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El peor enemigo de la interpretación es la observación

May 12, 2026 By Peter Krol

This is a Spanish translation of a post from our archive. For the original post in English, please click the “Publicación original” link at the top of the post. For further explanation of why we’re posting articles in Spanish for a season, see this announcement.

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Publicación original de Peter Krol, traducida por Sarah Oiler

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La interpretación ocurre cuando descubrimos por qué un pasaje dice lo que dice. No logramos interpretar bien cuando nos falta entender por qué un pasaje dice lo que dice.

El obstáculo principal para la interpretación excelente es la observación.

Por supuesto, no creo que la observación sea una mala cosa. Ya he escrito sobre cómo debemos valorar la observación cuidadosa. La observación descuidada causa directamente una interpretación incorrecta.

Sin embargo, al estudiar la Biblia, no puedes quedarte en la fase de observación. Es fácil creer que has estudiado la Biblia cuando, en realidad, solo la observas.

Por ejemplo, mucha gente usa Romanos 1:18-32 para mostrar que la humanidad es pecadora. ¡Una observación excelente! Pero, ¿por qué Pablo hace todo lo posible para demostrar cuán pecadora es la humanidad? Quizás es porque quiere armar un caso contra el lector de forma lenta e imperceptible. “Por tanto, no tienes excusa tú, quienquiera que seas, cuando juzgas a los demás” (Romanos 2:1, NVI).

Encontramos otro ejemplo en Filipenses 4:4-9. Este pasaje está lleno de dichos lindos que los cristianos citan con frecuencia. Nos encanta “alegrémonos siempre en el Señor” (Filipenses 4:4, NVI). Nos consuela presentar nuestras peticiones a Dios, con oración y ruego (Filipenses 4:6).

Esas son buenas observaciones. Pero, ¿por qué están aquí estos versículos? La iglesia de Filipos estaba pasando por una ruptura grave entre dos mujeres prominentes (Filipenses 4:2-3). Por esta razón, Pablo envió instrucciones a uno de sus compañeros en la iglesia para resolver el conflicto. Lee Filipenses 4:4-9 con esta perspectiva, y el pasaje cobra vida.

Las narraciones del Antiguo Testamento nos dan un último grupo de ejemplos. Al observar estos relatos, es posible que nos demos cuenta de todo tipo de personajes para imitar o evitar, pero todavía nos falta seguir con la interpretación. Ver a estos personajes como ejemplos no está mal (mira 1 Corintios 10:11), pero es demasiado fácil quedarse solo en la observación. ¿Por qué están allí estos relatos? Para mostrarnos a Jesús, por supuesto (Juan 1:45, Lucas 24:44-47). Lo importante, cada vez, es descubrir cómo.

Recuerda que no debes permitir que la familiaridad estorbe tu observación. Y no permitas que la observación estorbe tu interpretación.

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What Changed When I Taught My Small Group Leaders to Slow Down

May 8, 2026 By Peter Krol

This is a guest post by Ephraim Schoephoerster. Ephraim serves as a Life Groups and Discipleship Coordinator at Rise Church in Abilene, Texas, and is the founder of Enneagram Ephraim, where he coaches lead pastors of small-to-mid-sized churches through team dynamics. He has been published with ACU Mosaic, Small Church Ministries, XP Pastors, and TheLife.com (Power to Change).

If you’d like to write a guest post for Knowable Word, please see the guidelines page.

I coordinate life groups at our church in Abilene, Texas. I recruit the leaders, train them, check in with them, and walk with them when things get hard. I have done some version of this work for over a decade, first in youth ministry and now with adults. And there is one pattern I see more than any other.

The leaders I work with love the Bible. They believe it is the Word of God. They want their groups to grow. But when they sit down on a Tuesday night and open a passage together, most of them do the same thing. They read the text, and then they skip straight to what it means.

Somebody shares an interpretation. Somebody else shares how it applies to their week. The leader nods and asks a follow-up question. And within five minutes the group is having a conversation that sounds spiritual but has almost nothing to do with what the passage actually says.

a group of people sitting in a room — Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

They are not lazy. They are not apathetic. They just do not know there is another step. Nobody has ever taught them to observe the text before they try to interpret it.

I did not know this either for a long time. I spent years leading Bible studies where I thought the goal was to get people talking. If the room was engaged, the study was working. But I started to notice that my groups could have lively discussions about a passage and still walk away with conclusions the text did not support. We were building application on top of assumptions. And I was the one letting it happen.

The turning point for me was learning to slow down. Before I asked my group what a passage meant, I started asking what they noticed. What words stood out? What was repeated? Who was speaking? What came before this and what came after? Simple questions. Not deep. Not clever. Just slow.

And it changed everything.

Last month we were in John 4. Instead of jumping straight to what Jesus was teaching the woman at the well, I asked the group to tell me what they noticed. Someone pointed out that Jesus asked her for water even though he was the one who had something to give. Someone else noticed the woman kept changing the subject. A third person saw that the disciples were surprised he was talking to her at all. We spent fifteen minutes just observing, and by the time we moved to interpretation, the passage had already done most of the work for us.

People who had been in church for thirty years started saying things like, “I never noticed that before.” Leaders who used to panic about filling silence realized the text had more to say than they thought. The conversations got deeper, not because I asked better discussion questions, but because we finally let the passage set the agenda.

Now when I train new life group leaders, observation is where I start. I tell them that the most important thing they can do for their group is not to have all the answers. It is to help people see what is on the page. If your group can learn to read carefully before they respond quickly, you have given them something that will shape them long after your group semester ends.

This is not a technique. It is a posture. It says to the text, “I am going to look at you before I decide what you are telling me.” And it says to the group, “We are here to listen to God’s Word together, not to pool our opinions about it.”

Most of the small group leaders in your church have never been trained to do this. They were handed a curriculum and told to facilitate. That is not their fault. But it is an opportunity. Because when you teach a leader to observe the text, you do not just improve one Bible study. You change the way an entire room reads the Bible for the rest of their lives.

That is what I get to watch happen in living rooms and coffee shops and church classrooms every week. And it never gets old.

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It’s Not Too Late to Seek the Lord

May 6, 2026 By Peter Krol

According to Joel 1, the day of disaster may already be upon you, picturing the day of the Lord to come. May this drive you to a day of prayer and repentance in hope of finding mercy instead of judgment.

Paul House walks through the argument of Joel 1, modeling how to trace themes, follow the train of thought, and make concrete and specific applications.

How should we think about such events [natural disasters]? Should we simply consider them a bit of bad luck? Should we think they punish bad people? Should we think God is not in control of such events? Should we just put such terrible events out of our minds? How can we think Biblically about what seem to be freakish acts of nature? I do not have all the answers to these questions.

House’s sample Bible study is well worth your time. Check it out!

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¿Por qué interpretamos?

May 5, 2026 By Peter Krol

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Publicación original de Peter Krol, traducida por Sarah Oiler

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El segundo paso en el proceso de estudiar la Biblia es la interpretación. Si preguntas “¿por qué debemos interpretar?”, ya estás demostrando la necesidad de la interpretación.

¿Lo entiendes? La interpretación es básicamente preguntarte POR QUÉ.

En la fase de observación, abordamos qué dice un pasaje. En la fase de interpretación, abordamos por qué un pasaje dice algo.

Mi hija de dos años acaba de entrar en la fase interpretativa de la vida. ¡Es un hito significativo! Recuerdo cuando esto pasó. Llegamos a casa desde la iglesia y mi esposa les dijo a nuestros hijos que bajaran del carro y entraran a la casa. Charlotte inmediatamente preguntó: “¿por qué?”

Estoy bastante seguro de que ella no sabe qué significa “por qué”. Simplemente escuchó a sus hermanos mayores decirlo tantas veces que pensó que ella también debía hacerlo.

Dios nos creó para interpretar. La comunicación siempre va más allá del qué hacia el por qué. Una mirada de reojo parece indicar un interés romántico. Un gruñido se interpreta como desagrado. La falta de contacto visual parece indicar incertidumbre. Tal análisis es cosa de fiestas de pijamas y telenovelas. Pasamos constantemente de la Observación a la Interpretación.

Debemos hacer esto en nuestros estudios bíblicos también. No pares con la Observación. Sigue adelante para asegurarte de que entiendas el Por qué. Es la clave de la Interpretación.

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Keep the Whole Book in Mind

May 4, 2026 By Ryan Higginbottom

Luke 20 begins with a confrontation.

One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” (Luke 20:1–4)

Before digging into this passage, whenever I heard this chapter I thought Jesus was simply countering a question with a question. The chief priests and scribes were trying to serve him a trap, so he volleyed back a puzzle. I didn’t see much connection.

I should have known better.

Authority and Baptism

Since John baptized Jesus, when Jesus referred to John’s baptism he was not pointing toward something abstract. For Jesus, this could not have been more personal and meaningful. Jesus’s ministry began with his baptism.

For Luke, the surrounding context of Jesus’s baptism (Luke 3:21–22) was all about authority. John spent time answering questions from tax collectors and soldiers, two groups of people in authority (Luke 3:12–14). This led to questions about whether John was the Christ, but he pointed to one who was coming who would have so much authority that he could baptize with the Holy Spirit and serve as judge (Luke 3:15–17).

John was then thrown into prison for opposing Herod’s evil ways (Luke 3:18–20). Without an eye toward the topic of authority, this might seem a strange section of the passage. But when we know the theme, we see Herod’s obvious abuse of authority.

Finally, we read of Jesus’s baptism. Luke doesn’t explicitly tell us that John baptized Jesus, but this is a reasonable deduction (see Luke 3:7 and Luke 3:21), confirmed in other Gospels.

The Baptism of God’s Son

When Jesus was praying immediately after his baptism, a special guest arrived.

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21–22)

We usually read this voice as divine words of comfort and affirmation; they were this and much more. The title “son of God” was a kingly title, stretching back to the Old Testament and finding its clearest illustration in 2 Samuel 7:8–17. From that point forward, Davidic kings were “sons of God.” The one with ultimate earthly authority toward God’s people was the son of God.

Luke proceeds from the baptism of Jesus to the genealogy of Jesus. Unlike modern Christians, Luke’s first readers would not have nodded off at a list of “begats.” Especially not this list.

The genealogy begins with Jesus and ends with God, with lots of sons in between. Luke is repeating his point in case we didn’t hear it the first time: Jesus is the son of God.

The Confrontation Fizzles

The chief priests, scribes, and elders thought that Jesus’s question in Luke 20 was about John. But Jesus’s question answered theirs. Who gave Jesus the authority to do what he did?

God did. In John’s baptism of Jesus, God declared Jesus to be his son, and Luke wants us to see there is no higher authority.

Context Matters

We write a lot on this blog about how context matters. But we aren’t only concerned with the sentences and paragraphs surrounding your favorite verse.

This example from Luke 20 shows the importance of at least three different Scriptural contexts. The location of the question in Luke 20 and the baptism in Luke 3 reminds us that the immediate context matters. The reference from Luke 20 to Luke 3 reminds us to keep the whole book in mind—the context within the book matters. And the references to the phrase “son of God” remind us that the whole Bible is connected. Old Testament context informs New Testament usage.

This is not just an argument for careful Bible study and for regularly re-reading the book of the Bible you are studying. It’s also a reminder that the whole Bible matters when we interpret the whole Bible.

This was first published in 2019.

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The Illusion of Freedom

May 1, 2026 By Peter Krol

The first section of Proverbs 5 (Prov 5:1-6) highlighted the deceptiveness of appearances. Not all is as it seems, and sexual immorality covers itself under the illusion of freedom. In this closing section, we see that deviation from God’s standards—what the culture calls “sexual freedom”—is not really free.

For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord,
And he ponders all his paths.
The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,
And he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
He dies for lack of discipline,
And because of his great folly he is led astray (Prov 5:21-23).

Pursuing immorality is like snapping the handcuffs, donning the straitjacket, locking the cage, or triggering the land mine. You thought to hunt a foxy partner, but the real hunters will “cry ‘havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war.”[1] You are the prey, fit only to become a fur scarf or set of mounted antlers.

Notice first that God sees everything (Prov 5:21). Nothing we do is really in secret, though we reason with ourselves that it is so. To be free from the prying eyes of men is still to be under the fiery, knowing gaze of the Almighty. The First Catechism, a children’s version of Christian theology, summarizes:

Can you see God?
No. I cannot see God, but he always sees me.
Does God know all things?
Yes. Nothing can be hidden from God.[2]

Do these lines inspire you with hope or terrify you with despair, when you consider your sexual life of the past week or month?

Notice second that sin is ensnaring (Prov 5:22). We think that a little sin will produce a little happiness; otherwise, we wouldn’t do it! We must realize instead that every time we sin, we take up the yoke and subjugate ourselves to a harsh master. We choose slavery, not freedom. We more closely resemble unwelcome critters, to be caught and disposed of, than carefree gazelles, frolicking through glade and meadow.

Notice finally that, for the wicked, freedom is elusive (Prov 5:23). The sinner would rather die than become disciplined. The immoral person is full of “great folly” that leads him astray. He missed his turn and will never reach his destination. Life and freedom elude him; they’re always just out of reach.

Those final words (“led astray”) are significant because, in the Hebrew text, they represent the same vocabulary as was used in Prov 5:19 and Prov 5:20. Solomon commanded his reader to be “intoxicated” by the love of his spouse, and not by the forbidden woman. “Intoxicated” could also have been translated as “swerving astray” or “reeling” to show the repetition. The translators of the NET Bible[3] explain it this way in a note: “If the young man is not captivated by his wife but is captivated with a stranger in sinful acts, then his own iniquities will captivate him, and he will be led to ruin.”

The message is clear: sexual “freedom” is an illusion. Fools set their own traps and surprise themselves by springing them. The simple claim insufficient knowledge or education, and their traps are no less painful. Even those who ought to be wise struggle in the chains of self-love, self-focus, self-pity, and self-centered fear or insecurity.

Is there hope we’ll ever find the way of life and enjoy God’s delightful wisdom?

Appearances are truly deceptive. How could the son of a carpenter be, as the Nicene Creed states, “very God of very God?” How could one born in obscurity and killed in infamy provide God’s righteousness to any who want it?

Immorality has real consequences, and the pure and righteous one suffered so we immoral ones might be washed clean.

Marriage has phenomenal delights, and the Great Bridegroom chose to die and not demand his rights as Husband. In so doing, he didn’t coerce his Bride, but won her allegiance for the long haul.

Sexual freedom is truly an illusion. Jesus submitted to the cross and the grave so we could be free of both forever; he proved it by his glorious resurrection. Now we get to image him to the world. Find your freedom in self-denial. Obtain life through your death. Secure satisfaction by serving and satisfying others, especially your spouse.

The wise person sees the culture’s illusions, blasts them with Bible dynamite, and wins others to radically selfless, Christ-like joy, far more exciting than either religious prudishness or enslaving immorality.

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

[1] Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, III.1.273.

[2] Suwanee, GA: Great Commission Publications, Inc., 2003, Questions 11 & 12.

[3] Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C, 1996-2005.

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Finding Motivation for Bible Reading

April 29, 2026 By Peter Krol

Reagan Rose tells a compelling story of his transformation with respect to Bible reading, from feeling guilty to finding delight in the Scripture. He found the conviction that the Bible can be understood. He realized he didn’t have to read it, but he gets to read it. And he began seeing specific changes in his life as a result of reading it. He writes:

I write this in the hopes that it might be helpful to some other believer who, like myself, eagerly desires to read the Word with consistency but finds themselves discouraged by their lack of consistency.

Perhaps his testimony can encourage you as well.

Check it out!

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Cosas para observar: 4 Consejos Más

April 28, 2026 By Peter Krol

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Publicación original de Peter Krol, traducida por Sarah Oiler

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Hemos visto cinco cosas que puedes observar cuando estudias un pasaje bíblico: palabras, gramática, estructura, género y estado de ánimo. Aquí hay una mezcolanza de cosas que puedes observar.

Palabras repetidas. No puedo repetirlo suficiente veces. Presta atención a las cosas que se repiten. Es una de las observaciones más sencillas que puedes hacer. Toma una Biblia en la que no te importe escribir y subraya las palabras repetidas con el mismo color. Las ideas clave del autor saltarán de la página. Por ejemplo, Génesis 14 repite la palabra “rey” más de 13 veces. De hecho, uno de los personajes tiene “rey” en su nombre (Melquisedec significa “rey de justicia”). ¡El autor quiere que pensemos en lo que es un rey verdadero!
Comparación y Contraste. Con frecuencia, un pasaje muestra cómo dos cosas o más son similares (comparación) o diferentes (contraste). Ver esta conexión puede ser útil. Por ejemplo, Génesis 24, Génesis 29, Éxodo 2 y Juan 4 describen las interacciones entre un hombre y una mujer junto a un pozo de agua. ¿Qué es similar y qué es diferente en cada relato?
Personajes. Presta especial atención al nombre de cada personaje en un pasaje. Los autores comunican cosas importantes a través del uso de nombres específicos. Por ejemplo, aunque Génesis 21 habla mucho de Ismael, nunca menciona su nombre. Siempre es “el hijo de Agar” o “el hijo de esa esclava”. ¿Por qué crees que lo escribió así?
Conectores. Palabras como “por lo tanto,” “en aquellos tiempos” o “del mismo modo” crean conexiones significativas entre frases, párrafos o capítulos. Date cuenta de las conexiones, así que puedes comprender por qué están allí. Por ejemplo, Génesis 15:1 (NVI) empieza con “Después de esto”. ¿Cómo cambiaría tu entendimiento de este capítulo si piensas en cómo Abram se estará sintiendo inmediatamente después de los eventos del capítulo 14?

¿Qué más podemos observar?

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The Best Object of Sexual Delight

April 24, 2026 By Peter Krol

Previously, I examined two atrocious abuses of sexually explicit Bible texts. I concluded with two observations from Prov 5:18: You ought to rejoice in your spouse, and you ought to rejoice in your spouse. This week I’ll unpack the second observation.

Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice in the wife of your youth (Prov 5:18)

Observe the proper object of delight: rejoice in “the wife of your youth” (Prov 5:18). “Be intoxicated always in her love” (Prov 5:19). Solomon does not say, “Rejoice in how amazing the whole thing is,” or, “Get drunk on the incomparable sensations of sex.” We’ve seen it already with money issues, and we’ll see it again in the next few chapters of Proverbs: We’re always tempted to focus on ourselves. In doing so, however, we ruin the very joy God desires for us.

Marriage will not solve your lust problem. Sex will not make you happy. Sexual climax will always result in crushing disappointment when it’s about you. However, when it’s about the other, when it begins with self-denial and ends with sacrificial service, when it regards the well-being and delight of your spouse as being more important than your own, then it reflects God’s own selfless love for his people. You begin to understand the delight and ecstasy of sharing Christ’s own heart for the Church (Eph 5:31-32), and you will fulfill your potential of having been created and redeemed in his image, after his own likeness.

In The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis understood that true godly romantic love finds delight in a person, a spouse, not in a feeling or experience:

We use a most unfortunate idiom when we say, of a lustful man prowling the streets, that he “wants a woman.” Strictly speaking, a woman is just what he does not want. He wants a pleasure for which a woman happens to be the necessary piece of apparatus. How much he cares about the woman as such may be gauged by his attitude to her five minutes after fruition (one does not keep the carton after one has smoked the cigarettes). Now Eros makes a man really want, not a woman, but one particular woman. In some mysterious but quite indisputable fashion the lover desires the Beloved herself, not the pleasure she can give.[1]

By contrast, love of Love harms the lover: “Love becomes a demon when it becomes a god.”[2]

If you are unmarried, you do not have to get married to have a fulfilling existence. If you aspire to marriage, the best preparation is to practice serving others now. As you think about sex and dating, “How far can I go?” is always the wrong question. Instead ask, “How sacrificially can I serve others?”

If you are widowed or divorced, you have not yet lost the good years; now is the time to lay down your life in Christ-like abandon for those around you. Don’t fall prey to bitterness or self-pity. Find help, and engage the community.

If you are married, perhaps you need to repent of the selfish way you’ve exercised your passion thus far, of the way you’ve either made unloving demands or withdrawn in desperate self-protection. Demanding certain acts or increased frequency of lovemaking may have been out of line. Resisting your spouse in fear may be selfish and unloving. Whatever your struggle, consider a new goal: “What will serve my spouse and Christ?” For in such consideration, we find real freedom and Christ-like empowerment.

Thus, whatever your marital status and whatever your history, the Lord offers you the opportunity to enjoy something better than you dreamed possible. He offers you pure water, sweet streams, and a blessed fountain, but only when your satisfaction is rooted in the denial of self and the satisfaction of others. Don’t settle for a trifle.

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

[1] The Four Loves (New York, Harcourt, Brace, 1960), p.94. Disclosure: This is an affiliate link, so if you click it and buy stuff from Amazon, you’ll support our site at no extra cost to yourself.

[2] p.22.

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How Bible Study Changed One Life

April 22, 2026 By Peter Krol

I’m grateful for Glenna Marshall’s delightful testimony that “Bible Study Changed My Life, and It Can Change Yours.” She reflects on the day she began taking Bible seriously, and how she’s never looked back.

For nearly fifteen years, I have filled up spiral notebooks with what God has taught me about his character from his word. I’ve added questions along the way, and I’ve learned to outline chapters and books and to dig into context and the historical landscape. I’ve learned to read Scripture through a gospel lens, holding the redemptive story arc in view as I study. I’ve learned to ask questions, to note themes and repeated words and timelines. I’ve learned to always look at cross-references, to let the New Testament writers teach me how to interpret the Old Testament. I’ve gotten better at paying attention to genre and style. I’ve learned that sometimes I won’t understand what I’m reading until I’ve spent a good long time sitting in the text. I’ve learned that the frustration I feel when I don’t understand is actually really good for my soul. I’ve learned that no matter how tired I am, how busy my day might be, or how much I hurt in body or soul, I will never, ever, ever regret time spent in God’s Word.

The rest of her report is well worth your consideraiton.

Check it out!

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