Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible
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!
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?
Rishmawy 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!
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.
Mark Driscoll recently posted 7 principles for interpreting the Bible.
For more explanation, check it out!
Meetings 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!
I’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:
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!
Over 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.
Question: What other ingredients have you found to build influence in your leadership of others?
This interview with John Piper speaks of reaching illiterate people groups and connects with my series on teaching Bible study to young children. “Expository preaching” is a method of teaching the Bible that focuses on a particular passage and explains whatever topics it addresses (in contrast to “topical preaching,” which focuses on a particular topic and explains whatever texts address it). This interview first appeared on the Desiring God website.
I asked Ajith Fernando that one time, because somebody was criticizing something that I had said about the importance of expository preaching. They had said, “You’re so Western, Piper. You don’t have a clue that millions and millions of people can’t read their Bible or don’t have any access to the Bible, so what good is expository preaching?”
So I asked Ajith. He serves in Sri Lanka and goes into villages of every level of literacy and preaches—or he used to, anyway. I said, “Do you think I need to back off on the importance of expository preaching?”
He said, “No, I don’t.”
And he described how they did it: “We go in, and I have a book—the Bible. And another person, my translator, has the book. And I read from the book, and he translates. And they all know there is a book here. There’s a book. They see that this man is submitting to a book—God’s book.”
So he reads out loud, it gets translated; and he explains, and it gets translated.
RIBI Image (2009), Creative Commons
Now bring that back to the situation in this question. You want to study the Bible with simpler folks, maybe, young children or those who are older and haven’t had the chance to do any extensive education. Or maybe they’re seriously dyslexic and just don’t read.
In that case, I would say that you lean far more heavily on oral material. You speak more. You help them to memorize things and to study, through the conversation that you’re having.
But I wouldn’t ever want to imply that you put the Bible aside. “Because this is a book and they don’t read, therefore we don’t use this.” No way! You open this and you become the mediator. You can read, they can’t read. And you read to them and provide whatever translation and help you can between the book and their hearts and their minds.
Earlier this year, I ran a series of posts analyzing the New Testament’s use of the Old Testament. I listed which Old Testament books and chapters and verses were quoted most often. I listed which New Testament books did the most quoting. I drew these lists from my own exhaustive collection of New Testament quotations of the Old Testament.
Much more analysis could be done, so I’m happy to give you my raw data. This data might help you study overarching principles of interpretation. Or it might help you to see if the Old Testament book you’re studying is quoted anywhere in the New Testament. Perhaps you’ll find even more uses for it.
In both my posts and on the spreadsheet, I’ve tried to be clear about my assumptions and approach. May this data prove useful in your study of God’s Knowable Word.
I’ve created a new Resources page, with this spreadsheet as the first item. Check it out!
What other resources would you find helpful for your Bible study?
Yesterday, I quoted at length from the sermon Paul Browne preached at my wedding. It was the best wedding sermon I’ve ever heard, and not just because it was my own wedding. Being in college ministry, I get invited to a lot of weddings (we consider it an occupational hazard).
If you’d like to hear a great sermon about having great sex because we have a great savior, this is it.
I wish the quality were better, but it was originally recorded on audio cassette. Here’s a link to download the file.
Happy Anniversary, Erin! (We just celebrated 9 years.)
