Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

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My Christmas Gift to You

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Glory to the newborn King! Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!

Alan Cleaver (2007), Creative Commons

Alan Cleaver (2007), Creative Commons

In honor of the incarnate King, born to bring the gift of life to the world, I have some special treats for you.

I’ve updated the blog’s Resources page with worksheets for observation, interpretation, and application that you are free to download and distribute for use in Bible study.

In addition, my colleague Dan Miller created a beautiful infographic about OIA Bible study, which summarizes the entire method on a single page.

Check it out! And have a Merry Christmas.

The Knowable Word is Not an Easy Word

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Knowable Word LogoWhen a few friends and I started this blog, we did so under the assumption that ordinary people can learn to study the Bible. God’s word is knowable, and you don’t have to be a superstar PhD theologian to learn to study it.

I retain that conviction as firmly as ever, though Trevin Wax recently wrote of a helpful qualification to this conviction.

“Stress the simplicity of the Bible,” he writes, “and the people you are hoping will read the Bible next year may begin to wonder if they’re just too dumb to understand it. I wonder if, in our efforts to get people reading Scripture, we might be minimizing the tough parts.”

I trust that in writing of how ordinary people can learn to study the Bible, I don’t unintentionally communicate that the Bible is easy. “There are some things in [Paul’s letters] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16, ESV). To avoid this danger, we must be taught and stabilized.

That doesn’t mean we should rely on the experts to tell us what to think. It simply means the hard work is all worth it.

I highly recommend the rest of Wax’s article.

Check it out!

Your Method Shapes Your Bible Study

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Recently, Aaron Armstrong at Blogging Theologically posted a short series about Bible study entitled “Getting Serious About Your Studies.” He focuses not so much on principles as tools, and you may find his recommendations helpful.

He concludes the series by reflecting on the crucial importance of our approach to the Bible. The results of our study are not arbitrary; our choices for how to read the Bible will affect what we end up seeing in the Bible.

Whether we realize it or not, we do this every time we pick up our Bible—and the rules and principles we hold to drastically affect what we believe the Bible says. For example:

  • Whether you believe pastoral ministry is for men only or is open to women as well stems from the interpretive decisions you make.
  • How you approach the “God-hates-yet-loves-sinners” paradox is heavily influenced by your hermeneutical approach.
  • How you understand the world to have come into being and how this world will end is drastically affected by the principles you use for interpreting the text.

It’s a good warning to give careful though to our methods.

Check it out!

Give Thanks for God’s Word

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Turn to me and be gracious to me,
as is your way with those who love your name.
Keep steady my steps according to your promise,
and let no iniquity get dominion over me.
Redeem me from man’s oppression,
that I may keep your precepts.
Make your face shine upon your servant,
and teach me your statutes.
My eyes shed streams of tears,
because people do not keep your law. (Psalm 119:132-136, ESV)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Can the Bible be Inerrant When There are So Many Interpretations?

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Derek Rishmawy, writing at the Gospel Coalition, reflects on this issue.

I recently ran across a couple of different writers raising questions about the value of affirming inerrancy or infallibility for the Bible, both of which hinged on the link between the text and interpretation. One wondered aloud at the coherence of claiming an infallible text when you’re a finite sinner, whose faculties are limited, likely disordered by sin and self-will, and whose interpretations must therefore be flawed. The other, a little more boldly, claimed the doctrine unnecessary, only serving human arrogance by lending added weight to the claimant’s own fallible pronouncements.

Have you ever heard these two objections to the Bible’s inerrancy?

  1. Fallible people aren’t qualified to judge the Bible to be infallible.
  2. Only arrogant, condescending people would claim that their holy book is without error.

Knowable Word LogoRishmawy very helpfully distinguishes between inerrancy/infallibility of the interpreter and that of the text itself. In other words, fallen people don’t necessarily make the book erroneous. This distinction is critical as we learn to study the Bible. We submit to the text; we don’t use it to have our own way.

Rishmawy surprised me with his closing discussion of submission to the text. He demonstrates that those who believe in the text’s inerrancy are most likely to wrestle with it and submit to it. If we believe it’s full of errors, we can minimize or disregard whatever doesn’t sit well with us. I rarely see discussions of the Bible’s inerrancy get this personal.

Check it out!

Come Out of Your Shame

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Shame’s nature is to deceive and humiliate. It’s not something we normally like to speak of.

Sure, we’ll break the ice at a party with a round of “what’s your most embarrassing moment?” But everyone knows such things aren’t truly the most embarrassing things. We labor to hide the truly shameful things in our lives. I might speak flippantly of the time I broke a photocopier by displaying one of my least presentable body parts. But I find much more shame in my fear of being unmasculine or in the exposure of my secret hookup life.

Sometimes our shame arises from things we’ve done. Sometimes it arises from things done to us. Sometimes it arises from the work of God in us. All three sources of shame cause us to erect impenetrable fortresses to protect ourselves.

But Jesus receives the shamed. He redeems the shamed. Then he releases the unashamed to change the world. He brings our shame to the light, and he remakes us into something beautiful that reflects his saving glory. He experienced our shame on the cross, and he rose to give us new unashamed life.

Last weekend, I had the privilege of speaking to our students on the topic of shame alongside two of my heroes. From the narratives of John’s Gospel, we showed Jesus addressing the shame of sinners and transforming it by his mercy.

First, Mark Fodale spoke of how “Jesus Receives the Shamed” through the interaction with the adulterous woman in John 8. Here’s a clip:

Then I spoke of how “Jesus Redeems the Shamed” through the healing of the man born blind in John 9. Here’s a clip:

Finally, Dave Kieffer spoke of how “Jesus Releases the Unashamed” through the restoration of Peter in John 21. Here’s a clip:

You can find the full recordings of all three sessions, along with breakout sessions, on the DiscipleMakers website.

7 Principles from Driscoll

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Knowable Word LogoMark Driscoll recently posted 7 principles for interpreting the Bible.

  1. Listen for the truth
  2. Understand the context
  3. Let Scripture interpret Scripture
  4. Read from the text, not into it
  5. Trust the clarity of Scripture
  6. Recognize literal and figurative language
  7. Handle interpretation disagreements wisely

For more explanation, check it out!

Bible Study is Less Common than Bible Study Study

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Knowable Word LogoMeetings for Bible study may be at an all-time high (just my hunch), but how many of them are studying the Bible? From my observation, groups are more likely to study a Bible study than study the Bible.

In other words, groups of people with open Bibles are out. Groups of people with open study guides are in.

I’m not the only one to notice this trend. Dave Miller, writing at SBC Voices, asks an insightful question in his recent post entitled “Whatever Happened to Bible Study“:

Could there be value to a teacher sharing the fruit of his own studies of God’s Word as compared to just being a “facilitator” for a discussion of opinions about the third chapter of the latest John Piper book?

Miller doesn’t mind benefitting from the help of Piper (or David Platt or Beth Moore). Instead, he laments the habit of bouncing from one study guide to the next without learning to study the Scripture directly. He relates this counsel from his mentor Howard Hendricks:

Read the text, observe it – before you check other peoples’ opinions and insights. Let the Spirit be your first teacher. After you have studied, after you have labored over the text and figured it out, then you consult the wisdom of the wise (often to see where you went astray).

For further reflection on these points, see my posts on Four Mistakes When Using Commentaries and What Materials Do You Use.

And I recommend Miller’s post at SBC Voices. Check it out!

The Bible Study Podcast

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Knowable Word LogoI’m listening to lots of podcasts these days. Through the iOS Podcasts app, they’re easy to find, download, and play. I can set up certain podcasts to download new episodes automatically at certain times and notify me when they’re available.

The app also allows me to play podcasts at 2x speed, so it takes only half the time to complete each episode. My wife thinks I’m nuts to listen to people talking at twice their normal speed, but it’s not so bad once you get used to the rhythm of their voices.

I use podcast audio to fill some “dead space” in my life: driving, brushing my teeth, doing yard work, etc. This gives me fun and important things to think about so my mind doesn’t wander in aimless circles during these typically unthoughtful times.

I’ve tried a number of podcasts about Bible study, and only one has held my interest thus far: The Bible Study Podcast by Chris Christensen. You can subscribe to it from iTunes.

Christensen’s episodes are:

  • short and to the point
  • focused on the text of Scripture
  • sequential through books of the Bible (usually)
  • faithful to a basic understanding of the Scripture’s authority and the influence it should have on our lives

I don’t agree with Christensen on everything he says; he comes from a very different denominational tradition than I do. But I always respect his approach and his commitment to the text. Because he comes from outside my usual circles, his studies stimulate my thinking more than “insider” studies might.

I haven’t heard every podcast about Bible study yet, but many of them remind me of dusty sermons that might not be focused on the text and which might not have anything substantial to say to the current generation. The Bible Study Podcast is not one of them.

If you like podcasts, check it out!

You Can Lead with Influence

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Gospel CoalitionOver the last few months, I’ve written about how Proverbs helps us to gain not only a godly perspective on our own lives but also the influence required to lead others. Last week, The Gospel Coalition published a guest post I wrote on the topic of influence.

Paul’s recipe for influence was simple. It had two primary ingredients: hope and humility.

Paul divulges these not-so-secret keys to influential ministry in chapters 2 and 3 of 1 Thessalonians.

Humility means caring more about others than about yourself. It means being honest about your need for grace. It means refusing to trample others on the way to your own success or personal fulfillment….

Hope means believing God is at work through Christ, so anything can change for the better. It means approaching others’ sin with patience rather than anger and refusing to complain about everything that’s wrong with the world, instead thanking God for what’s still right. It means being honest about difficult things while remaining confident God will use them for good.

For a more detailed look at humility and hope, see the Proverbs series on this site. For a more condensed look at Paul’s employment of these traits in 1 Thessalonians, see the Gospel Coalition post.

Check it out!

Question: What other ingredients have you found to build influence in your leadership of others?