Six Helpful Bible Study Bullet Points

Here are six points that are helpful to keep in mind when studying Scripture. We looked at these last Saturday in small group.

1) Pursue understanding Scripture for the sake of applying it to your life. According to James 1, if we do not seek to live out Scripture when we study it, we are like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and does nothing to straighten up his appearance. In other words, it is pointless to seek understanding in Scriptures without seeking to live them out.

Kierkegaard says we can seek understanding in Scriptures precisely to avoid applying them; it is like concentrating on a mirror to avoid seeing yourself; look yourself in the eye when you read the Bible. We can argue about the meaning of Scriptures and theology precisely to avoid applying them to our lives. We must constantly study for the sake of immediate application.

2) The Bible is like a mosaic which makes up a picture of Christ. The Scripture is clear that the message it contains is Christ (John 5:39, Luke 24:44). Irenaeus, a fourth century church father, accused gnostic heretics of treating the Bible like a mosaic but rearranging the pieces to make a picture of a fox rather than a king. We must always seek the message and face of Christ in Scriptures. Every genealogy, poem, law, psalm, prophecy, or vision all comes together to point to Christ. How is each part making up the whole picture of Christ?

3) Look for the big idea of the book or section that you are studying. We are prone to take verses out of context to fit our own ideologies, lifestyles, opinions, etc. It is easy to do this when we treat individual verses apart from their context. But the Bible is not an arbitrary collection of pithy sayings. The biblical authors put together whole books with one big idea in mind. For instance, the book of James has several themes that run through it such as partiality, speech, riches, judgment, law, etc. But all these themes center around the concept of faith, security, and identity in God. When we read any given passage of a book or section of Scripture we must ask, "What is the author's big idea?" This saves us from our tendency to "use" the Biblical text for our own opinions rather than to speak into our lives.

The "hermeneutical spiral" is helpful to remember when considering the big idea of a a book. When we read the Bible we have presuppositions and ideas about who God is and therefore we have assumptions about what the Bible says. We take these presuppositions into the text. This will effect the way we read and understand the text. But at the same time, the more we engage with the text the more these presuppositions about God and the Bible are challenged and shaped. Therefore, the next time we approach the text we will have a better understanding of who God is and what the text says, and this allows us to engage the text more accurately the next time we read, which will give us an even MORE accurate understanding of the text, and so on and so forth. This is the process of spiraling in to the true meaning and big idea of the text.

4) The Bible is a book. Yes, it is 66 books with over 40 authors spanning centuries, languages, literary genres, etc. But it all comes together in one coherent theme and one message that is Christ. Furthermore, there is a sequence to the story. The biblical authors build off of one another.

The Pentateuch (Torah) was written with significant themes of land, seed, water, etc. Then the prophets, the guys who wrote the next section of the Bible, were emerged in the Pentateuch. When they wrote their books (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joshua, etc) they wrote according to the themes of the literature they were emerged in, namely, the Pentateuch. Then the authors of the next section, the "writings" or the wisdom literature and poetry (Psalms, Proverbs, Ruth, etc), were emerged in the Pentateuch and the Prophets. Thus, they take up these themes once again and write according to the context of the Bible. And of course, the New Testament apostles were emerged in the whole Hebrew Bible, and they wrote precisely to show how Christ was fulfilling these promises and themes and how the Spirit was continuing the work in the church.

Therefore, the biblical writers are not so much referring to historical context but rather biblical themes. So when the author of Hebrews 4 talks about the Word as a “two-edged” sword, you do not need to do a research paper on Roman weaponry to understand him; all you need to do is be familiar with Judges 3 (or look up the word “sword” in a biblical concordance!).

If you read Romans without reading the preceding sections of Scripture, it is not surprising that you may be confused. The Bible is a book. It would be hard to understand any book if you jumped in at chapter 7! The Bible is written with consistency to itself. Scripture interprets Scripture. Seek to understand the passages that are confusing by finding parallel passages that are more clear.

5) Read and study in community. As we have said, we are prideful people who “use” the text to suit our own ideologies and ideas about how we think God should be. We have blind spots. God is precise in giving us limited knowledge and finite opinions. It is because he is a God who loves community. Therefore, we must pursue biblical knowledge in community and have patience with our brother or sister's opinion. It is very healthy to keep your pride and arrogance in check by pursuing biblical understanding in community.

6) Pray before reading. What causes us to read our opinions, theological systems, and lifestyle into the biblical text? It is our pride. Who frees us from our pride and self-righteousness? The Spirit who testifies about Christ. Pray before you seek understanding that the Spirit frees you from pride and allows you to pursue the meaning in humility.

Hope these help! Remember, nothing matters except knowing and loving Christ more, and we meet him in Scripture.