Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

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How to Know if You’re a Christian

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Last week, Kevin DeYoung wrote a fabulous post explaining 3 evidences of true faith given to us in the book of 1 John.

Whenever counseling Christians looking for assurance of salvation, I take them to 1 John. This brief epistle is full of help for determining whether we are in the faith or not. In particular, there are three signs in 1 John given to us so we can answer the question “Do I have confidence or condemnation?”

DeYoung’s article models some important principles of good Bible study:

  • DeYoung shows why it’s important to understand the main point of not only passages but also books. Many people quote verses from 1 John but miss the thrust of John’s argument (“that you may know that you have eternal life” – 1 John 5:13). We ignore this main idea to our peril. We won’t know what to do with John’s extreme statements, such as “you have no need that anyone should teach you” (1 John 2:27) and “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning” (1 John 3:9).
  • DeYoung models the value of a good book overview.
  • DeYoung masterfully shows how the hard work of getting the main point right enables you to make practical, specific, and penetrating application for people today.

I unpacked these same three tests from 1 John when I wrote about evaluating the success of your Bible study. DeYoung writes more briefly and with more personal application to those struggling with assurance.

Check it out!

The Most Popular Bible Verses of 2014

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I know I’m a little late for a year-end round up, but I just came across this fascinating article about the most popular Bible verses of 2014. YouVersion, one of the most popular Bible apps for mobile devices, compiled data from over 164 million users to see which Bible verses were shared most frequently.

They discovered that the most popular verse – measured by the number of bookmarks, highlights, and shares it got – was Romans 12:2. This is good; people want to be transformed by renewing their minds according to God’s will.

Philippians 4:6, 4:7, and 4:8 all made the top 10. I wonder how many of the 164 million users have recognized the train of thought running through Philippians 4:2-9. Later this month, I may have an article on another website on that very topic. Stay tuned.

I find it interesting that the most popular verses of 2014 are almost completely different from the prior year’s list. Either we simply have clearer data with a larger sample size, or people are reading and profiting from different parts of Scripture over time. You decide.

A Simple Question We Rarely Ask

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Donald Whitney reminds us to ask this most basic question as often as possible: “What does the Bible say?”

Nothing will simplify our lives more than finding the will of God on a matter and doing it. And the best way to discover the will of God is to search the Word of God.

This habit will change everything.

Whitney’s short post is worth considering in full. Check it out!

How is God Like Dessert?

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Last week, Desiring God published a revised version of an article I wrote as part of the “Big Bible Words” series on this site. In the article, I explain the concept of glory in plain language.

Glory is value, beauty, importance, weight, or rank. It’s possible to praise something without truly glorifying it, such as the public official who smiles with his wife for the cameras but reserves fondest and truest affection for his nameless mistress. And it’s possible to glorify the wrong things — things unworthy of supreme value. But it’s not possible to fake glory. We can’t truly assign value to things we don’t value.

This revised article has more explanation and application than the article here on KW. You may want to check it out!

 

Bruised Reeds and our Inclination to Presume

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Sometimes we don’t observe well because we’re too familiar with a passage. Then we presume the meaning of a text and stifle ongoing curiosity. In the end, things stay the same, and inertia prevents vibrant application.

Sure, we can see the problem in others. Jehovah’s Witnesses miss the point of John 1:1. Theological liberals miss the mark on John 14:6. Many presume upon Romans 1:26-27 and mistakenly consider it irrelevant to the contemporary same-sex marriage movement.

But can we see the problem in ourselves? We, who claim to love God’s knowable word and who work to study it and submit to it? The deadening progression from familiarity to presumption to inertia is subtle enough that we usually can’t see it, even when we’re aware of the danger.

That’s why I decided to tackle one of evangelicalism’s most hallowed mottos: “Jesus didn’t break a bruised reed.”

The metaphor seems self-evident. “Bruised reeds are people who are broken and needy, people worn out and tired and exhausted with life’s circumstances, people neglected by the world, but accepted by Jesus.” We casually toss the phrase out like a trump-suit ace impervious to counter-play. No need to explain; just assert: “Jesus never broke a bruised reed.”

But have you considered why the reed doesn’t get broken? Look at the text carefully, and you might find you’ve become a little too familiar with this biblical phrase and perhaps have missed a profound point. In fact, hastily assuming the “what” may have obscured your insight into the “why.”

My point is not that we shouldn’t have compassion on needy people (of course we should). My point is that this biblical phrase means something other than what we’ve come to presume.

Check out the full article at Desiring God.

Bible Study Isn’t Just for Yourself

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Jonathan Parnell’s beautiful piece reminds us that we don’t read the Bible for ourselves alone. We read and study for our children, for the watching world, and for future generations.

The goal of Christian maturity is not merely that I might get along better in life, but that I might, being glad in the glory of Jesus, love more like Jesus did. The aim behind Bible-reading, after all, is not some kind of black-hole holiness — that theoretical moralism that envisions character in isolation from others — but rather, that we might learn how to roll up our sleeves for the people God has placed in our lives. In other words, we don’t just read the Bible to read, we read it to walk.

Check it out!

Making Use of the Sermon to Teach Bible Study to Kids

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Parents, you have a weekly opportunity to train your children to study the Bible. It’s taken me some time to realize it. Perhaps this nudge will help you take advantage of it as well.

Erik Raymond writes about “Helping Children Benefit from the Sermon.” He offers tips for both parents and pastors. Parents, have you considered:

  • Reading the sermon text before church?
  • Asking the children questions about the text?
  • Praying together for the preacher?
  • Asking and expecting your children to take notes or draw pictures about the sermon?
  • Reviewing the children’s notes after church?
  • Praying together for what God taught you?

Raymond’s ideas challenged and encouraged me. I encourage you to check it out.

John Piper’s Advice for Reading the Bible

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I don’t hesitate to assert that OIA (observe, interpret, apply) is the best method you can use to study the Bible. But in asserting this, I must make clear that it is not the terminology that matters but the substance. Many Bible teachers do excellent OIA Bible study without calling it “OIA Bible study.”

Case in point: John Piper. In this article entitled “How to Read the Bible for Yourself,” he explains his methodology for reading the Bible. And he never uses the words “observe” or “interpret.” He uses “apply” one time.

But he speaks of reading, understanding, noticing, and asking questions. He pushes for life change. And he packages his ideas in a few simple points:

  1. Read for the author’s meaning, not your own
  2. Ask questions to unlock the riches of the Bible
  3. At every page, pray and ask for God’s help

I commend Piper’s summary to you as another angle on how to study the Bible. Check it out!

 

A Simple Guide to Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament

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Kevin Halloran offers a simple guide to seeing Jesus in the Old Testament. He offers two simple steps and three helpful questions to guide us.

Two steps:

  1. Study the passage in its original context.
  2. Look for connections and work to understand it in its broader context.

Three questions:

  1. Does the New Testament say anything about this topic or passage?
  2. How does this passage connect with a main theme that points me toward Christ?
  3. How does this passage aid my understanding of Christ and what he has done?

This short article is well worth your time. Check it out!

Making Sense of Deuteronomy

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Deuteronomy is a difficult book. It’s old. It’s long. It’s full of super-specific laws that don’t exactly fit our historical situation. For example:

You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you. (Deut 23:12-14)

How do you lead a Bible study on that? What must God think about my infant daughter’s intestinal blowout in the middle of church a few weeks ago?

At Reformation 21, Bruce Baugus’s excellent article will help you get your bearings in Deuteronomy. A few key points help those of us in the 21st century to understand why this book would have been so foundational and exciting for ancient Hebrews:

  1. Moses structured Deuteronomy just like an ancient treaty. This book ratified the covenant treaty between God and Israel before Moses departed and handed things off to the next generation.
  2. Ancient treaties always contained a section for the terms of the covenant (what was expected of each party to this treaty).
  3. The long section of laws in Deut 4-26 describes those terms in painstaking detail. It begins with the summary: the Ten Commandments. Then it proceeds to explain what each of those commandments should look like in the lives of the people.
  4. We’ll best understand the specific case laws if we see them as commentary on the Ten Commandments, in the very order of the Ten Commandments.

Baugus then takes up the particular question of where exactly the commentary on the 9th commandment begins and ends, which is a fine question to ask. But I think the best value of the article is in the overview of the larger framework.

With these tools in hand, you’re ready to tackle Deuteronomy.

Check it out!