and imposters – how do you tell one?
Especially imposters – in fact, when it comes to understanding the bible, it’s not even imposters you need to check on.
There are those who teach in churches, on TV/video, and in books – some are less known, others are well known.
It doesn’t matter – teachers/preachers (including me) are all human.
That means, unless they are just reading the words directly out of the bible (God’s Word), they could be teaching (human word) incorrectly.
That could be by mistake, it could be by wrong interpretation.
How do you know?
How do you know if I am giving correct teaching or not?
And don’t tell me it’s because it “sounds right”
There are all kinds of things put on Facebook
“like this page and facebook will give $1 for ever like to . . . charity”
“Share this with your friends, and if it gets a million shares, we will get world peace”, or something like that.
And millions of people believe it!
Or you get an email saying things like: “... One of my friends received an email called "Join the Crew," and it erased her entire hard drive. If you receive such an email (which you won’t), don’t read it, but delete it. Pass this on”
People copy and paste it to all their friends and in so doing create a “lazy virus”.
It not only fills up peoples inbox, it creates a (small) slow down on the internet.
Have several of these going around and it’s like someone putting on their breaks in the middle lane of a motorway!
The point?
It takes a few seconds – at most a few minutes to “study” a hoax website – and you will know the truth for yourself.
Ask yourself a couple of questions and you will discover what the truth is.
In verse 15-17 of 2 Tim 3
15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
We say before we read our bible on a Sunday, “I hold God’s Word in my hands. It encourages, corrects and instructs me.
The bible teaches, it tells how God wants us to live life to the fullest, it gives instruction.
We can read the bible on level one and enjoy it or even be challenged by it.
But, if only we study it on the next level, you and I could really be chewing on meat, rather than sucking on milk.
Ok so, how to go to the next level – How do we study the bible?
1. PRAY! . . . . Before you read the bible - talk to the Author!
2. Ask some simple questions
a. Author. Who wrote it, who was it written to, and why?
a. Ask that of even one paragraph
b. If you can, find out – online, commentary, front of the book (intro)
c. Sheets available – one sentence over-view
b. Context - What is the context of this?
Look either side of the passage you are studying.
Again, who was it written to and why?
So easy to pick some verses, and form an opinion or conclusion that sounds good – until you read it in context.
For instance:
Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
Jack Wellman on the site, Christianswanttoknow:
This verse is taken out of context and ripped out of a paragraph.
This is about what to do when a brother or sister in your church sins against you.
This paragraph begins in Matthew 18:15-19 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/top-6-bible-verses-often-taken-out-of-context/#ixzz4eiBbtRNx
Always check the context of the passage you are reading.
c. Backup. Are there other related passages to confirm your interpretation of this passage? – is this confirmed elsewhere?
The bible does not contradict itself, so if you read a verse and your interpretation feels a bit “off”, look at other verses on the subject to confirm or correct your thoughts.
Use of a Cross-reference bible is good . . .margin with other related verses.
So back-up – check elsewhere in God’s word to clarify your understanding of a bible passage.
d. Apply. What can this teach me in my walk with the Lord
The bible is going to come alive when you can take God’s Word and apply it to YOU
Read and reread the word, ask the questions above and, before closing the Word, ask two further questions:
God’s Word is alive – so there is something in the passage that I can apply to my life this week – what is it?
e. Change.
The other question to ask before closing your study is:
What should I change/adjust in my life, for it to get better?
You may have read something in that passage that, after prayer, has made you think, “hmm, you know, I really should start doing that”; or “I’ve been thinking or doing that wrong – I need to change.”
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
This is a seriously important book to not just read, but study.
How many here are going to commit to get deeper into the word?
Use the cards we have produced to ask questions and be challenged by the Holy Spirit in reading the Word of God
