Method | Knowable Word

The Most Difficult Kind of Bible Application

September 1, 2023 By Peter Krol

Of the three spheres of application, I believe the most difficult one for most people is the heart sphere. For that reason, my series of posts on leading small groups has one specifically on how to encourage heart-oriented application. Most people tend to find head and hands application more natural.

Why do you think that is?

medical stethoscope with red paper heart on white surface — Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Unless they have an extraordinary aversion to theological debate, most people have no resistance to head application. What we must believe about God, the world, ourselves, sin, and redemption—these things are glorious truths, and clarity on such things from the Scripture is precious.

And as I wrote last week, we tend to have such an affinity for “doing” (hands application) that the concept of application itself is often reduced to little more than what we do in light of the Bible’s teachings. The challenge is to help folks understand that application involves more than doing.

But when it comes to heart application—what we love, value and cherish; what sort of people we are to become—those who don’t balk at such personal intrusion can sometimes feel like ignorant babes.

How do we do it? How do we not simply guilt people into obedience, but motivate and inspire them to want to obey God? How do we become the sort of people who turn away from sin not only because it’s our duty but also because we are personally repulsed by the idea of committing it? How do we find in Christ a greater and more secure treasure than anything we can see, smell, taste, or touch here and now?

The thing is: Heart application requires a grasp of both human nature and the Lord’s process for rebooting that nature in Christ. That takes hard work. If you want your Bible application to be quick and dirty, the sphere of the heart will nearly always become a neglected stepchild.

Hebrews 4:14-16 provides an interesting study in the spheres of application:

“Let us hold fast our confession” – that’s head application.
“Let us draw near to the throne of grace” – that’s hands application.
“…with confidence…” – there’s the heart of the matter.

Does the confession of Christ as great high priest lead you not only to approach the Lord, but to do so as a person with full confidence in his mercy and grace? Is your first instinct to turn to the Lord in prayer when you need help?

Is heart application difficult for you? If so, why do you think that is?

More Than Doing

August 25, 2023 By Peter Krol

How do you know when you’ve successfully applied the Bible to your life?

Of course, obedience is a life-long practice, which we’ll never be finished with. But when you are studying a passage of Scripture, how do you know when you have arrived at appropriate application? At what point can you say you’ve done enough study? You now know what you must go and do, and you’re ready to go and do it.

I think it depends on your definition of “doing.”

The Definition of “Doing”

In my experience leading Bible studies, one of the most common conceptions I find people have is that application = doing. As in, until you have something concrete and particular to add to your schedule or task list, you haven’t yet done application. And if a teacher doesn’t give you specific actions for your schedule or task list, that teacher hasn’t yet helped you with application.

So I find it crucial to remind people that application involves more than doing. Yes, the Bible often calls us to do something. But sometimes it calls us believe something. And sometimes it calls us to love or value something. All such calls could be properly labeled “application.”

To put it another way, application is not only about the hands but also about the head and the heart. All three spheres can be considered legitimate ways to apply the Scripture. One of them (hands) involves doing. But that’s not the only thing application involves.

Examples

We cannot improve on the sorts of applications the apostles themselves sought from their readers.

Of course, the apostles sometimes proposed hands (doing) applications:

Outdo one another in showing honor … contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Romans 12:10-13

Yet sometimes, the primary application they’re after is head application:

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
1 Cor 3:16-18

And yet other times, they go for the heart. They want Christians to become people of character who receive and rest upon Jesus Christ and nothing else.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John 20:30-31

Have At It

Of course, doing is one of the spheres, so I would never encourage you not to get applications on your schedule or task list.

But if a particular text lends itself more to believing or loving, have at it. Don’t feel guilty. Don’t conclude that you haven’t yet “applied” the Scripture.

We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.
1 Thess 1:2-5

No Need to Push; Just Blow

August 18, 2023 By Peter Krol

The climax of interpretation is to determine the author’s main point. And while there’s rarely a single, “correct” way to word the main point, some ways of phrasing it are more helpful than others.

Arrive at the Cliff’s Edge

As the climax of interpretation, the main point is the final rest stop before entering the territory of application. Your statement of the author’s main point represents the sum total of all your work to that point. The main point answers your most important why questions. And your main point ought to be 40-weeks-and-two-days pregnant with the answers to your most important so what questions.

As you craft your statement of the author’s main point, avoid the temptation to include everything the passage says. Your goal is not to include every thing but only to capture the main thing.

And the way you capture that main thing matters. Think of observation and interpretation as a high plateau covered in a dense forest. You’ve examined the trees, but you’ve grasped the way they fit together into that forest.

But at the edge of that forest is a cliff, dropping off into a vast canyon. That canyon represents application. And the closer your main point gets to that cliff’s edge, the better it is—both for yourself and those you lead in Bible study. Aim to get close enough to the cliff’s edge that you won’t need to push yourself or others too hard to get into application. All you have to do is blow, and you’ll all fall right into it.

In other words, your main point is the Roadrunner. Your goal in crafting a main point is to get that Wile E. Coyote (be he yourself or those you lead) out of the forest and up to the edge of the cliff. Even better, get him six feet out beyond the cliff’s edge. Once he realizes he’s there, all he needs to do is fall.

What This Looks Like

Your main point should be a clear, concise, and compelling statement of the truth of the text. You don’t want it to be obscure, such that nobody knows what it means. You don’t want it to be lengthy, such that nobody can hold it in mind. You don’t want it to be dry and dusty, such that nobody knows what to do with it.

You’re not inventing the idea; you’re only phrasing it in a compelling way. So your main point should clearly capture the truth of the text while also clearly implying a variety of applications.

For example, I could state the main point of Eph 4:1-16 as follows: “As a church, we must walk in the sort of unity worthy of God’s calling on us in Christ.” That would be true and accurate, scoring bonus points for using the very language of the passage. However, I can take the same truth and rephrase it in a more compelling way, getting myself and my people right up over the canyon of application: “Diversity shouldn’t divide the church.” Once I put it that way, I raise all kinds of questions about our church and what sorts of things we permit to divide us.

Let’s take Proverbs 30:1-6 for another example. I could state the main point as: “God’s Son and his Word communicate his truth and wisdom to us, providing refuge to the weary.” Or I could state it as: “You can find heaven’s wisdom on earth.” If we had more time to discuss it, I’m sure we could improve it even further.

One more example, from a narrative: 1 Kings 21. We could phrase the main point as: “God’s people were expelled like Amorites because their kings abused power and refused justice like Amorites.” That statement captures what this narrative gets at, especially regarding how it would have landed with the original audience. But perhaps another way to phrase the same truth for a modern audience (even if that “audience” is only myself) is: “Sellouts will be found out.”

No Need to Push; Just Blow

In each case, do you see how my rephrasing of the main point hangs us out right over the canyon of application? I won’t need to push myself or others into application. All I have to do is show how deep the canyon goes. And we’ll fall right in.

Each rephrased main point raises immediate questions about our current situation, need, or status. It begs us to ask more implicational questions. And it drives us toward proper belief, values, or action in service to Christ.

Next time you work on a passage, give yourself some time to think long and hard about the main point. Not only what it is but how to phrase it. See how far you can get yourself off the cliff of interpretation and out over the canyon of application. Of course, without actually turning the main point into any particular application. This takes quite a bit of thought, but the effort is extraordinarily rewarding. Your future self—entrusted with the business of applying this text to life—will thank you.

The Whole is Not Less Than the Sum of the Parts

August 11, 2023 By Peter Krol

I agree with the conventional wisdom that the whole of something is greater than the sum of the parts. But that yields a crucial implication we might easily overlook: the whole must then not be less than the sum of the parts.

In other words, the “whole” and the “parts” are not independent categories, with no relationship to one another. If we focus on the parts with no grasp of the whole, we’re on the wrong track. And at the same time, if our understanding of the whole has nothing to do with the parts, we’re likewise not where we wanna be.

What does this have to do with Bible study?

closed brown wooden door — Photo by Xain Sheikh on Pexels.com

The Main Point is the “Whole”

Perhaps the most important step in the Bible study process is to determine the author’s main point. Without grasping that, we’re swimming in a sea of detail, subject to being blown in uncertain directions. For example, by failing to grasp the main point, Jehovah’s Witnesses can use the Scripture to “prove” that Jesus is not God, and evangelicals can use the Scripture to claim that Christ’s strengthening is for athletic or business performance.

Observations are the “Parts”

The parts of the passage are the things we notice first. The things we must take note of when we open the text and examine it. We can observe repeated words, logical connectors, names and titles, subjects and main verbs, genre, mood, and structure. There are many, many details to observe in a passage. So many, that we may never exhaust them in a given study.

Whole Greater Than Parts

The purpose of observation (noticing what it says) is to eventually move into competent interpretation (figuring out why it says it). The peak of interpretation is figuring out the author’s main point. Until we get to that main point, we have not yet grasped the text’s own message. We might discern some truth in the text, but we haven’t grasped the truth of the text.

Therefore, the author’s main point is more important than any particular observation or group of observations. This is why our connection to Christ works best from the main point and not incidental details. This is also why our application will be strongest when it flows from the main point and not from incidental details.

The whole (main point) is greater than the sum of the parts (any particular observations).

Whole Not Less Than Parts

However, we must remember that the main point is not something of our own invention. The main point is not something altogether different from the detailed observations. Every detail is there on purpose. The author chose to include some details and exclude others in order to communicate his main idea. So my concept of the main point must be related in some way to any and every detail in the text.

The following maxim helps me to “check my work” on the main point:

If the main point really is the main point, you should be able to make any observation and I must explain how it contributes to that main point.

What I mean is that if my conception of the main point is truly the author’s main point, then I must be able to explain any (perhaps every) detail in light of its role in communicating that main point. So I can put my main point out there for testing by inviting others to push back with concrete observations of the text. “If you think that’s the main point, then how do you explain…?”

This is quite a fun discussion to have in small group Bible studies. Once the group has come up with a provisional main point, invite group members to assault that main point with observations. Together, they can test and evaluate the strength of the proposed main point.

An Example

For example, I proposed a few weeks ago that the main point of Ephesians 4 is that diversity shouldn’t divide the church, but when it does, stop thinking about it the way Gentiles do. Someone may come along and ask: “If that’s the case, then why does he quote Psalm 68 in Eph 4:8? And what’s with all the talk about Jesus ascending and descending in Eph 4:9-10?”

And I’d respond: “That’s a great question!” And then I’d explain:

The quote of Psalm 68 (and its explanation in the next two verses) is there to provide reason or motivation for the main thesis of Eph 4:1-3, that Christians should express their calling by living in unity.
The first reason given to motivate obedience is the one-one-oneness of Eph 4:4-6, perhaps highlighting the unity of the diverse Trinity (Spirit … Lord … Father).
The second reason given to motivate obedience is the gracious gifts of Christ to his church. Jesus came down and went up (like the Ark of the Covenant in Psalm 68) to “fill all things,” so that all things would be united in him (larger thesis from Eph 1:10). He now brings diverse people together by giving them the spoils of his victory: their church leaders past (apostles, prophets) and present (evangelists, shepherds and teachers). Those leader-gifts now equip the people for works of service to build one another up in love.

So the quote of Psalm 68 supports the main point by providing a crucial piece of evidence from the Old Testament that exposes the need for the Messiah to give gifts that will serve the end of church unity.

Try This at Home

When you study a passage and come up with a proposed statement of the author’s main point, test your work by prodding it with a few random observations. Can you explain how the parts fit together to create that whole? Because though the whole is greater than the parts, it certainly is not any less than the parts. The whole must bud organically from the parts.

Why Summaries are Not the Same as Main Points

August 4, 2023 By Peter Krol

I want you to understand that you can get the main point of a Bible passage you’re studying. That’s why, in addition to providing some techniques, I’ve given you a number of examples from different text types in the Bible.

Before we move into application, there’s one last thing you should know about main points: They are not the same as summaries.

one black chess piece separated from red pawn chess pieces — Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

Definitions

An accurate summary may be the climax of observation, but a main point is the climax of interpretation. A summary states what the passage says; a main point states what the passage means. A summary describes what happens; a main point captures the text’s essential argument.

A summary of Prov 31:10-31 might be “a description of a virtuous woman,” but the main point is to show what sort of woman is worthy of praise.

A summary of Luke 18:1-30 might be “parables and conversations about prayer, righteousness, and the kingdom of God,” but the main point is that the kingdom of God comes when people humble themselves, receive it as children, and leave some things to gain everything.

A summary of Ephesians 4 might be “unity in the body of Christ, and the new life,” but the main point is that diversity shouldn’t divide the church; but when it does, stop thinking about it the way Gentiles do

Uses

Why does this distinction matter?

Sometimes folks who study the Bible mistake the main point for a summary. They put in the work of analyzing a text and they can outline its contents. But it’s dangerous to then take those contents and attempt to apply them, because they have little rational basis for applying them in one way and not another.

A summary is most helpful when you need to find something or remember where it’s located in the Scriptures. (“There’s a great parable about two men who prayed to God from a desire to be righteous before him. Let’s take a look at Luke 18 to see how that worked out for them.”) But a main point is crucial when it comes time to provoke change unto Christlikeness.

We’re on shaky ground if we apply only select details of a text to our lives. It’s shaky because it’s possible to go in nearly any direction with application. Using only the details enables us to steer the ship of our own lives on a heading most pleasing to us.

But the best way to express submission to the Scripture and the Holy Spirit who inspired them is to grasp the author’s main point. Then there’s nowhere to hide and we must give account to the one who exposes our every thought, word, and deed.

That’s right: A clear grasp of the author’s main point is the best way to ensure your application is clear, direct, and organically arising from the text and not from your own invention.

An Example

For example, Genesis 1 clearly teaches about the creation of the world. There’s your summary of the chapter: The creation of the world. But until we can explain—from the text!—why this chapter narrates the creation of the world in the way it does, we have not yet grappled with the author’s agenda. His message. His main point.

So if all we come away with is “the creation of the world,” then we can apply the text in all sorts of ways. We can expect folks to line up with a particular view of how the creation took place. We can promote it as something to be taught in schools. We can debate the findings or usefulness of scientific theories based on their relationship to the details of Genesis 1.

Please note: I am not saying that any of those applications are necessarily bad things to do. I would argue only that they are somewhat ancillary to the author’s main message. Therefore, we’re in danger of putting most of our attention on things other than the thing the Lord wanted us to get from this text. And the Lord Jesus tends not to look favorably on those who ignore the “weightier matters” of his word in favor of secondary matters, however true those secondary matters might be.

In my book Knowable Word, I argue that the main point of Genesis 1 is that God’s creative work sets a pattern for human dominion of the earth—a pattern of illuminating, shaping, and filling. Every detail in the text moves the reader in this direction. I would argue that God certainly did the creation the way he describes it in this chapter; this is neither theological poetry nor historical fiction. However, the mechanics of the act of creation are not the main thing; the main thing is the pattern set for humanity.

Once we recognize the author’s intent to establish a divine pattern for human dominion—for the way life on earth was designed to work best—we’re ready to develop robust application for any community, anywhere in the world. We’ll understand how this pattern becomes the template for evaluating what happens to humanity in the rest of Genesis, and the rest of the Bible. And we’ll take greater delight in the Lord Jesus who lived out the pattern on behalf of his people and now transforms them to follow him in it.

Better Than a Wild Guess: Poetry

July 28, 2023 By Peter Krol

I’ve argued that you can get the main point; you’re not reduced to making a wild guess every time you study a passage. A few key skills will be most helpful:

Observing the structure
Asking and answering interpretive questions
Tracking the flow of thought

Last week I gave some examples of how this works from narrative and discourse texts. Now let me show you some brief examples of poetic texts.

Proverbs 2

This chapter of Proverbs functions almost like a discourse, with tight logical reasoning.

If you listen and search for God’s wisdom – Prov 2:1-4
Then you will find it – Prov 2:5
For God loves to give it out – Prov 2:6-10
It will guard you – Prov 2:11
- From the way of evil men – Prov 2:12-15
- From the forbidden woman – Prov 2:16-19
- For the way of the good – Prov 2:20-22

The thesis clearly comes in the first five verses. The rest of the poem supports that thesis with a variety of reasons and consequences.

The main point: The Lord delights to grant a delivering wisdom to those who listen and search for it.

Proverbs 31:10-31

It’s easy to get lost in the details of this famous poem. However, my colleague Tom Hallman, who recently preached the most helpful sermon I’ve ever heard on this text, demonstrated beautifully how the structure and train of thought communicate the poem’s main point.

You can find Tom’s extended outline (color-coded!) in this Google Doc. The outer frame of the poem (Prov 31:10-12, 27-29) sets up a large chiasm—a structure where the second half mirrors the first half in reverse order. But instead of continuing a single, long chiasm, he embeds two shorter chiasms in the middle.

The main ideas of each of those embedded chiasms are brought together in the poem’s conclusion (Prov 31:30-31).

The repeated idea that keeps coming up is how this woman is to be praised. And the woman in view is not a young woman, a potential marriage partner. She is an older woman, having lived a life of wisdom. This poem is not a checklist for a potential spouse but a lifetime achievement award for a woman of wisdom.

Check out the linked doc for details. The structure and train of thought demonstrate that the poem’s main idea is to show what sort of woman is worthy of praise.

Try This at Home

I admit that the Prov 31 example gets a little complex. And Tom told me he didn’t see all this himself. He noticed a few things, and then tracked down and assimilated the helpful insights of others. It took him some time to sharpen his observation and interpretive questions and answers.

But I hope all of these examples give you some hope that this can be done. You don’t have to make a wild guess at the main point. Keep observing. Keep asking and answering questions. Nail down the structure as best you can, and figure out how the author moves from the beginning to the end. Where does he draw conclusions or highlight particular ideas?

Please know that I am not offering these main points as definitive or unquestionable. These main points are only the best I can do with my current understanding of those texts. But they are open to debate or sharpening.

Some of my favorite small group discussions take place when others challenge what I thought was the main point. When folks do that well, through careful observation and interpretation of the text, we all win.

As you improve in these skills, you’ll gain both facility and confidence at identifying the main points the Spirit of God wishes to communicate through the Scripture.

Better Than a Wild Guess

July 21, 2023 By Peter Krol

I’ve argued that you can get the main point; you’re not reduced to making a wild guess every time you study a passage. A few key skills will be most helpful:

Observing the structure
Asking and answering interpretive questions
Tracking the flow of thought

Let me show you some brief examples of how this works.

Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash

Luke 18:1-30

This passage consists of four brief scenes:

A parable: God’s elect ought to never stop praying for justice against adversaries – Luke 18:1-8
A parable: Everyone who exalts self will be humbled; those who humble self will be exalted – Luke 18:9-14
A conversation: Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it – Luke 18:15-17
A conversation: Whoever leaves some things for the kingdom of God will gain everything – Luke 18:18-30

According to context and flow of thought, this passage sits within the section of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, where Jesus is answering the question: When will the kingdom of God come (Luke 17:20)? So the parable about praying (Luke 18:18) is not about just any prayer, but about the prayer for the kingdom to come, and with it to bring justice for God’s people (Luke 18:5, 7, 8). It’s all about the timing of the kingdom: “Will he delay long over them?” (Luke 18:7).

The following three scenes then flesh out the answer to a crucial question. Even if the kingdom were to come, would the Son of Man find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8). That answer comes in three pieces. The kingdom of God comes when people:

humble themselves,
receive it as children, and
leave some things to gain everything

That’s what true faith looks like.

So what is the main point being communicated through this structure and train of thought? The kingdom of God comes when people humble themselves, receive it as children, and leave some things to gain everything.

Ephesians 4

The chapter has two units of thought, each beginning with a command to “walk” (Eph 4:1, 17).

The first section issues a call to unity (Eph 4:1-3) along with two reasons why diversity shouldn’t divide the church:

Eph 4:4-6: The unity of the diverse Trinity
Eph 4:7-16: The gracious gifts of the ascended Christ

The second section explains what to do when diversity does end up threatening unity (17-24) with a series of four case studies (25-32) that demonstrate the exact process laid out in 22-24.

Eph 4: 17-24: Don’t be like the Gentiles, but put off the old humanity, renew your mind, and put on the new humanity
Case studies that demonstrate all three steps:
- Eph 4:25: Lies
- Eph 4:26-27: Sinful anger
- Eph 4:28: Theft
- Eph 4:29: Rotten speech
- Eph 4:30-32: Concluding summary

The main point: Diversity shouldn’t divide the church, but when it does, stop thinking about it the way Gentiles do.

Ephesians 5

The “therefore” in Eph 5:1 signals the conclusion to the previous chapter, which becomes the thesis for the following chapter. The repetition of “walk,” along with shifts in metaphor then signal the supporting arguments.

Eph 5:1: Thesis: We ought to imitate God. We do that by:
- Eph 5:2-6: Walking in love
- Eph 5:7-14: Walking in light
- Eph 5:15-21: Walking in wisdom
  - Eph 5:18: One aspect of wisdom is being filled with the Spirit.
    - Eph 5:21: One aspect of being filled with the Spirit is submission to authority.
      - Eph 5:22-6:9: Three case studies in such submission.

According to the logic and grammatical signals, Paul continues drilling his argument down to a finer and finer point. But as we study (or teach) what he says about marriage, parenting, or slavery, we ought not miss the fact that these are all, ultimately, examples of how to walk in wisdom in imitation of God.

The main point: We imitate God by rooting our lives in his love, his light, and his wisdom.

Conclusion

Next week, I’ll give a few more examples from poetic texts.

You Can Get the Main Point

July 14, 2023 By Peter Krol

Have you ever felt like, when asked to state the main point of a Bible passage, all you can do is make a wild guess? Or that the best you can do is pick out something that strikes you as important and label that the main point?

The good news is that you can get the main point. You can search it out and identify it with confidence. You can learn to defend your statement of the main point with evidence from the text. You don’t have to just guess.

What the Main Point is

The main point is the climax of interpretation. This is what all your efforts of observing and interpreting culminate in.

Usually, the main point is a declarative statement, a conclusion. That’s because the author is trying to persuade his audience of something; the main point is that thing.

It’s possible that the main point could be a question or a command; though I’d want abundantly clear and explicit evidence in the text before accepting a question or command as the main point. If someone poses a question as the main point, I suspect the true main point is actually the answer to the question. If someone hands me a command, I suspect that command is the author’s intended application, and we need to do a little more digging to understand what conclusion he’s arguing for in order to produce that application.

Exceptions to statement-main points often arise from particular genres or intentions. For example, I believe that the heartbreaking poem in the fifth chapter of Lamentations is really a question for which the poet has no answer: Why does God forget us? Will he remain exceedingly angry with us? And since the psalms are often recounting the human experience—rather than teaching some particular truth—my mains points for many psalms often look like topics rather than declarative conclusions. For example: The prayer offered in faith (or, three descriptions of impudent prayer)—Psalm 17. Five solutions to overcoming envy—Psalm 37.

I’ve also heard people say that the main point must be a declarative statement about God, but I don’t fully agree. Yes, the entire Bible is the revelation of God in Christ, so we will learn something about God, and especially the person of Jesus Christ, on every page. But if a particular passage is focused on humanity, or creation, or sin, or something else—I’m most interested in following the author’s lead and not requiring his point to center a particular object (i.e. God).

How to Get the Main Point

My posts over the last few months have all been directed at helping you with this skill. All Observation and Interpretation skills matter, but some skills get more significant results than others. So really work those key skills! Especially:

Observing the structure
Asking and answering interpretive questions
Tracking the flow of thought

If you nail these skills, the main point often presents itself in vibrant color. But if you struggle with observing the structure, asking and answering interpretive questions, and tracking the flow of thought, then getting the main point will always feel like staring at a Magic Eye painting. You know: the 2D images, that pop out into 3D if you cross your eyes.

In a future post, I’ll give some examples to show how these particular skills often carry much weight in helping us to identify the author’s main point.

Don’t Fail to Capture the Train of Thought

July 7, 2023 By Peter Krol

One of our greatest failures in Bible study is our tendency to treat the text atomistically.

We look for inspirational words or sayings, while failing to grasp how the author used those words or sayings to persuade his audience of a message. We love to grade the behaviors of Bible characters. We distract ourselves with endless word studies. We fail to grasp the context.

For example, we treat Daniel and post-conversion Paul as “good” and Jacob and Samson as “bad.” We think of “Immanuel” as little more than a prediction of Messiah. We apply “don’t be anxious about anything, but … make your requests known to God” as a generic encouragement for the Christian life.

But how much changes when we form a habit of boarding a passage’s train of thought!

The Train’s Value

When you observe well, and you ask and answer good interpretive questions, you are going somewhere. These skills are not merely academic exercises. They have an end goal: to determine the author’s main point.

And the way you pull together all of your observation and interpretive work is by capturing the author’s train of thought in the text.

If we fail to capture the train of thought, it will be very difficult either to get to the main point, or to have much confidence that what we’ve got is in fact the main point. We’re left with only guessing, or landing on whichever atom in the text excites us the most.

So please understand: the value of the train of thought lies in its power to surface the author’s main point. When we have captured that train of thought, we are well on our way to mastering the text. Which, frankly, is primarily a matter of clearing out the rocks and weeds so it can master us.

The Train’s Capture

By “train of thought,” all I mean is: How does the author get from the beginning of the passage to the end of the passage? How does he shape his message in such a way as to bring his readers along with him, to persuade them?

We can capture this train only after we’ve gotten lots of good answers (from the text!) to our interpretive questions. We then investigate those answers with further questions. We circle around and around, back and forth between observation and interpretation, like a cyclone—all funneling into the author’s single main point.

As we follow this process, we start to see the shape of the author’s argument. The author wanted to persuade his audience of something, and our task is determine what that was so it can shape our hearts and lives as well.

Because the train of thought has to do with the text’s shape, in your notes it will typically look like an outline. But it’s not simply an outline of the contents. It’s not a list of what the passage says. It is a list of conclusions—or sometimes a list of commands—that capture what the passage means.

The train of thought can be an outline as simple as this, for Ephesians 2:1-10:

You were one thing – 1-3
But God has made you another – 4-6
So that his grace would be evident to all – 7-10

Here are three more quick examples I’ve given from other texts. And here are two examples drawn from narrative texts. See our interpretive book overviews for examples of what it looks like to follow the train of thought over entire books of the Bible.

In your Bible study, please do not fail to capture the train of thought.

What We Miss When We Skip the Book of Nehemiah

July 3, 2023 By Ryan Higginbottom

Along with Ezra and Esther, the book of Nehemiah is tucked between larger historical books of the Bible and Job. It lacks the big, sweeping themes of something like 1 Samuel or the memorable figures of Joshua and Judges. Like Ezra, it contains a lot of lists (see chapters 3, 7, 10, 11, and 12); additionally, through one lens it can be viewed as a book about a construction project, which isn’t the most compelling topic! There are many reasons Christians might not read or study this book.

But if you skip this book, you’ll miss a lot!

Instruction in Prayer

The book of Nehemiah offers loads for us about prayer, beginning with the example of Nehemiah as one who prays—frequently!

When Nehemiah heard about the sorry state of Jerusalem, he wept and prayed (Neh 1:4–11). There is also a famous prayer of confession in Nehemiah 9:6–38. In addition to these extended prayers recorded for us in Scripture, we read of smaller, shorter prayers of Nehemiah (Neh 2:4; 4:4-5; 4:9; 5:19; 6:9; 6:14; 13:14; 13:22; 13:29; 13:31). We don’t always know the words of these prayers, but what we do know is that Nehemiah consulted often with the Lord.

We can also learn from the content of Nehemiah’s prayers. Specifically, Nehemiah asks God to do what he promised. When Nehemiah is praying for favor with the king, he cites God’s commands and promises to Moses as the basis for God to answer (Neh 1:8–9). Also, during the corporate confession of sin, Nehemiah reflects on God’s covenant dealings with his people (Neh 9:32–37). It is on this basis that Nehemiah tells God, “we are in great distress” (Neh 9:37).

Finally, the longer prayers in chapters 1 and 9 show Nehemiah offering corporate confession of sin. In our highly individualistic world, this explicit understanding of God’s people as a collective is a good correction.

Instruction About God’s Word

Nehemiah uses the Scriptures frequently as a source of rebuke and recalibration. I’ve already written a whole article about the truths of God’s word in Nehemiah chapter 8, but that’s not the only place in this book we could turn for such instruction.

The confession in chapter 9 follows the prolonged public reading of the law in Nehemiah 9:3. When the people pledge themselves in covenant with God in chapter 10, they promise “to walk in God’s Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes” (Neh 10:29). Finally, when reforms were needed in chapters 12 and 13, the people looked to God’s law for the standards they were to keep (Neh 12:44, Neh 13:3).

As this new worshipping community was being established, it was crucial to have God’s word at the center. The same, of course, is true for modern Christians.

Instruction About Money

There is explicit teaching about the use and misuse of money in Nehemiah chapter 5. There was a famine in the region (Neh 5:3), so times were difficult. The nobles and officials were charging interest to their Jewish brothers, and as a result some sons and daughters had been taken as slaves to pay off debt. Nehemiah rebuked those who would profit off of their countrymen and cause additional financial hardship (Neh 5:6–13).

We see more of Nehemiah’s approach to money in the same chapter. Nehemiah had not been taking the food allowance from the governor to which he was entitled, in contrast to previous governors (Neh 5:14–15). Instead, Nehemiah provided food for 150 people at his table (Neh 5:17–18). In all of this, Nehemiah was conscious of not laying too heavy a burden on the people (Neh 5:18).

Conclusion

The book of Nehemiah reminds us how central Jerusalem was to the people of Israel. This was the city of the temple, where God had promised to dwell with his people. So the rebuilding of the city walls and gates after their destruction by Babylon is more than just a boring construction project. This work was crucial to the ongoing identity of Israel as the worshipping people of God.

In addition to learning about God’s provision in the face of opposition, Nehemiah teaches us about prayer, Scripture, and money. This book is more than worthy of our attention.

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