Knowable Word - Bible study help

10. Announcing the 2026 Bible Reading Challenge

This year’s Bible reading challenge is underway. Maybe this is your year to read the entire Bible in 90 days. You could win a premier book rebinding as a result. See the announcement for the official rules.

9. Wisdom in Disappointment

This year, I’ve continued revising and editing an old blog series on Proverbs 1-9. This post kicks off the study of Proverbs 3:1-12, which is one of those key texts where it’s crucial to understand how misleading is the conventional wisdom that “proverbs aren’t promises.”

8. Context Matters: The Lord’s Prayer

The rest of this list belongs almost exclusively to Ryan, who provided (and republished) much wonderful content this year. This first piece on the list considers that most famous of prayers in light of the context within which it was given. The Lord’s Prayer is an illustration of what it looks like to pray to a heavenly Father who knows what you need before you ask him. It is an example of how to pray in secret, how not to practice your righteousness before men, and how to seek reward from God. And it is a reminder that our relationship with God cannot be divorced from our relationship with other people.

And if you enjoy Ryan’s writing—as I sure do—you should also check out the Substack newsletter he just launched this year as well.

7. No Good Tree Bears Bad Fruit

You’ve probably heard this; it’s one of Jesus’ most famous metaphors. But can you explain what it means? If your answer is not “do you mean the Matthew 7 version or the Luke 6 version,” then you don’t really understand it! You’re in danger of reading one of those into the other text and missing the point.

6. Three Important Contexts for Bible Study

Your Bible study won’t have much teeth without consideration of the context. But which context? Because there are a few different kinds that all should be considered. This post tackles historical, literary, and personal. That doesn’t even exhaust the categories, but will certainly get you started in the right direction.

5. Reading the Bible for the First Time

In this masterful post, Ryan considers what you might want to say to a friend who wants to start reading the Bible for the first time. In our generation, such people are all around us. Most have no basic understanding of the facts or structure of the Bible. This brief post will help you get them started quickly.

4. Context Matters: Count the Cost

Before diving into this post, perhaps you should count the cost of shaking off dusty old metaphors. In other words, perhaps we shouldn’t just toss our Christianese phrases around so much that they lose their meaning. That way, when we come upon them in the Scripture, we can hear them as the author intended. Have you counted the cost of following Jesus? There is no discount, and the bill is extreme. But Jesus supplies what you lack and gives joy along the path.

3. What We Miss When We Skip the Prophets

Ryan enjoys motivating people to give attention to the obscure parts of the Bible. In this post, he explains how the New Testament makes constant use of the prophets to explain what Jesus has now done for his people. Skip them, and you might not really understand. For insight into other books you wouldn’t want to skip, see: Leviticus, Ezra, Nehemiah, Lamentations, and Numbers.

2. Just Do Nothing, and You’ll Ruin Everything

When people think that “proverbs aren’t promises,” they lose interest in the book of Proverbs. Why study a book that says stuff you can’t really bank on? But come to see the book rightly, and it’s treasures pay quickly and often. Such as a consideration of this rather obscure passage in Proverbs 1:20-21 (the prelude to the section of Prov 1:20-35). The point is simple: Wisdom is available. It is everywhere. We think we can’t change. We believe no one understands us. We assume we’re on our own. However, we’re surrounded by people with decent advice on important topics. We have no excuse for remaining immature.

1. Reading the Bible for the Ten Thousandth Time

Ryan wrote this post as a companion to #5 on this list. This one is not just for your “friend,” but for you who have grown familiar with the Bible. Familiar enough that the glow of it has long since faded. Ryan provides five great ideas to help you stave off your Bible weariness, and he reminds you that you never outgrown your need for the help of God’s Holy Spirit.

Previous years’ top tens: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017

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Identifying Longer Poems in the Body of Proverbs

December 17, 2025 By Peter Krol

Paul Overland has a fascinating piece on how to detect the poetic structure of Proverbs. I’ve written a full study of Proverbs 1-9, but Overland draws lessons from the structural markers in 1-9 and applies them to discern longer poems in chapters 10-29 as well.

For example, the sage uses an inclusio (repeated bookends) to mark the beginning and end of a poem in Proverbs 4:20-27. The NIV captures the repetition of “turn your ear” (Prov 4:20) and “do not turn” (Prov 4:27). In a similar way, the inclusio of “comes only to poverty” may mark the beginning and end of a larger unit in Prov 21:5-22:16.

Overland provides many specific tools to help you recognize boundary markers of poetic units within the book. And he offers the following benefits to engaging in this work:

Poems reveal richer meaning to their single sayings
We discover messages emerging from entire poems or lectures
Adjacent poems cluster together to deliver a cumulative lesson
A book-wide curriculum of wisdom training comes into view

The book of Proverbs is a tremendous gift from God to help us know him and grow up into maturity in our thinking, our piety, and our social progress. In today’s societies, we can easily witness the fruit of neglecting such wisdom from God. And Overland’s article will provide much stimulating help with considering just how this book can train us further in God’s wisdom.

Check it out!

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Using AI for Bible Study Misses the Point of Bible Study

December 15, 2025 By Ryan Higginbottom

Large language models (LLMs) have been making big waves for years. Their use has been embraced with open arms and promoted to the tune of billions of dollars.

For Christians who are convinced that Bible intake is good and healthy, the promises of AI agents are loud and potentially persuasive. If LLMs can make work and correspondence easier, why not Bible study? It would be the work of seconds to query an AI chatbot and ask for help studying the Bible.

As the headline to this article (hopefully) makes clear, I urge you to reconsider. If you’re leaning on an LLM for Bible study, you might have forgotten why we study the Bible.

Personal Study

If Bible study were just about information, this website would not exist. Instead, we could recommend good Bible commentaries and call it a day.

Many picture the outcome of Bible study as a tidy summary of a chapter or passage of Scripture. They primarily think of understanding as the goal. And while understanding is essential to Bible study, stopping at this stage is like heading off to work in your underwear—a good start, yes, but far from complete.

The goal of Bible study is to glorify God by loving him and our neighbors. In other words, we study the Bible so that we might be transformed (Hebrews 4:12, Romans 12:1-2).

In OIA Bible study, the O (observation) and I (interpretation) steps are primarily intellectual. The A (application) step is often the hardest because it is personal. It requires repentance, faith, and change.

The Holy Spirit changes Christians. One of the major ways this happens is by studying and applying the Scriptures (Psalm 19:7-11).

LLMs may do a passable job summarizing a Bible passage. But they are unlikely to get at the main point, and they cannot, by definition, help us any further.

Let’s be clear. Artificial intelligence cannot transform you into the image of Christ.

Bible study should produce new and renewed people, not merely people who are smarter or more informed. This happens in application, but observation and interpretation are not incidental. The Scriptures will land on us with their proper weight and force when our hands are dirty. We are far better equipped to apply a passage after studying it ourselves instead of reading a summary. What is more nutritious to body and soul, a warmed-up Italian frozen dinner or a lasagna prepared with love in the kitchen?

The process of studying the Bible is the entire point of studying the Bible. When we advocate for ordinary Christians to study the Bible, we are not claiming the world needs more summaries or commentaries on Scripture. Instead, we insist that the world needs more people who have studied and been changed by the Bible.

Leading Bible Studies

My co-blogger Peter has written about his concern with the presence of AI in Logos Bible software. I am also troubled by this development.

Moving from personal Bible study to leading a Bible study is challenging, and writing good questions is especially hard. I understand the impulse to offload this task.

However, just like with personal study, the process is part of the point. The skills of asking questions and mapping the logical steps toward the main point of a passage are crucial for leaders. We miss out on this development when we look to an LLM for direction. (The same is true when we consult other pre-packaged Bible study curricula.)

There’s another danger when using AI for Bible study group preparation. Small groups need their leaders to blaze the trail of change and give a preview of the terrain. Transformed people point the way to transformation.

Not that everyone will have the same applications! But a leader who is being transformed shows group members that change is desirable, possible, and a natural outcome of Bible study. The specific applications a leader shares will prompt others to apply the text specifically.

Further, no Bible study aid knows your group members like you do. Ideally, our questions and comments will be specific to the people in our group. LLMs are just next-word prediction engines; they don’t know any humans, much less the ones you are called to love.

A Place for AI

I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I suspect there may be responsible, wise uses of artificial intelligence that emerge over the next months and years. For now, I will approach AI with what I hope is healthy skepticism. I fear that as a people we are handing too many character-shaping, skill-building tasks over to LLMs in the name of efficiency.

Christians are not called primarily to be efficient. We are called to be holy and to point others toward the One who can make them holy. When this involves studying God’s word, we lean on artificial intelligence agents to the detriment of our souls and the souls of our neighbors and friends.

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Wisdom is Infectious, Not Contagious

December 12, 2025 By Peter Krol

There’s hope that anything can change. But first you must get wisdom.

Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction,
And be attentive, that you may gain insight,
For I give you good precepts;
Do not forsake my teaching.
When I was a son with my father,
Tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,
He taught me
And said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
Keep my commandments, and live” (Prov 4:1-4).

We can tell Solomon wants to get our attention because the first verse says, “be attentive,” and because it begins with “Hear, O sons,” rather than the usual “Hear, my son” (Prov 1:8). Would you like to get unstuck? Pay attention to what comes next.

After Solomon exhorts the reader to hear his instruction, he backs up the exhortation with a bit of autobiography. We’re transported back to the days when little Shlomo sat by the hearth and heard his father David talk about life. The most memorable advice was this: Hold on to my words (Prov 4:4) and get wisdom (Prov 4:5). This little story is noteworthy for at least two reasons.

1. It shows that the reason Solomon asked God for wisdom (1 Kings 3:5-9) was because Papa David told him to.

It’s easy to think Solomon’s request came out of nowhere, as though he had a flash of genius that just happened to coincide with the night when God made him the offer of a lifetime. No, instead, as we learn here, David had trained Solomon to do whatever it might take to get wisdom. Solomon was ready to ask God for it. Like Solomon, we must be taught to love and seek wisdom; it doesn’t happen naturally. Wisdom is an acquired taste, cultivated by people who have good examples to follow.

2. It implies that, if we want to inspire others to love wisdom, we must live it out and pass it on, just as David did for Solomon.

I’m not saying that David was perfect. He influenced his son both for good (loving wisdom) and ill (loving too many women). Solomon’s chief memory, however, was of his father’s quest for wisdom. It inspired him deeply.

To influence others, we, too, must quest for wisdom. Love for wisdom is infectious, not contagious. In other words, it doesn’t catch very easily; it requires close personal contact to be transmitted. For instance, parents ought to practice what they preach; they should be both open to learning and quick to ask forgiveness when they sin against their children. Leaders ought to tell tasteful stories about themselves to illustrate key ideas; people generally won’t get the point until they can see how it has personally affected the teacher. To save us, God didn’t hand over a philosophy or rulebook. He became a man and stood in our place, showing us in the process how to live wisely.

The first step to getting unstuck is to find good models who inspire you with hope and point you to Jesus as your wisdom. If you are a leader of any sort, your words will never be enough; you must visibly demonstrate the wisdom you seek to impart.

This post was first published in 2013 and is part of a series walking through Proverbs 1-9.

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The Staying Power of Wisdom

December 10, 2025 By Peter Krol

I’m so grateful for William Osborne’s recent piece “Wisdom Rarely Makes You Famous.” In it, he explains the end of Ecclesiastes 9 and beginning of Ecclesiastes 10 to show why wisdom is far superior a thing to pursue than the acceptance of any inner circle in society.

The temptation to stray from God’s word continues through every generation. Wisdom is not crowd-sourcing. Wisdom is not trying to guess what the next big thing will be before everyone else. Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord and building our lives upon his words. Wisdom believes that God’s instructions are good and life-giving, even though wisdom rarely gets a trophy.

Check it out!

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Wisdom and Hope

December 5, 2025 By Peter Krol

I’m Stuck

I’ve been stuck for some time. There’s a certain person I’ve known most of my life who is very difficult to get along with. Our personalities clash, and our tastes diverge on just about everything. He doesn’t know Christ yet; thus, he doesn’t understand most of the life choices I’ve made. I’ve often felt personally attacked by his comments and attitudes.

I want this person to meet Christ and find life, but when we converse I end up feeling like I’m about 8 years old again and helpless to change things. After I got married, my wife helped me to see that all hope was not lost; God had provided many opportunities to build a healthier relationship. My self-protective fear had prevented me from seeing these opportunities, and the fear of the Lord would give me the wisdom to make changes. Only after I stopped worrying about protecting myself and started seeking to represent Christ, did I have hope that the relationship could get better. I have a long way to go, but I want to do whatever it takes to travel this path one step at a time.

Proverbs 4 explains the vital connection between wisdom and hope. If we don’t fear the Lord, we won’t be open to change. If we’re not open to change, we won’t change. If we don’t change, we’ll fail as agents of redemption to those around us. We won’t inspire them with hope that they can change. Then—guess what?—nothing ever changes.

Are You Stuck?

Are you stuck? Stuck in a bad habit, a bad relationship, or a bad situation? Has your life failed to meet your expectations? Are you always too busy? Do the years keep flying by, yet without moving beyond the “same old, same old”?

For example, have you committed sexual immorality in the past? Will you ever be able to forget the memories or mental images? Can the damage done to yourself and others ever be undone? The fear of the Lord can give hope.

Are you married to an angry, hurtful person? Is your relationship caught in the endless cycle of attack-remorse-apology without any lasting change? How could you ever forgive? Can you get more help? The fear of the Lord can give hope.

Were your parents critical of your every move? Did they care at all? As you grew up, did they miss all your major milestones? Did they abuse you verbally, physically, emotionally, or sexually? How could you possibly trust another person again? The fear of the Lord can give hope.

Have your grown children rejected the Lord? Have you tried to win them back by every available means? Might you have been part of the problem, pushing them away with ungracious legalism, unrealistic expectations, harsh judgments, or emotional neediness? Can they ever return to the Lord or to a healthy relationship with you? The fear of the Lord can give hope.

There’s Hope

I’m not saying that the answers to these questions are easy. I’m not saying that wisdom will eliminate your pain and disappointment. But what I am saying is that there’s hope. One of our own poets, speaking of that hope which rises from fearing the Lord, said:

Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never Is but always To be blest.[1]

There’s always hope. Real hope that it can change. Do nothing, and it will certainly get worse. But fear the Lord, and it just might get better.

Proverbs 4:1-27 has three distinct units, each beginning with an address to one or more “sons.” The theme of “life” links the sections together. Solomon’s advice goes like this: First, do whatever it takes to get wisdom, and you’ll find life (Prov 4:1-9). Second, contrast the two roads before you to see which one leads to the life (Prov 4:10-19). Third, let the life become a part of who you are, and it will change everything you do (Prov 4:20-27). In other words, because God makes his life available in Jesus Christ, those who turn to him have hope that anything can change.[2]

This post was first published in 2013 and is part of a series walking through Proverbs 1-9.

[1] Alexander Pope, Essay on Man

[2] I’m indebted to Waltke, Proverbs 1-15, pp.274-301 for the structure and main points of Proverbs 4. (Disclosure: This is an affiliate link, so if you click it and buy stuff from Amazon, your purchase will help to support our site at no extra cost to yourself.)

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3 Reasons to Teach Your Kids the Bible

December 3, 2025 By Peter Krol

Ken Mbugua offers 3 reasons to teach your kids the Bible:

It is your God-given, joyful privilege.
God still speaks through His Word.
The Bible is a light.

If we don’t teach them the Bible, what will they find instead to guide them through life? How will they hear from God? How will they know him? For those reasons, we’ve sought to provide help with teaching not only the content of the Bible but also the skills for children to read and understand it themselves.

As Mbugua declares, “The call to teach our children about God is not a modern idea but a timeless command rooted in Scripture.”

Check it out!

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What a Conversation Between Authors Taught Me About Leading a Bible Study

December 1, 2025 By Ryan Higginbottom

writer — Brad Neathery (2017), public domain

I listen to a lot of podcasts, and a newer one I’ve been enjoying is called Table of (mal)Contents. The show is mostly about reading, and I’ve gotten some great book recommendations by listening.

On a recent episode, two of the hosts were talking about writing. Both of these men have written multiple books, and they were discussing their writing habits, how they come up with book ideas, editing, and other writing topics.

As they were talking about editing, one of the hosts (Barnabas Piper) said something that got me thinking—not so much about writing, but about preparing Bible studies for my small group. (A link to the episode is here; this quote begins at the 30-minute mark.)

People want to have 100% satisfaction with their written work, and you just won’t. You just come to the place where you’re like, “this was my best effort, my best contribution to ….” So I did a book on pastor’s kid, I did a book on faith and doubt, a book on curiosity. Are any of those the definitive word on those things? No. My hope is that they are the right kind contribution to connect with the right kind of reader and that I didn’t say anything terrible or stylistically just crappy. […] I think perfectionism is a terrible bane for writers.

I was struck by his comment about his books not being the “definitive word” on any of those subjects. I’ve grappled a lot with perfectionism when preparing to lead my small group.

Not a Seminary Class

In a Bible study meeting, my time is limited. We might have 45 or 60 minutes to look at the passage together. And I have a specific goal during that time: I want to help my friends see the main point of the passage and think about the implications for their lives.

We cannot do in a small group study what can be accomplished in a seminary class. Some passages are so rich that to dive into all of the connections and theological implications would take hours. And some small group members do not have the background or interest to cover all of those (sometimes complicated) topics.

A small group study will rarely cover everything associated with a Bible passage. But the study will be a success if we can read, understand, and apply the Scriptures in a faithful way.

A Check on My Ego

It is tempting for me to design a small group study as the definitive word on a Bible passage. Not only do I like the idea of being complete, but I like the recognition that comes from leading a profound discussion.

Perhaps other leaders face this same temptation. I want others to praise me as their small group leader. I like sounding smart and impressing people with my learning. The more theological richness I can wring out of a passage, my thinking sometimes goes, the better my reputation.

Of course, this posture is self-focused and wicked. Leading a Bible study is an opportunity to serve others and help them encounter the God of the universe. It is not a venue for shining a spotlight on myself. And exploring doctrine just for the sake of a sophisticated conversation is rarely the best way to serve the people in my group. When I am more concerned about my own praise than the way my friends worship and follow God, I am a glory thief. And I should shudder.

But the gospel says there is good news for glory thieves. For Christians, God is a loving, faithful Father. Because of the work of Jesus, he offers forgiveness and the power and motivation to change.

Keep it Simple

Bible study leaders, let’s remember that we don’t need to prepare the definitive study on our passage. We should study the passage ourselves, let the message change us, and then work hard to lead our group to the main point of the passage. Let’s aim for the “right kind of contribution that connects” with our friends.

God’s word is powerful and his Spirit is at work. He will bring about the fruit he wants from our efforts. We don’t need to craft the perfect study to make this happen.

This was originally posted in 2019.

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When Humility is not Easy

November 28, 2025 By Peter Krol

It’s easy to forget humility and act like violent men when facing certain types of people. We’ll find help with three groups of people by considering the three places where New Testament authors quote Proverbs 3:34.

1. Those who have hurt me deeply

James has this first group in mind when he quotes Proverbs 3:34 to instruct the community to stop quarreling (Jas. 4:1-12). James argues that we each tend to love ourselves more than anyone else, so we fight for our rights. In the course of such conflict, we get hurt and want to retaliate. Instead, we must remember that our desires cannot give us what they promise. So we must turn to the Lord, because he always gives more grace than the world does. As we fear the Lord instead of focusing on ourselves, we become more humble people. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Jas. 4:6).

2. Those who don’t deserve my trust

Peter has this second group in mind when he quotes Proverbs 3:34 to instruct the church to submit to the elders (1 Pet. 5:1-11). Elders are shepherds of the flock of God, but they must never be mistaken for the Chief Shepherd. When we put our leaders in the place of Jesus, they fail to deliver because they are neither divine nor sinless. When they fail, we tend to become disillusioned, anxious for the future of the church, and proud in our own opinions. Instead, we ought to fear the Lord more than we fear failure. This makes us both humble and effective, for “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5).

3. All the rest

Paul has all of us in mind when he draws us back to Christ’s humility to empower our own (Phil. 2:1-18). Does Christ encourage you? Does his love comfort you? Do you participate in his Spirit? Has God shown any affection or sympathy toward you? Jesus gave up what he deserved (his rights as God) and took on what he did not deserve (the role of a servant, the limitations of a human body, and the utter disgrace of death by crucifixion). He did it to rescue you from what you deserve (God’s judgment) and to give you what you do not deserve (God’s pleasure). Paul was so affected by Jesus’ humility that he was prepared to die himself if it meant his people would hold these truths more dearly.

Loving others wisely and humbly is not optional for followers of Christ. It’s the meat and potatoes of living by faith in community with other sinners. Wisdom must penetrate this crucial area of our lives. The fear of the Lord is the beginning, and when you fear the Lord you can’t help but become like him. That means dying for others, even if they’ve hurt you or if they don’t deserve it. When Jesus’ humility grips you, it changes everything about you. Don’t turn inward and deny yourself the opportunity to fear the Lord and know Jesus in his humility. As Raymond Ortlund writes:

If you would like to experience God with that humility, here is how you can. You look at the cross. You see a wise man hanging there, dying in the place of fools like you, because he loves you. You may despise him, but he does not despise you. You may be above him, but he humbled himself for you. Look there at him. Look away from yourself. Look at him, and keep looking until your pride melts. You will not only worship, you will begin to grow wise.[1]

This post was first published in 2013 and is part of a series walking through Proverbs 1-9.

[1] Proverbs: Wisdom that Works, Kindle location 537-540.

Disclosure: This link is an Amazon affiliate link. If you click it and buy stuff from Amazon, your purchase will help support our site.

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Might Your Teaching be Preventing People from Learning?

November 26, 2025 By Peter Krol

Bryan Elliff has a wonderful and provocative piece called “Less Lecture More Learning: Ideas for a Better Sunday School Hour.” In that article, he describes situations where church members faithfully attend Sunday school classes for decades but still don’t know how to read or study their Bibles.

One of the biggest contributors to the problem is lecture-style teaching. That may surprise you, but I think it’s true. Let me paint the picture. One willing and perhaps gifted person spends a lot of time at home preparing during the week. On Sunday, he marches to the front of the classroom to speak at the group for an hour. Maybe a few minutes are given for discussion at the end and the listeners file out to go to the worship meeting where they will listen to a speaker again.

The problem with this is that it doesn’t teach the people how to read the Bible. It just serves up a finished product that they think about for a few minutes. Most likely, unless the teacher is an exceptionally good speaker, they’ll forget it rather quickly. It’s kind of like inviting someone over for a meal once a week and expecting him to learn how to cook.

In other words, there’s too much teaching and not enough learning.

Elliff goes on to suggest some practical ways you can turn your lectures into an academy for vibrant learning. His suggestions are quite close to my model for teaching Bible study in church.

Check it out!

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