Knowable Word - Bible study help

Bible Study Isn’t Just for Yourself

April 15, 2015 By Peter Krol

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!

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Teach Bible Study to an 8-Year-Old

April 10, 2015 By Peter Krol

Last week, I asked my class what God had taught them so far this year through our study of Romans. Here’s what I got:

I’ve learned that I can’t please God by keeping the law, doing good deeds, or through church rituals.

I learned that Abraham was justified by faith.

Everyone is sinful and needs righteousness from Jesus.

I learned what circumcision means.

No joke. These four remarks came from a group of 3rd-to-5th grade boys in our local AWANA club class. My friend Jeff and I have had the honor of teaching these boys since the beginning of September. The AWANA program focuses on Scripture memory, and our 30-minute teaching time gave us the opportunity to develop the boys with the skills not only to memorize verses but also to read and study larger passages.

When I asked them what they’ve learned so far, I honestly had low expectations about what they’d say—and shame on me. Their answers delightfully shocked me and showed me evidence of God’s powerful work through his word.

And here’s what I’ve learned in the process.

1. Read the Bible

These kids can handle more than we brilliant adults usually think they can handle. So Jeff and I decided not to use a specialized curriculum to drive our class. We’d simply read the book of Romans and talk about it with the kids. We started at Romans 1:1. We’d read a verse, ask some questions, read the next verse, and continue week after week. It’s tempting to think these children need pre-packaged guidance from experts who have never met them. But we wanted them to get used to hearing the voice of their God who knitted them in the womb.

On the first week of class, I told the boys we’d have a special visitor with us every week. “He’s an old, old teacher. His voice breaks the oak trees in Park Forest, and he moves Mount Nittany out of his way to get here. He will speak to us in this very classroom. You can’t see him, but a silly thing like that won’t stop us from hearing him.”

Wide-eyed, they took a minute to figure out who this teacher would be. But once they realized it, they were ready to hear him. From time to time, I could quiet rowdy chatter by asking one of them to read the next verse to the class. I’d then project my voice and say, “Quiet! God is about to speak to you through [reader’s name]. You’ll want to hear this.”

2. Know the main point

Classes went well when we came prepared with a clear main point to focus on. And by “main point,” I mean the main point of the passage and not the main point of whatever we decided the children needed to hear that day. The lessons that stuck (see the first three quotes above) were the ones where they could see the main point right from the text. It made those lessons clear and memorable, and it gave the boys something to return to every time they read Romans from here on out.

3. Observe the structure

The structure of the passage gives them a summary of key lessons. The children struggled in classes when we didn’t have a clear structure, because a long verse-by-verse stream of consciousness wouldn’t hold their attention. But when we could show them, paragraph by paragraph, what Paul was saying—breaking down the argument into simple chunks—they were much more engaged.

4. Make them observe the text

The children loved to answer questions. And they loved to shout out whatever answers came to mind. But we refused to accept any answer that didn’t have a verse number attached to it. Week after week, we had to remind them that the answer to every question was right in the passage we had just read. Now that the year’s almost over, they’ve gotten it. Most questions produce a corporate nose-dive effect, where most heads in the room bow down to examine the text.

5. Define terms

We didn’t use children’s Bibles or work books. We wanted to give each child the confidence to open, read, and understand his own Bible. Most of them had the NIV, so that’s the version we taught from.

This means we had to deal with “atonement,” “righteousness,” “justification,” “Gentiles,” “reconciliation,” and “circumcision.” We had great fun on the day we dealt with that last term, which is why it showed up in quote #4 above. Though some boys won’t stop giggling at the term, most have learned from it how earthy and relevant the Bible is.

6. Illustrate everything

I need to work on this one more. Our application time had some rough spots. But one highlight came when we discussed Romans 6:15-18, and we talked about the start of soccer season. Sin is like your coach from last year. Jesus is like your new coach this year. Choosing to sin is like scoring goals on your own net just because the opposing team is led by the coach you played for last year.

We didn’t complete the book of Romans, as I had expected. We’d cover 2-3 verses per week at first, but now we’re up to 10-15. I hope we can cook through chapter 7 in these next few classes and land on Romans 8:1 in the last week. But it was worth it to adjust my expectations to give the boys time to really get it.

And we haven’t discussed OIA principles at all; we’ve merely practiced them every week. Our intention has been to inspire them with confidence to read and study the Bible on their own. We can give them helpful terminology for the process another time.

It’s great fun to see them learning to study the Bible. Next year, Jeff and I might get to teach the girls’ class, and we’ll have to reconsider how to handle “circumcision” then… Suggestions are welcome.

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Making Use of the Sermon to Teach Bible Study to Kids

April 8, 2015 By Peter Krol

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.

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When Bible Study Meets Real Life

April 6, 2015 By Ryan Higginbottom

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ve observed that we advocate for a specific method of personal Bible study. (We call it the OIA method—Observe, Interpret, Apply—though it goes by other names elsewhere.) You may have interpreted our repetition to mean we think you should adopt this practice. At this point, I hope the application is clear.

Nick (2008), Creative Commons License

But bringing OIA Bible study into your life might sound difficult, especially if you haven’t done much personal Bible study before. This approach to God’s Word is deliberate and thorough, so studying a portion of Scripture will take time, especially if the passage is lengthy.

But who has extra time?

Your schedule is already full. Your calendar might resemble an old wineskin containing new wine, set to burst (Matt 9:17). How can you find time for personal Bible study if this method demands so much time?

Bible Intake

Instead of an exclusive focus on Bible study, I suggest you think in terms of Bible intake. With this term I include all the ways we interact with the Bible: reading, studying, memorizing, meditating, and hearing the Bible preached. The lines between these activities can be fuzzy, since starting with one practice might overlap with or lead into another. But all of these categories are important.

Think of Bible intake like the food you eat. The U.S. government urges a balanced diet consisting of foods from five groups, and your Bible intake should also be varied. Your bones might weaken if you ignore dairy, and you may show a spiritual deficiency if you neglect (for example) Bible memorization.

So you should be studying the Bible, because that’s part of a healthy diet of Bible intake. But this doesn’t mean you need to break out the OIA worksheets during every devotional opportunity. Some mornings you could read longer passages of Scripture and meditate on specific truths or promises. Other times you might work on Bible memorization.

What Might This Look Like?

Your devotional life will likely be different than mine. My own practices happen with far less frequency and passion than I would like, but I record them here in case they are helpful.

During the two weeks each month when my small group meets, I study the Bible in the morning using the OIA method. I don’t separate my learning from my teaching. I shoot for 30 minutes at a time.
In other weeks, I read other parts of the Bible. I follow along with my pastor’s preaching texts or dive into another section of Scripture.
Whenever I have devotions, I spend 10 minutes on Bible memorization. I cycle through a review of the chapters I’ve memorized and work on new verses at the end.

Make some time to think seriously about your own devotional practices. What are your priorities? Have you been ignoring any aspect of Bible intake? It’s one thing to read a blog about Bible study, but it’s far more important to make appointments in your life to meet with, learn from, and worship God in his Word.

Strive for Bible intake as often as possible. Make sure not to neglect Bible study. When you study the Bible, I suggest using the OIA method.

Three Final Pieces of Advice

First, remember that there is no Scriptural command to read through the Bible every year. I’m not against reading great quantities of the Bible (or doing so quickly), but I’ve found this goal tends to dominate many Christians’ devotional practices. It produces guilt and crowds out other forms of Bible intake.

Second, our weeks are far more similar to each other than our days are. Establishing weekly devotional rhythms (including devotions-free days) can be more helpful than setting high daily expectations.

Finally, remember the gospel in your devotional life. Consistent devotions do not endear you to God, and inconsistent devotions do not turn the Father away. If you are his child, God’s love for you is full and perfect—he cannot love you any more or less than he does right now. The perfect life and death of Jesus—not any obedience of your own—has secured this for you once and for all.

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How to See Clearly When Looking for Jesus in the Old Testament

April 3, 2015 By Peter Krol

James Demetrie (2010), Creative Commons

When you read the Old Testament, I hope you’re looking for Jesus. Otherwise, you’re in danger of sucking from the fountain without first pushing the button to get the water flowing (John 5:39-40).

But many are afraid of getting it wrong, and for good reason. We see no lack of grumpy scholars waiting eagerly to dispense demerits to the simple, uneducated folk who draw superficial conclusions and chase christological apparitions through the pages of Hebrew Scripture. We outgrew the Alexandrians long ago, and we’re tired of hearing about the blood of Jesus—I mean Rahab’s scarlet cord—every time a newbie gets a hankering to Jesusify his devotional life.

I’ll confess I’ve served my time as one of the grumps. And I’ve been known to chase an apparition or two. Is help available?

Help!

I recently came across a valuable quote about the nature of biblical typology. Before I give you the quote, however, let me define a few terms. Trust me; it’ll be worth it.

Typology is the technical term for what we’re talking about. It’s the process of recognizing specific pictures or shadows of Jesus (or his attributes) in the Old Testament.
Types are the Old Testament pictures or shadows. Something is typical if it serves as a type.
Antitypes are the New Testament realities pictured by the types.
To typify is to purposefully put those pictures or shadows there, intending to communicate a deeper reality of something to come.

Len Matthews (2014), Creative Commons

So, when Paul says “the Rock was Christ” (1 Cor 10:4), he recognizes typology. The rock from which Moses drew water was a type that pictured Christ the antitype who gives living water. Paul suggests that Moses wrote of this typical Rock in order to typify what Jesus would later do.

Now that you have the lingo, you’re ready for the quote:

A type can never be a type independently of its being first a symbol. The gateway to the house of typology is at the farther end of the house of symbolism.

This is the fundamental rule to be observed in ascertaining what elements in the Old Testament are typical, and wherein the things corresponding to them as antitypes consist. Only after having discovered what a thing symbolizes, can we legitimately proceed to put the question what it typifies, for the latter can never be aught else than the former lifted to a higher plane. The bond that holds type and antitype together must be a bond of vital continuity in the progress of redemption. Where this is ignored, and in the place of this bond are put accidental resemblances, void of inherent spiritual significance, all sorts of absurdities will result, such as must bring the whole subject of typology into disrepute. Examples of this are: the scarlet cord of Rahab prefigures the blood of Christ; the four lepers at Samaria, the four Evangelists. (Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology, Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1948, pp. 145-6)

Vos goes on to use the example of the tabernacle in Exodus. The tabernacle clearly symbolized God’s presence among his people, and this symbol was clear to the original audience of Exodus. We can take that symbol (God dwelling with his people) and look to the New Testament for its development and fulfillment. Jesus is the new tabernacle, the Word become flesh who dwells among us (John 1:14). His body is the new temple (John 2:19-22). He is Emmanuel, God with us (Matt 1:22-23). He is with us to the end of the age (Matt 28:20).

And with his Spirit in us, we are also God’s new tabernacle/temple, both individually (1 Cor 6:19) and corporately (Eph 2:21-22, 1 Tim 3:15). So the Old Testament tabernacle is a type of both Christ and his body, and the pathway to recognizing the type is to first recognize the original symbol.

How do we do this?

Vos is on to something here, but I think he overstates it a bit. He goes too far to require a type to first be a symbol in the Old Testament passage. By his definition, Paul would be wrong about the Rock in 1 Cor 10:4 (since it doesn’t clearly symbolize anything in the book of Exodus).

However, Vos uncovers useful boundaries that prevent us from befriending the deep end of typological interpretation.

Consider the history. OT characters really existed, and OT events really happened. Our interpretation of the OT will go wrong if it treats the history as irrelevant.
Consider the original context. Always ask what the OT passage meant to the original audience. If your interpretation takes you to Christ in a manner wholly divorced from the original meaning, you’re out of bounds.
Fight for the main point. When the main point of the OT passage leads you to Christ, many of the details are sure to follow. But when you lead with the details, you might leave the point behind. And when you find Jesus, he’ll send you back where you came from with his trademark “Have you never read…?” (Matt 12:3, 5; 19:4; 21:16, 42; 22:31; Mark 2:25, 12:10, 26; Luke 6:3).

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Don’t Neglect the Lesser-Known Commands of God

April 1, 2015 By Peter Krol

I spend most of my time on this blog focusing on the main points of passages. I’ve said we should fight for them and move our study groups toward them. I’ve even promised to follow this practice on point #2 of this welcome page. But in the interest of balance and completeness, I must take some time this day to highlight some of the lesser-known commands of God.

These commands are no less inspired than the biggies. Of course we should love God and love our neighbor; nobody denies this. But that’s not all God wants us to do! The problem with most churches today is that we’ve lost our commitment to God’s word, and we run afoul of God’s explicit will for our lives. And not only do we practice such things, but we also give hearty approval to those who flout these plain imperatives with a high hand. I’m speaking of all those supposed “Christians,” “pastors,” and “disciples” who ignore the clear and plain sense of commands such as:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Drink, be drunk and vomit, fall and rise no more'” (Jer 25:27).
“Thus says the Lord God: ‘Set on the pot, set it on'” (Ezek 24:3).
“Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom” (Hos 1:2).
“Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression” (Amos 4:4).
“You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so” (1 Kings 22:22).

I mean, who really does these things? I wish I could join a truly faithful church, but I have yet to find one. And we can’t simply claim ignorance of the prophets, either. Jesus was just as clear:

“Leave the dead to bury their own dead” (Luke 9:60).
“Why were you looking for me?” (Luke 2:49).
“Go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up” (Matt 17:27).
“Take nothing for your journey” (Luke 9:3).

The Bible is full of imperatives that couldn’t be any clearer. I’d love to hear what other commands have impacted you over the years, so we can encourage one another to greater faithfulness.

And may this first day of April inspire a new season of fruitful Bible study for those among the chosen remnant. “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah” (Rom 9:29).

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Please Help Me Decide What to Do Next

March 27, 2015 By Peter Krol

Spring sprung a leak in Happy Valley this year, and a snowstorm was our reward. No joke. But by faith, I trust new life is on its way. “All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come” (Job 14:14).

I’m trying to figure out what to blog about next, and I’d like your help. What sorts of posts have you found most helpful? What would you like to see more of? What would help you learn to study the Bible better?

I’ve done longer series on the following topics:

I’ve written some shorter series as well:

I have some more ideas, but I’d like to know what would be most useful to you:

Sample Bible studies through another book of the Bible
Big Bible concepts made simple (tracing major themes through the Scripture)
How to train others to lead Bible studies
How to use commentaries and other resources well
Recommended commentaries that promote OIA (observe, interpret, apply) Bible study

Do any of these ideas resonate with you? Do you have any others? What would you like to see on the blog that would help ordinary people learn to study the Bible?

Feel free to comment below or on the Facebook page. Your ideas may trigger further ideas for others. If you’d prefer to keep your suggestions private, however, please use the contact form.

Thank you for your help!

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John Piper’s Advice for Reading the Bible

March 25, 2015 By Peter Krol

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:

Read for the author’s meaning, not your own
Ask questions to unlock the riches of the Bible
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!

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How to Apply the Bible in Community

March 23, 2015 By Ryan Higginbottom

Perhaps you nodded at the suggestion that Christians should apply the Bible in community. Agreement might fire the engines, but it doesn’t get you off the runway. How can our friendships grow so that Bible application is natural? How can we get this plane in the air?

Cliff Muller (2009), Creative Commons License

When talking about community, many Christians focus on accountability. But Christian friendship doesn’t start (or stop) there. Let me offer four resolutions toward developing helpful, God-glorifying relationships.

Resolve to Spend Time with People

To apply the Bible in community, you must be in community. This goes beyond becoming a member of a good church. You need to know other Christians and you need to be known by others. When Paul writes about the church using the metaphor of a human body (1 Cor 12:12–27), he emphasizes how the parts of the body need each another (1 Cor 12:21–22).

This need is more than a physical or social dependence. We are to bear each other’s burdens (Gal 6:2), forgive one another (Col 3:13), confess our sins to one another (James 5:16), love one another (Rom 12:10), and speak truth to one another (Eph 4:25).

These commands point us well beyond handshakes and saccharine smiles on Sunday mornings. We need to pursue deep, honest friendships with other Christians. Relationships with other sinners—though messy—are worth pursuing because God commands them and they are designed for our benefit.

Resolve to Ask Questions

My treasured friends, the ones who have had the greatest spiritual impact on me, are the ones who excel at asking questions. When they see me caught in a sinful pattern or spiraling downward in my thoughts, they adopt a holy refusal to leave me alone. They ask me questions to help me think through my behaviors, thoughts, and relationships in the light of the gospel. Such questions are uncomfortable, but they help uncover my sin and point me toward Jesus. Don’t you want to be this type of friend? I sure do!

The good news is that we can all become friends like this. Start with a tiny question: why? Why was that disappointing? Why did you enjoy that? Why did you respond to her that way? It seems like you’ve been withdrawing recently; why is that?

Answering why questions can reveal your true hopes, fears, joy, and motivation. Even if you are not a verbal processor, you may get powerful clarity by speaking some thought you’ve been storing in your head. Friends can expose wrong thinking, a bent character, and errant behavior by asking these simple questions.

Why questions are not the only questions to ask, of course. As your relationship grows and you see the your friends’ struggles and tendencies, you’ll learn additional questions. You will notice the parts of their lives they don’t like to discuss. You will see how they respond to disappointment and criticism. Soaked in the gospel, your questions may be just the signpost toward hope that your friends need.

Resolve to Talk About God

I’ve seen too many Christians leave faith as an assumed-but-not-discussed topic between them. We can do better.

As you grow closer to other believers, you should care deeply about their walk with God. Their Christian discipleship is one of the most important qualities about them. So ask!

Here are some helpful questions to ask your friends: What has God been teaching you lately? How have you seen God work in your life over the past month? What are you reading in the Bible? What are you learning? What fruit of the Spirit have you seen God growing in you? How are you different from the person you were a year ago? These questions are like salt in your relationships. Don’t empty the whole shaker at once! But if you sprinkle them into your conversations, your friendships will have a richer flavor.

Though conversations like these might not feel natural at first, press through the awkwardness. You might even take the opportunity to discuss what sort of friends you want to be.

Putting it Together

So talk about the Bible with your friends. Tell them what God has been teaching you and how you’ve been trying to apply it. Ask them the same.

And talk with your friends about your sin and areas of frequent discouragement. Tell them the ways you are struggling to trust God. Ask them the same.

Soon you will find that these discussions overlap. You’ll talk with someone about a passage of the Bible, and later in the month that same person will notice an area of your life that is begging for application of the same text. Applying the Bible in community isn’t one extra step to put at the end of your small group Bible study. It will happen naturally as you develop close, Christian friendships.

Resolve to Pray

Since our sin nature is opposed to these ideas of exposure, humility, and vulnerability, we need to pray! We must ask for God’s provision of good friends and for his help to be a good friend. By his Spirit, he needs to change us into people who embrace the faithful wounds of those who love us (Prov 27:6).

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A Complete Handbook of Literary Forms in the Bible

March 20, 2015 By Peter Krol

As a young missionary and student of the Bible, I once received counsel to check out certain commentaries written by scholars who didn’t believe the Bible to be true. This counselor wasn’t trying to lead me away from the true faith but toward it, because he suggested, “Many liberal scholars are more willing than conservatives to take the Bible at face value. Since they don’t care what the Bible says, they have nothing to lose by being honest about its message.” Having grown tired of endless word studies and thin defenses of dogmatic opinions on every page of some conservative commentaries, I gave it a try.

And I began learning to read the Bible as a work of literature.

(Please note: Not all commenters are created equal. Some unbelieving scholars take offense at the Bible’s message and seek to undermine it at every turn. I’m not writing about them, but about their colleagues who approach the Bible with more indifference than aggression.)

This approach helped me for a time, leading me to learn from brilliant (though spiritually foolish) writers how beautiful and well-written the Scriptures are. I learned how important structure was to ancient authors. I gained a keener eye for devices like characterization, comparison and contrast, inclusio (bookends), and repetition. I realized how important the original audience is to our interpretation. I learned to set aside my preconceptions, since I often had to suspend my disgust for the commentator’s assumptions in order to sharpen my ability to observe the text and delight in the ancient artistry.

Enter Leland Ryken.

Dr. Ryken showed me that I didn’t have to simmer in unbelieving scholarship in order to read the Bible for what it is: literature.

One of my earliest “wow” experiences was being required to read selections from Ryken’s Words of Delight: A Literary Introduction to the Bible for a seminary course. The book was so good, I finished it on my own as soon as the course ended. And I’ve returned to it regularly ever since.

Ryken teaches college-level English and trusts God’s word. I praise God for his service to the kingdom of God in our generation, through his teaching career and long list of published works. And I was delighted when this man I deeply respect was willing to endorse Knowable Word.

Crossway caught my eye when they offered me a copy of Ryken’s recent work, A Complete Handbook of Literary Forms in the Bible, in exchange for an honest review. This handbook appeared to be a useful tool for any student’s library.

And Ryken’s Handbook delivers on a grand scale. Ryken gets literature, and he gets the Bible.

The Handbook lists about 270 different forms Bible passages follow and gives definitions, explanations, and examples for each form. The handbook’s introduction explains why literary form matters: Writers communicate meaning through form. If we ignore form, we often miss the meaning. There is no content in the Bible communicated without a form. And a biblical understanding of inspiration requires us to recognize the inspiration of not only words and content but also the shape those words take.

Ryken explains:

The most obvious lesson that this handbook reveals is that the Bible is much more infused with literary forms and techniques than we realize. In fact, I predict that anyone who browses in this book for ten minutes will be shocked by the extent to which literary forms and techniques are present in the Bible. (Kindle loc. 381)

Dr. Ryken is a prophet indeed. The Handbook will help you understand forms like soliloquy, three-plus-one motifs, parody, insult, irony, hero stories, fantasy, foreshadowing, envelope structure, apostrophe, coming-of-age stories, stories of villainy, and lament psalms, to name but a small percentage of forms.

I would imagine using this reference often, except for one significant flaw that undermines its usefulness to average Bible readers like me. It has no Scripture index. This handbook is useful only to those already familiar with the extensive literary terms. If I’m reading Job 3, and I want to learn more about how soliloquies work, this handbook offers a marvelous explanation. But if I’ve never heard the term soliloquy, the handbook will be of no use to me.

I would give this book 5 stars if it had a Scripture index tying Bible references to the names of literary forms found in them. Without such an index, unfortunately, I can’t see most readers benefitting from this handbook—unless they’re either steeped in the terminology of literature or reading other reference works making use of that terminology.

You can find the Handbook at Amazon.

———————-

Amazon links in this post are affiliate links. If some people care about this blog by reading it, how much more do those care who click the links and thus support the blog at no cost to themselves. That’s an example of an a fortiori literary form, which I learned about from Ryken’s Handbook.

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