Peter Krol | Knowable Word

Will People Perish Without a Visionary Leader?

June 8, 2022 By Peter Krol

Where there is no vision, the people perish… (Prov 29:18, KJV)

Jared Wilson has some helpful thoughts on a commonly misappropriated verse.

Proverbs 29:18 may be one of the most misapplied verses in all the evangelical church today. Many a church leader has used it to spiritualize his strategies and blackmail followers into supporting his entrepreneurialism. Vision statements are cast. Mission statements are crafted to serve the vision. A list of values is composed to serve the mission. An array of programs is developed to serve the values. A stable of leaders is recruited to serve the programs. An army of volunteers is inspired to assist the leaders.

Would you be willing to take a closer look at what the verse really says? Check it out!

Announcing 1.5 New Books!

June 3, 2022 By Peter Krol

https://www.cruciformpress.com/product/sowable-word/

https://www.cruciformpress.com/product/knowable-word-helping-ordinary-people-learn-to-study-the-bible-2d-ed/

I’ve blogged long enough that most of my ideas now lie buried deep within this site’s bowels. I’ve done my best to make the most important posts accessible in the main menu, but there’s only so much I can do without exhausting new visitors. And some of those ideas deserve to stay buried. After all, didn’t the Sage of Israel once say something about the making of many blogs (Eccl 12:12)? It’s in the Hebrew, I assure you.

Well, I’ve done my best to assemble all the really important stuff in one (or two) places for you. And the nice people at Cruciform Press offered to blow off the dust, spiff it up, and publish these babies. I must say it’s made my life much more interesting of late.

Knowable Word has been out for a number of years, but we just released a revised and expanded edition. That’s why it counts as only half of a new book. Sowable Word is brand new and is all about how to do all that terrific OIA stuff in an interactive small group setting.

If you’d like to learn more about either book, keep reading. At the bottom of this post, I’ll publish the introduction to Sowable Word. But first, let me explain what exactly has been revised and expanded in Knowable Word. You can also click either book image in the blog sidebar to go to some lovely marketing pages with everything you ever wanted to know about these books, including what some important people have had to say about them.

You can grab these books now from Cruciform Press or Amazon.

Revisions and Expansions in the Second Edition of Knowable Word

What Has Changed in the Second Edition?

In addition to improving the prose in various ways, this second edition expands substantially on the topics of structure, context, and literary form (which now includes not only what the first edition called “genre” but also a new concept called “text type”). In the years since the first edition was published, I have come to a deeper understanding of each of these concepts and what role each plays in the OIA method. Structure has become, in my opinion, one of the most important things to observe, as it, more than any other observation, surfaces the contours of not only the artistry but also the very argument the author seeks to make. Context really matters; without an eye for it, Bible readers are prone to go in so many different directions, which would likely have been unrecognizable to the Bible’s original authors. And text type provides a complement to genre, as a parallel way to view a text’s literary form; in fact, I’ve found that text type often provides students an even more useful set of tools than those provided by observing the genre.

I’ve also given more specific steps to help you follow an author’s train of thought, identify the weightiest segment of a passage, and thereby be more likely to discover the author’s main point. In my personal training of others, I find the greatest challenge for most is to gain a healthy suspicion of their familiarity with the text so they might learn how to truly observe it. But once that milestone has been reached, the next most difficult skill is determining the author’s main point. Our ability to perceive that main point requires us to know how to think and how to follow an argument. So I’ve expanded the instruction at that point to help you master these crucial skills.

What Almost Changed in the Second Edition?

The most frequent feedback I have received on the book is the request for an “answer key” to the Your Turn exercises found throughout the book. To date, I have staunchly refused providing one to any inquirer on the ground that the act of providing my own answer key would undermine the entire purpose of helping you gain the confidence you need to study the Bible for yourself and to believe you are approved to do so.

However, I have become persuaded that the climb—from spectator of my ongoing demonstration of the OIA method with Genesis 1 to practitioner of the self-guided study questions for Genesis 2—is a bit too steep for those who have never before tried this at home. So I have decided to now let people know how I would answer the questions I pose in those Your Turn exercises.

But I will do so only if you promise not to view those answers as the only “right” answers. And if you don’t look at those answers until you’ve first tried to answer the questions for yourself. I offer them not as an authoritative or impeccable way to study Genesis 2:4–25, but simply as a potential measuring rod by which you can evaluate whether you’re on the right track in practicing the skills laid out in this book.

That is why the answer key “almost” changed in the second edition. You won’t find it in this book. I couldn’t make it too easy for you to flip right from the exercises themselves to my guidance on the exercises, could I? If you would like to read my answers to the Your Turn exercises, you’ll have to first try them yourself. Then if you want to see if you’re on the right track, you can visit the Your Turn page at the blog and find the Guidance for Your Turn Exercises. It wasn’t ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator or anything like that, but perhaps it will provide some suitable help and courage.

Now, are you ready to begin? May every word of God prove true, as he proves to be a shield to those who take refuge in him (Proverbs 30:5).

Introduction to Sowable Word

When God’s Word falls on good soil, he promises the results will astound (Mark 4:8). That’s why there’s a surprising glory in leading a group of ordinary people to open their Bibles, read what’s on the page, and discuss how God might use those words to change the world.

Perhaps you fear “getting it wrong” without expert guidance from a workbook or study guide. Is it possible to lead fruitful and engaging groups that actually study the Bible?

You might be familiar with the OIA method of Bible study (Observe, Interpret, Apply), but is it safe for you to lead others in OIA Bible study? (If you are not familiar with this method, have no fear. Chapter 2 will bring you up to speed.)

I wrote this book to encourage you in this task. I will present the unique opportunities and objectives of Bible studies. I will suggest ways to lead Bible studies that speak to both believers and non-believers. I will explain how to start a group, how to prepare for meetings, and how to lead a discussion. I will warn you of potential pitfalls, and I will cast a vision for training others to lead after you. Whether you are a new Bible study leader or a pastor who’s been doing it for years, I trust these ideas can help you to hone your craft.

The first part of this book will build foundations for Bible studies that actually study the Bible. I’ll provide definitions and goals, such as what Bible studies are and why we have them. Then I’ll summarize the Direct-OIA Bible study method, which equips us to lead others in Bible study. Finally, I’ll address the basic skills required to get a group started.

I commend you for embracing this mission to lead others in study of God’s Word. Through that Word, you might introduce some to the Lord Jesus Christ for the first time. And through that same Word, you can shepherd others unto maturity of faith. Your ministry may have seasons of planting and seasons of watering, but God alone is able to save souls and cause growth (1 Corinthians 3:6). He does such work through the implanted Word (James 1:21).

Therefore, there is something indescribably wonderful that happens when people learn to engage with God directly through his Word. People who are used to merely being told what to do learn to hear God’s own voice. People afraid of messing up gain the confidence to take up and read. Consumers of content develop into distributors of truth. Committed disciples grow into influential disciple-makers.

And you now get to be a part of it. Let’s see how.

You can grab both books now from Cruciform Press or Amazon. (Note: Amazon link is an affiliate link. If you click it and buy one of the books I wrote, my ministry will receive a small commission. And while I’m stating the obvious, I’ll go ahead and remind you that if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie – Eccl 11:3.)

Historical Background for 1 Thessalonians

June 1, 2022 By Peter Krol

Who wrote the letter we call First Thessalonians? Why are three authors mentioned in 1 Thess 1:1? Where were they? How did they know the people in Thessalonica? When was the letter written and under what circumstances?

These are the sorts of questions we ought to ask when we study 1 Thessalonians, and we ought to ask similar questions of any book we study.

John Piper shows us briefly and clearly how to go about answering such questions. Consider his recent Look at the Book video where he provides the background for the writing of this letter, showing us in the process how to develop such research skills for ourselves.

Check it out!

Not All Commentaries are Created Equal

May 27, 2022 By Peter Krol

My seventh commandment for commentary usage is:

You shall not hold all commentaries equal, but shall give greatest weight to those that stimulate greatest interest in the biblical text and its argument.

It comes with a corollary:

You shall resist speculations made by commentators and shall demand the same text-driven arguments from them that you would demand of your friends or that they would demand of you.

The purpose of these commandments is to highlight the discipline required to make wise use of commentaries for Bible study. Let me explain the primary commandment itself, and then I will explain why it leads to the corollary commandment.

Clarifying the Uses of Commentaries

By definition of the word “average,” approximately half of all published commentaries will be below average for a given purpose. And the same commentary may provide above-average help for one purpose and below-average help for another. So in order to make wise use of commentaries, we must first be clear on what we want the commentaries to do. Then we can judge how competently the commentary does that job.

Some commentaries are written primarily for academics, with the main goals being to address the many historic disputes surrounding a book of the Bible. These commentaries may observe and interpret the text insofar as it enables them to evaluate the many options given over the course of history in response to particular questions. Some commentaries do this well, without losing sight of the forest. But sometimes the end product is more about the debates and options than it is about the argument of the text.

Other commentaries are written primarily for ordinary churchgoers, with a heavy focus on practical application. Such “devotional” commentaries will vary in quality: Some may lead the reader to interpret the text as though it were written directly to him or her, while others do a better job interpreting the text through the eyes of the original audience first.

Regardless of whether you benefit more from a technical or devotional commentary, the question I ask of any commentary is: Does it help me to understand the biblical author’s overall argument? If I can work through 10, 20, or 50 pages of comments without getting a clear grasp on where we’ve come from and where we’re going, I have found myself a commentary I am unlikely to finish.

So remember the third commandment, which is about your responsibility to study the Scripture and not merely adopt whatever interpretations you happen to read in a commentary. So if you read a commentary for the purpose of helping you to study the Bible, success ought to be measured by how well that commentary stimulates you to look back at the text and not necessarily by how clear or cogent its conclusions are. Are these things really so (Acts 17:11)?

Speculating on the Role of Speculation

Now we come to the corollary commandment quoted above. Commentators sometimes wander into the realm of speculation, since that’s why publishers pay them the big bucks. People buy a commentary because they want answers, so commentators may face pressure to provide answers even when the text on which they comment does not. Who wrote the book of Kings? Who was the audience of Mark? Who, precisely, were the spirits in prison to whom Jesus preached in 1 Peter 3:19? What is the identity of “the restrainer” holding back the man of lawlessness (2 Thess 2:6-7)? Why does Death ride a pale (or green) horse (Rev 6:8)? What was Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor 12:7)?

I am not saying that such questions have no answers. And I am not saying that commentators ought not to seek to answer such questions. But sometimes such questions, and many more, can take up so much time and space that we utterly fail to follow the text’s argument. For example, go ahead and try to identify the man of lawlessness or the thing restraining him, if you can do so from the text. But by all means, do not allow this inquiry to distract you from the text’s chief argument that you ought not to be alarmed by such things.

If your close friend claimed to know the identity of the restrainer on purely imaginative and speculative grounds, you would likely not buy it. Why would such imagination or speculation be any more persuasive simply because the one hawking it has a PhD or teaches at a seminary? Be a demanding consumer of commentaries. Demand text-driven arguments rooted in careful observation and interpretation. If you don’t get them, it may be time to take your business elsewhere. And if you would like some recommendations, I maintain a list of commentaries that model OIA Bible study here.

Why God’s Word is the Sole Source of Stability for Your Life

May 25, 2022 By Peter Krol

Davis Wetherell reflects on two truths about the Bible from the book of Isaiah. God’s word bear witness to its own authority and usefulness, and these truths ought to give us great hope.

The word of our God will stand forever.
God’s word never returns to him empty.

As Wetherell wishes:

I hope my reflections on these truths will bolster your faith in God’s Word as the sole source of stability for your life.

His meditations on Isaiah 40 and 55 will strengthen and encourage you. Check it out!

Do What You Wish Your Theological Opponents Would Do

May 20, 2022 By Peter Krol

My sixth commandment for commentary usage is:

You shall hold your conclusions (and your theological tradition) loosely enough to allow commentaries to compel you back into the text to discover the biblical author’s intentions for his original audience.

Please understand that I am not opposed to theological traditions. I do not believe it is possible to escape all tradition and construct a perfectly objective theology from scratch. Nor do I think it would be desirable to do so if we could. Theological tradition holds great value as a safeguard and alignment across localities and generations, in defiance of the shifting winds of the world. Theological tradition rooted in faithful handling of the scripture is to be celebrated and encouraged.

As long as we are careful not to replace the scripture in the tug of war with those traditions.

The Problem

The problem is that almost nobody believes they are doing this. Most people with a dearly-held set of theological convictions believe they have derived those convictions from the scripture. Consequently, they believe their theological opponents are the ones who have replaced the scripture with their traditions. And I am not pointing my finger at you, dear reader, but at myself, as I am just as guilty of such presumption toward my detractors as anybody.

I’m sure there are some people in the world who do this—replace the scripture with their tradition—intentionally. It is not to them that I write, for they are outside the pale of biblical Christianity. Anyone who claims to follow the Jesus of the Bible must love and revere the Bible the way he did and not willingly set it aside in favor of manmade religion, however enlightened or modernized that religion may claim to be.

But the chief problem I address is with those inside the pale of biblical Christianity. Those who want to follow Jesus and not their own hearts. Those who honor the Bible as containing the very words of God, to be believed and put into practice. Because too often, in the name of Jesus and the Bible, they willingly impair their vision of Jesus and the Bible with the sunglasses of their theological tradition. And so the tradition becomes primary, and the scripture itself becomes secondary.

An Example

To give only one example, consider the following scriptures:

John 6:44: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
1 Tim 2:3-4: “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

We can tie ourselves in knots trying to reconcile these two verses. But when doing so, many first presume that one of the verses is a universal truth about the character of God, and the other is a particularized truth for a given context. But which one is universal and which one is particular depends on your tradition. Is he an irresistable-drawing God with particular salvation-desires, or is he a salvation-desiring God with particular-drawing behaviors?

But what if we could rest ourselves content in uncovering, in all its fullness, what Paul meant by the second statement in its context, and what Jesus (or more precisely, John recording Jesus) meant by the first statement in its context? Would you be willing to stand on both truths, unfiltered by tradition and unadjusted by preconception? And if your tradition didn’t have a clear place for both truths to coexist, such that one had to be given primacy over the other, would you be willing to allow the scripture to replace that tradition in this matter? Can you hold your tradition loosely enough to allow each text to speak for itself, such that the meaning it would have had for the original audience drives the meaning you assign to it today?

Application to Commentary Usage

I imagine you wish your theological opponents would hold their tradition more loosely, so they could truly observe and receive what the scripture teaches. And I am sure they wish the same for you. This is where commentaries can be a great benefit to us.

Commentaries give you an opportunity to poke and prod your tradition with the insights and observations of others who are not as beholden to that tradition. Insofar as a commentator’s commitment is to proclaim a particular tradition, the value of his commentary may be reduced for those outside his tradition. But insofar as a commentator’s commitment is to proclaim and parade the text in all its glory, the value of his commentary is increased for those of any theological tradition.

Find those commentaries, and let them inflame your delight in the word of God. Then you can set the commentaries back down and gaze anew on the living and abiding word of God with sharper sight.

Were the Gospels Intended to be Read as Literal History?

May 18, 2022 By Peter Krol

What genre are the four Gospels of the Bible? Did the authors intend readers to take them as historical fact? Scholars of religion often answer in the negative, but Timothy Paul Jones explains one reason why the answer is yes.

One reason why I’m convinced that the Gospel authors didn’t intend to write fiction is because the most crucial claims that the authors of the Gospels made about Jesus also appear in another literary genre, the genre of epistle. Much of the New Testament is made up of epistles—letters sent to particular communities to be read publicly and then circulated widely. Many of these epistles were penned prior to the New Testament Gospels. Most important for our purposes, virtually every essential claim about Jesus that appears in the Gospels also shows up in these letters, despite the fact that these epistles were composed for people who already knew about Jesus.

Jones then elaborates on five specific claims from the Gospels that are backed up in New Testament epistles. It is well worth your time.

Check it out!

Which Voice Delights You Most?

May 13, 2022 By Peter Krol

My fifth commandment for commentary usage is:

You shall not spend more time reading commentaries than reading and listening to the Bible.

If you’ve been tracking my advice thus far, you know I’m not opposed to commentaries; I find them an essential part of one’s study routine. And last week I encouraged you to read more commentaries. So with this commandment, I’m not suggesting you spend less time with commentaries but only that you spend more time with the Scripture itself. Unmediated. Unfiltered, except perhaps through translation to your native tongue.

In short, this commandment urges you to give priority to the voice of your Chief Shepherd over that of his under-shepherds. If you fail to cultivate that discipline, here are four risks you run.

Risk #1: Misidentifying the Source of Authority

If the majority of your time in “Bible study” is spent reading commentaries, you are unwittingly trusting, and not-so-subtly communicating, that the authority over the church and the Christian life is not the word of God, or the Son of God who spoke it, but its interpreters. Theological tradition is a very good thing … unless it becomes the primary thing. In which case, it obfuscates the best thing.

Risk #2: Becoming a Consumer of Theological Options

When you spend most of your time reading commentaries, you may end up treating theological traditions as a marketplace with you the consumer. You consider and evaluate the options until you find one that suits you best. You may end up persuaded, not by the option most faithful to the text, but by the option most persuasive in rhetoric. Or you pit one option against another, as though there must be an either/or instead of some sort of both/and dynamic.

Risk #3: Misdirecting Your Joy

When most of your time is spent in commentaries, instead of in the Scriptures themselves, you risk finding your joy in the commentaries rather than in the Scriptures. If you are bored or confused by the Bible, to the point where you must read one or more commentaries to find joy in the process of study, you are in danger of wandering from the lover of your soul. His sheep hear his voice; they do not know the voice of strangers.

Risk #4: Limiting Your Intimacy With the Lord

Following from the previous risk, this risk is the consequence of finding greater joy in the voice of someone other than the bridegroom himself. Bible study is not merely an academic or educational enterprise. It is a relational transaction. It is the means by which God’s people hear his voice so they may respond to him in faith and worship. For this reason, it is not a bad thing when Bible study is hard. It forces us to wrestle with our creator, to delve the depths of his wisdom, to know him through his promises, warnings, and encouragements. Do you believe that, in the Scripture, you hear the very voice of God? Don’t deny yourself this opportunity to develop your relationship with him.

Risk #5: Failing to Learn How To Study God’s Word for Yourself

A few years ago, I shared a post about a man who had learned to study commentaries but not the Bible. If you spend more time in commentaries than in the Bible, you run the risk of learning how to be told what to think. You may not understand where your conclusions came from, or how they are driven by the text. In a counseling session, or a firefight with false teaching, you’ll have nothing to shoot but nerf darts, while unlimited rounds of sniper ammunition remain boxed up in a storage closet. This brings us full circle back to the first risk, for you may be able to quote many commentators at whatever problem you face. But you will have missed the true authority to bring about truth or change.

Conclusion

I don’t mean to be pedantic. I’m not saying you should time yourself to ensure that the precise number of minutes and seconds spent reading commentaries must be exceeded by time with the plain Scripture. I am aiming at your motivations and intentions. Your joy and delight. Your relationship with the Lord. If setting a timer will help you to diagnose the distance or dryness you’ve felt in your Bible study, so be it. But in the end, I simply want you to be able to say with the psalmist: “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me” (Ps 119:97-98).

If such raw delight has been hard for you to come by, perhaps you could try to lose yourself for an entire afternoon simply enjoying the glorious drama of God’s word. Here is a place you could start.

The Problem With “Just Me and My Bible”

May 11, 2022 By Peter Krol

I appreciate Ryan Griffith’s reflections on how Bible study must be “Not Just Me and My Bible.” Though the Reformation gave us the slogan sola scriptura (Scripture alone), we must avoid twisting it into solo scriptura (only the Bible).

There is profound danger in being disconnected from Christian tradition. Prosperity preaching, bizarre personality cults, rigorous legalism, and freewheeling libertinism are all poisons passed along to unsuspecting Christians in part because of biblical preparation that has abandoned the wisdom of the ancients.
What is more, such false teaching is sometimes justified by teachers who claim to be “Bible-only” people. They assert the validity of their interpretation by wrongly arguing that the Bible is the Christian’s only theological resource and that anyone who counters with an argument from church history has forgotten what the Reformation stood for. Whether from malice or ignorance, they can twist the Scriptures to a wrong end — a pattern of brokenness that has its root in the first garden. Unfortunately, sometimes we eat what they serve because we, too, have lost sight of the biblical value of knowing Scripture together.

While well intentioned, this rejection of tradition or help from the outside ends up causing shipwreck. Remember, we need community to apply the Bible.

Check it out!

The First Commentator to Plead His Case

May 6, 2022 By Peter Krol

My fourth commandment for commentary usage is:

You shall not read only one commentary, but shall invite a plurality of voices into the conversation.

Is this because I think you have no limits on your time, or that you must become a professional researcher in order to study the Bible? No, it is simply because our Bible study is part of a conversation that has been going on for thousands of years. We were created to live and learn in community, and therefore, having a single influence on your study is counterproductive to your study.

Let me give two reasons.

The First to Plead His Case Seems Right, Until…

Consider Proverbs 18:17:

The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.

Unless you are among the most naturally skeptical of learners, if you read only one commentary on a passage, you will be inclined to presume the commentator you read is right. Especially if that commentator engages with other commentators and points out all the places where they are wrong. It is simply part of being a creature with limited knowledge that “the one who states his case first seems right.”

Nobody chooses to write a commentary—or gets a contract to write a commentary—because they believe they have all the wrong ideas about their subject matter. No, they write it because they believe they are right, and that they have something to add to the historic conversation that ought to be considered by others! So they are going to write with as much clarity and confidence as they can muster regarding their interpretive conclusions.

But if you read at least two commentaries, it will help you to recognize that there could be a variety of perspectives out there. And each of them could be argued cogently. And each of them is worth considering and discussing. In the process, it will help you to demystify the priesthood of experts that is so easy to presume.

Demystifying the Presumed Priesthood of Experts

I am deeply grateful for those God has raised up in the church, who are experts in various topics. I’ve been in churches that had medical and legal experts, who counseled church members or leaders on particular medical or legal matters. I’ve been in churches with construction experts, who can take care of building and property maintenance and improvement with tremendous skill. My church sent an agricultural expert overseas to assist the preaching of the gospel with strong agricultural education in a third world country.

So I have no philosophical concern with the existence or use of experts. However, sometimes we can get ourselves stuck in a presumption that the experts are always right. In our Bible study, that means we confer upon Bible experts a mystical status of priestly knowledge unavailable to the masses. If the expert says something, it must be true. And reading only one commentary may reinforce that presumption, since what you read will most likely sound credible and persuasive (see Prov 18:17 again).

But there is a reason medical patients are often encouraged to get a second opinion. There is a reason businesses often have not a single lawyer but a legal team. There is a reason a corporation or government launching a major project invites multiple bids from a plurality of contractors. And there is a reason why nearly any group of experts in the same field will find many matters within their field about which to violently disagree (just peruse a scholastic journal from any field to witness a wealth of in-house debate). That reason is the self-evident fact that a variety of experts will have a variety of perspectives which lead them to a variety of conclusions and suggest a variety of methods or applications.

We ought to take this thinking with us into our personal Bible study and commentary reading. A second opinion is usually more valuable than the first opinion, regardless of which opinion you end up agreeing with. Either you will be rescued from hastily jumping on the first commentator’s train, or you will find even greater confidence and grounds for sticking with that first one. And the variety of strengths and weaknesses of the various commentators will result in your final conclusions being wiser, more nuanced, and more robust.

Test Everything

In conclusion, this sort of sifting, evaluating, and refusing to believe the first opinion (automatically), is what the Apostle Paul wants the Thessalonian churches to do.

Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. (1 Thess 5:20-22)

There is a sense in which commentaries are one form of New Testament prophecy, in that they proclaim the word of God. We ought to test them, every one. Hang on to whatever is good, helpful, and true in them. Reject whatever is false, misleading, or evil in them.

But you’ll limit your ability to do that unless you consult a second, third, or fourth opinion on a matter. And, as commentator Tremper Longman III says: “Sometimes the reader will be right and the commentaries will be wrong.”

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