By Peter Krol
Michael Kelley describes three aspects to wisdom’s nature found in the opening verses of Proverbs:
As he explains: “Wisdom is about reality. It’s about real-life decision-making in real-life situations. And that is, indeed, a powerful thing.”
By Peter Krol
Michael Bird offer 12 tips to help you read the Bible better. They’re quite good.
His piece comes chock full of specific resource recommendations to help you put the principle into practice. Though I might have slightly different recommendations here and there, his counsel is well worth your time.
By Peter Krol
Kenneth Berding describes a sort of Bible study that is not too difficult to find.
Last week we learned that the Philistines brought the prisoner Samson into a celebration dedicated to their god Dagon so that he could “entertain” them. Lindsay, would you mind reading our passage for this week, Judges 16:28-30?”
“Yes, I’d be glad to.” [Reads the text]
“Thank you for reading, Lindsay. Alright, let’s discuss this passage together. How do you think this passage applies to your life?”
“Well, this passage really spoke to me while Lindsay was reading it.”
Berding’s parable describes an application discussion that completely bypasses observation and interpretation. Then he goes to show how it could be managed far more usefully.
By Peter Krol
The Logos blog recently published a long form article from Daniel Yoon about “How to Do an Inductive Bible Study: 7 Steps.” I might quibble with the label “inductive” along with a few other minor things, but it’s overall a good explanation of OIA Bible study. He breaks the process into 7 steps, and explains how Bible software can help.
His steps are:
I like to remind folks that it doesn’t matter exactly what we call the process, or whether someone breaks down the steps a little differently than I would. The crucial thing is that our approaches have the same substance. And Yoon does a great job providing a different, yet substantively similar framework for fruitful Bible study.
And he wisely warns folks away from becoming commentary junkies.
By Peter Krol
Paul commands Timothy to devote himself to the public reading of Scripture (1 Tim 4:13). But was that just something unique to Timothy? Why do churches generally make a practice of reading Scripture when the assembly is gathered for worship?
Steve Burchett runs through the entire Bible, showing that public Scripture reading has always been the practice of God’s people. From Moses to Paul, one of the main things the people of God ought to do when they gather is to read God’s Word.
…throughout biblical history, God was very interested in his people hearing his word read when they came together. They often did this, sometimes for very lengthy readings. When we read the Bible in our gatherings, we are doing what God’s people have always been expected to do, and have consistently done.
By Peter Krol
I’ve argued before, from the context, that 1 Cor 6:19 is not a catch-all prohibition against anything and everything a person can do to their body (tattoos, alcohol, smoking, etc.). Nicholas Piotrowski and Ryan Johnson take it another step further to clarify what exactly Paul means by “your body.”
They carefully observe the grammar, context, and flow of thought through the entire letter of 1 Corinthians to conclude that “your body” is not, after all, your own body but the larger community (the body of Christ).
The trouble is that the Bible consistently speaks of one temple for the one God. So if each Christian’s individual body were a temple in and of itself, then that would mean God has millions of isolated temples all over the world. There is a bit of a theological problem with this.
I need to consider this further myself, especially since the “body” appears to refer to an individual’s physical in 1 Cor 6:18, the immediately preceding sentence. But perhaps my familiarity is clouding my observation of that verse as well!
Piotrowski and Johnson give four very good reasons for reading the verse in a corporate way, and I encourage you to give their reasons your own consideration.
By Peter Krol
I’ve been leading my church’s preaching team through series on Jonah and Nahum over the last few months. I’m really enjoying the Lord’s messages for us in the minor prophets.
And I once considered Zechariah to be the most difficult book of the Bible to grasp. Perhaps it is, but Steven McCarthy is here to help.
McCarthy broadly walks through the book’s structure, explaining the main idea of each of the visions before covering the oracles of the book’s second half. Here is a taster:
Zechariah, along with his counterpart Haggai, speaks from this period of return from exile in Babylon and rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. (Ezra 5:1-2) He does so with a broad scope and a heavily symbolic style. Whereas Haggai’s burden is laser-focused on the specific priority of rebuilding God’s temple, Zechariah’s burden is more generally for the people to be spiritually and morally disposed for God’s renewal and fulfillment of his covenant relationship with them. Indeed, God’s grace trains us “to renounce ungodliness”. (Titus 2:11-14) The book of Zechariah leads us to the conclusion that only Christ’s coming itself will make God’s people into a fitting community for the LORD’s dwelling.
My only hesitation is that McCarthy is quick to suggest that the second half of Zechariah is “about” Jesus and his work. Certainly, the New Testament shows the fulfillment of Zechariah in the work of Christ. But I would prefer to first clarify what the text meant to the original audience (who did not know who Jesus was), and only then talk about the fulfillment in Christ.
But despite this minor qualification, McCarthy’s brief comments are well worth your time. He will enable you to get your bearings in this important book.
By Peter Krol
The climax of the interpretation phase of Bible study is to determine the author’s main point. I have observed that skill to be one of the most difficult things for people to learn.
So here is some additional advice from John Piper. He describes his general process, using the metaphor of a 500-piece puzzle, and then he models it with the example of Psalm 8.
So, the point is to look at the pieces very carefully, to fit them together in midsize units, to jot down the main points of the midsize units until you have them all on a half sheet of paper, and then to think and think, and pray and pray, and think and pray and think and pray, and to organize and draw lines, and to try to fit them all together until they fall into place and you see how these five, six, seven, eight, nine points of the midsize units are in a flow that make one big overarching point. You will be surprised, if you take up pencil and paper and do this, what you will see.
By Peter Krol
Michael Kruger has a fabulous article explaining why recent attempt to ditch or diminish the Old Testament in the teaching of the Christian church are wrong-headed.
Kruger explains:
I think it’s worth taking a deep breath and stepping back for a moment to remind ourselves of the big picture. Regardless of how one handles these individual objections from the OT (and I am not trying to answer them here), we need to remember why the OT matters in the first place. Here are three reasons why the OT might actually matter a lot more than we think.
His three reasons are:
In short: Without the Old Testament, you cannot understand who Jesus is, what he has done, or what he wants you to do to follow him.
By Peter Krol
Summarizing the first chapter of Mark Thompson’s The Doctrine of Scripture, Doug Eaton explains 10 things Jesus believed about the Bible.
Eaton concludes:
Jesus’ identity is bound up in the Word of God. He is the Word made flesh. The trustworthiness of the Bible is inextricably tied to the trustworthiness of Jesus. If the Word of God is not trustworthy, neither is Jesus, and if Jesus is not trustworthy, neither are the Scriptures. To follow Jesus, we must obey his word; they cannot be separated.
