Knowable Word - Bible study help

Why Jesus is in the Midst of the Gathered Two or Three

July 20, 2022 By Peter Krol

I’ve written before of the promise of Matthew 18:20 (“For where two or three are gathered…”) in context. Because context matters, and it is abundantly clear that the “two or three” are not the folks who show up to your prayer meeting.

Amy K. Hall recently published a terrific piece making the same point, and I recommend you check it out. Not only because she agrees with me and makes the same point I do. But because she sees something I never noticed about why Jesus promises to be with these two or three folks who represent him. The allusion to 2 Chronicles 19:5-7 is quite remarkable.

Check it out!

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You Don’t Have to Read the Bible Every Day

July 18, 2022 By Ryan Higginbottom

“How’s your spiritual life?”

When most Christians are asked that question, their minds turn toward spiritual disciplines. They reflect on the previous week or month and how regularly they prayed, read the Bible, and so on. These activities have become the measure for many of vibrant Christian faith.

Still, many of us know people who are rigid about these disciplines but lack love and grace in their relationships with others. These regular practices don’t automatically produce the fruit of the Spirit.

The Gospel in Bible Reading

And yet, throughout the years, those who follow Jesus have been greatly helped by spiritual disciplines. The goal of these habits should be to stir up our affections for God, to help us regularly confess and repent of our sins, to rehearse our dependence on God’s grace, and to propel us toward loving our neighbors.

There’s a lot to unpack in that previous sentence! That takes time and instruction, and often when people come into the church they only hear a poor distillation: “Read your Bible and pray every day.”

When it comes to our motivations, humans are drawn more naturally to law than to grace, because we can measure ourselves against a regulation. Well, I only read the Bible four times this week, so my spiritual life must be mediocre.

Some discipleship endeavors reinforce this posture. If we check our boxes each week, we’re growing; if we fall under a certain threshold, we’re stagnant or in spiritual danger.

The gospel of Jesus can make box-checkers uncomfortable. For those who confess Christ, repent of their sins, and trust him alone, the good news should be repeated as often as possible. We are children of the Most High God. He loves us so completely that nothing we ever do can increase or decrease that love.

For the purposes of this particular website, let’s state in terms of Scripture. God does not love us any more when we read the Bible, and he does not love us any less when we don’t.

The Word is a Blessing

Please understand, I am not trying to convince you to read the Bible less often! But I want our motivations to be founded on the very Scriptures we study. As I wrote at the beginning of this year, the Bible points us to God’s word much more often with enticement than with scare tactics.

Christian, do you know how good the word of the Lord is?

The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward. (Psalm 19:7–11)

A Christian disconnected from or uninterested in the Bible is a contradiction. But we are not disobeying God if we do not read the Bible every day. (Our weeks are more similar to each other than our days are, and there are a variety of ways to take in the Bible.)

We Don’t Have To, We Get To

Over the last several years, my family has developed a simple, delightful practice when we go away for vacation. We take long walks together after dinner. We set out as a family to enjoy each other, the weather, and the scenery. It’s now a favorite activity for each one of us.

Do we have to take a walk every evening? Nope. If it’s raining, or very late, or if someone isn’t feeling well, we might skip it, shorten it, or move the time around. But as late afternoon arrives and we start making dinner, we usually talk about where we’ll walk that night.

The walk requires time, energy, and effort, but we love it. Even when we follow the same route on multiple days, we arrive back at the apartment refreshed and happy.

Believers, we don’t have to read the Bible every day. But God has generously provided his word to nourish and bless us. Do you want to be nourished? Do you want to be blessed?

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You Are Smart Enough to Study the Bible

July 15, 2022 By Ryan Higginbottom

There are dozens of reasons for our collective lack of Bible study, but here’s one we need to address: I’m not smart enough.

Few people use those words, but this captures the general sentiment. Many people feel inadequate or intimidated by the task of studying the Bible, so they never attempt it.

How does this happen?

Célio Silveira (2011), public domain

The Quicksand of Comparison

We live in a culture of experts. And in the church we propogate more of the same.

We cite brilliant philosophers and commentators in our sermons. We watch polished teachers on video in Sunday school. Over and over we see examples of those with great training, ability, and insight. They make the Bible come alive.

We compare ourselves to all-stars and find ourselves lacking. How can we compete? If I can learn from experts, why should I study the Bible myself? I’ll never learn as much on my own.

This argument is easy to believe but important to reject. Gifted scholars and communicators are blessings to the church, but they do not replace the need for individual time with the Bible.

Bible study is never about bare facts or ideas. We study the Bible to know Jesus and have eternal life, to love God and obey him. We aren’t cramming for a test; rather, we need God’s truth to sink deep into our souls. Instead of borrowing the work of others, we need to digest and rejoice over the Bible ourselves.

Here’s the bottom line. You don’t need to be smart to study the Bible. As Peter wrote, Bible study “should be simple enough to engage young children yet profound enough to occupy erudite scholars.”

You don’t need seminary training. You don’t need a full bookcase or years of experience or an understanding of Greek and Hebrew. You don’t need a high IQ or a big vocabulary. You don’t even need a high school diploma.

I don’t dismiss any of the education, intellect, or training God gives. But only a few things are necessary to study the Bible. You need a Bible, a pen, paper, a heart that seeks God, and the Holy Spirit. Gather the first three, ask God for the last two, and you’re ready to go.

We must remind each other that there is no intellectual barrier to the Bible. When Christians come up short in their comparison to others and withdraw from Bible study, they miss a vital connection to Jesus.

What We Miss When We Neglect Bible Study

Do you believe we need the Bible? That it is not merely an add-on, but that it is more essential than bread (Matt. 4:4)?

We forget, and in the Bible God reminds us of the truth.

We sin, and in the Bible God corrects us and teaches us about forgiveness.

We despair, and in the Bible God gives us hope.

The Scriptures are not a burden or a weight, but a privilege and a blessing. We get to study the Bible! The Bible is truth from our loving God who wants us to know him and be transformed. And we miss out on these blessings—in fact, we miss God himself—when we neglect Bible study.

How to Begin

Whether you’ve been away from the Bible for years or you’ve never picked it up—you can start studying the Bible.

Pray. Ask God humbly and confidently to teach you by his Spirit. Only he can give you the understanding you need for life.

Next, pick up a Bible and read. We have a series of blog posts written to help you learn how to study the Bible. You might also check out our printable resources.

Finally, contact a friend from church. Ask them to pray. Arrange to meet every week or two to discuss what God is teaching you.

Buckle up. God will teach you and change you in ways you never imagined!

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Bible Interpretation that Dignifies God as Original Author

July 13, 2022 By Peter Krol

Jacob Toman has a thoughtful post on how to think about Bible interpretation. It is quite common and tempting to interpret the Bible in a way that focuses on “what it means to me.” However:

When we read and interpret the Bible, we should seek to do so in a manner that if we were to have a conversation with God, God would have no corrections for us. This means our interpretation should defer to what God intended in a passage, and also how God chose to communicate that passage, through a historical writer.

Any meaning that God himself would disagree with, however meaningful it may be to the reader, fails to dignify God or do justice to his truth.

Check it out!

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Topical Index for Proverbs

July 8, 2022 By Peter Krol

I’ve written before about the best idea I’ve ever heard for studying Proverbs, which is to read the book once a month, tracking a single theme each month, and writing down verse references to proverbs that speak to that theme. A simple, spiral-bound notebook is all that’s required for such an exercise.

Long ago, I spent 4 years in Proverbs doing just this, and the result was the creation of one of the most useful tools for my Christian walk and ministry. The problem is that the decades have not been kind to my spiral-bound notebook. And it doesn’t help me when I’m away from home and still require its use.

So I’m deeply grateful to my generous friend Felicia Kreider, who recently digitized the notebook for me. She alphabetized the topics, entered all the data into an attractive Google doc, and created a hyperlinked table of contents for me. Now I can access it from any device any time I need it!

When I first disclosed to the general public the existence of this notebook of mine, I said I wouldn’t share it if you asked, since you’ll be better off if you create your own.

However… Felicia has made this into such a thing of beauty that I can’t resist showing it to you. I still believe you’ll be better off creating your own. But maybe you just need a little nudge to show you what glory awaits you with such an exercise. So I will show you my topical index.

Yet I can’t make it too easy for the entire world to access, so I’ve disabled the ability to copy, download, or print it. I’ve slapped on a full-blown copyright to reserve all rights. And I don’t plan to add it to our resources page, but will keep it buried here in the blog’s archives, so only faithful readers like you will see it.

Without further ado, here you go. Enjoy!

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Framing the Book of Revelation from the Beginning

July 6, 2022 By Peter Krol

Have you been confused by the book of Revelation? Has your confusion kept you from reading or studying it? James Durham is here to help.

In this post, Durham walks clause by clause through the book’s first three verses to show you how to frame the book. How are we to approach this book, and what did the author seek to communicate? This is a revelation after all—a showing forth and disclosing. It was never meant to be an illusion or obfuscation.

It may look very presumptuous to read this book, or attempt to explain it. Indeed there is need of much humility and soberness in going about such a work, and much need that the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who has given this book as a benefit to His church, would help us to take it up rightly…
Yet its subject matter is very profitable and comforting to the church, to the end of the world. And when Christ gave it, as His last will and word to His church, his aim in doing so was to give a revelation, to make known His mind to them. This is why John is forbidden to seal it up – so that it would remain open for the good of His church. There is also plenty to motivate us and encourage us to read and search into it, for example the blessing in verse 3, “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy,” a saying which is repeated again after the prophetic part is immediately closed (chapter 22:7,14).
These all add up to notable encouragements, not only to try to read and seek to understand the Book of the Revelation, but also to lay it on us as a duty. We therefore resolve, through God’s grace, to attempt it, so that it will not be altogether useless to the “servants of God” to whom it is sent, according to verse 1.

Check it out!

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When a Name Goes Missing in the Bible

July 4, 2022 By Ryan Higginbottom

Observation is the first step in any good Bible study practice. And in most passages, there is a lot to observe!

Under the umbrella of observation, we naturally think about noticing what is present in the text. But sometimes, we also need to notice what is absent. The key to interpreting a section of Genesis 21 turns on just such an observation.

Ishmael is Sent Away

When Isaac was weaned, his parents threw a huge party to celebrate this milestone (Genesis 21:8). During the party, Ishmael laughed at Isaac, and this angered Sarah so much that she told Abraham to get rid of Ishmael and his mother, Hagar (Genesis 21:10). God agreed with Sarah, so Abraham sent them away (Genesis 21:12–14).

When their meager food and water ran out, Hagar prepared for her son’s death and cried out to the Lord (Genesis 21:15–16). God heard Ishmael’s cries and opened Hagar’s eyes to a nearby well (Genesis 21:17–19). God was with Ishmael as he grew up (Genesis 21:20).

This story is straightforward, right?

Something is Missing

As we continue to remind our readers, context matters. Why does this story immediately follow the glorious account of the long-awaited birth of Isaac (Genesis 21:1–7)? How does the story’s placement in the text aid our interpretation?

I didn’t understand this connection until I landed on an observation. In these fourteen verses (Genesis 21:8–21), something important is missing.

Ishmael’s name doesn’t appear at all.

In fact, Moses (the author) seems to go out of his way to avoid writing Ishmael’s name. Moses refers to “the boy” (6 times), “the child” (3 times), “the son of Hagar” (or a close variant, 4 times), and “his son” (once). This whole section of Scripture is centered on Ishmael, and Moses steadfastly refuses to include his name. Why is this the case?

Making Way for Isaac

From earlier in Genesis, we know that Abraham was a man who liked to protect himself and hedge his bets. He repeatedly tried to pass Sarah off as his sister (Genesis 12:10–20, 20:1–18). He fathered Ishmael with Sarah’s servant because he couldn’t see how God would otherwise keep his promise (Genesis 16:1–4).

Once Isaac was born, he was to become the focus of the story. Had Ishmael stayed around, there would not only (likely) be sustained conflict between him and Isaac, but it would have given Abraham a way to doubt and wonder. If anything were to happen to Isaac, I still have Ishmael right here.

Moses uses the names in the text to help us understand. The names for Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar all show up in this passage, so Moses is not opposed to names in general. But he won’t call Ishmael by his name. Moses wants his readers to see that Ishmael is moving off stage. Ishmael is no longer a main character. The covenant spotlight is now on Isaac.

Learning to Notice

Someone new to Bible study might be thinking, It’s hard enough to observe everything that’s there in the text, and now I’m supposed to notice all of the things that aren’t there?! Yes and no.

It would be impossible to notice everything missing from a passage of Scripture. That’s ambiguous and aimless. But we should notice anomalies—things that are unusual or out of place. Anything that sticks out as abnormal.

Moses used names, repeatedly, for all of the characters in this story except one. That should make us sit up and take notice. In observation we gather the fuel we need for the fire of interpretation, and observing odd insertions or omissions is no exception.

Note: After writing this article I remembered that Peter mentioned this observation in one of our foundational articles on observation. I heartily recommend that article, but I came to this thought independently this week as my church is working through Genesis in Sunday school.

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Credit Where Credit is Due

July 1, 2022 By Peter Krol

My tenth commandment for commentary usage is:

You shall give credit to commentators where appropriate and not try to appear smarter than you are.

I suspect this may be easiest-to-swallow, least controversial of my ten commandments for commentary usage. Plagiarism is widely condemned in print, and it’s becoming increasingly unacceptable in spoken communication, such as preaching or small group leading, as well.

My greatest challenge is that, the longer I teach, the more difficult it is to remember where I got various ideas from. Especially when I read commentaries in order to dig back into the text—I chew on the best ideas of the commentators and reflect on them in light of the Scripture text itself, to the point where it becomes difficult to nail down exactly which idea came from the commentator, and which was a product of my own reflection.

So I’ve begun keeping better notes to track the sources of the most helpful ideas I come across.

But the point is simple: As long as you are not quoting a commentator as the final word, shutting down conversation (see commandment 9), make sure to give credit where credit is due. “I read this really helpful point in John Stott’s commentary, where he said… What do you all think about that? Does it fit with your observation of the text?”

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The Demystifying Effect of Modern Bible Translations

June 29, 2022 By Peter Krol

Nitoy Gonzales writes from a part of the world where the King James Version of the Bible tends to be the most accepted version among those who speak English. Yet he offers some great insights about the power of more modern translations to demystify the Bible for believers.

With its archaic words that feels like it’s so holy and a reverend history taught by Bible Baptist preachers, it creates a mysterious or mystified look at this old version. The mere fact you have it and it’s the version preached at your church feels like a blanket of security that you belong to the “good guys” rather than to read, understand and learn from it. It feels like it’s not meant to be understood but to make a statement that we stand for “truth”. I rather feel that it’s too out there, up above a pedestal. Added to that are preachers acting like gatekeepers so that no one will rock the boat. Sure we are told that you can actually use a modern version for your quiet time or devotional but the damage is already done. Instilled in our minds that the modern translations are unreliable.

At this blog, we don’t get into the details of translation. One of the things we assume but don’t spend much time arguing for is that the Bible should be translated into modern languages so modern people can know it. Many English translations faithfully capture the meaning of the original text.

With that said, Gonzales brings a helpful perspective for those who can mistake high-falutin’ old language with clarity and faithfulness.

Check it out!

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Your Test: Can You Do What the Commentator Did?

June 24, 2022 By Peter Krol

My ninth commandment for commentary usage is:

You shall not quote a commentator as the final word on an interpretive matter, but must demonstrate your conclusions from the scriptural text itself.

Perhaps you’ve seen it happen. Perhaps you’ve even done it yourself. I know I have. The discussion gets going, and people are bouncing ideas off one another. But suddenly the record scratches and the room goes silent, because someone dropped a name or invoked an expert. All rise! The final and authoritative word has been spoken from heights to which mere mortals could never attain.

What I’m Not Saying

Before I get any further into the meaning or intention of this commandment, let me clarify what I am not saying.

First, I am not saying that you should never quote a commentator. By all means, please make use of the commentaries and resources available to you. And by all means, give credit where credit is due!

Second, I am not saying that you should never quote a commentator in a discussion or Bible study group. I am saying only that you ought not to do so on interpretive matters. And what I mean by “interpretive matters” is conclusions about the meaning or main point of the text. In this sense, commentaries are one of the 5 false authorities to watch out for in a small group discussion.

This commandment follows the previous one on purpose. If you heed that commandment, you will have taken care to draw a distinction between factual information in the commentary (cultural or historical background, direct observation of the text, etc.) and reasoned interpretations in the commentary (arguments made, with premises and conclusions, to draw principles or instructions from the text). That distinction can now serve you well. If your study group is in need of some factual information that might otherwise be inaccessible, go ahead and quote the commentator!

For example, in a Bible study discussing Genesis 21: “The commentary at the bottom of my study Bible says that the name ‘Isaac’ and the term ‘laughing’ are repetitions of the same Hebrew word. Could that repetition signal some sort of wordplay we ought to be aware of?”

Third, I am also not saying that we must never quote commentaries on interpretive matters. I am saying only that we must not do so as the final word on the matter. I would have no concern whatsoever with someone saying, “I read such and such in a commentary, but what do the rest of you think? Is such a conclusion supported by the text?”

What I’m After

The intention behind this commandment is found in the final clause, that we must be able to demonstrate our interpretive conclusions from the scriptural text itself. It might be helpful to quote a commentary to show that you’re not the only one in history who has identified a particular conclusion from a particular passage. As long as you can still articulate that conclusion from the passage itself.

If you read something in a commentary and trust the author’s conclusions despite what the text says, you have most likely violated commandment number 5. And if you submissively believe the commentator’s conclusions and simply can’t speak to the matter from the text, you have likely violated commandments 2 and 3. And if you proclaim a commentator’s conclusions as definitive truth on an interpretive matter, you probably have violated commandments 6 and 7.

The best use of a commentary is to help you understand the text. If, however, you come away understanding the commentary but not the text, the mission got off course somewhere.

In the first century, the Jewish scribes loved to hold debates, pitting one ancient commentator against another. At times, they even sought to rope Jesus into taking one side or the other (Mark 10:2). He wouldn’t play those games, and, as a result, the populace observed in him an authority they couldn’t find among their typical teachers (Matt 7:28-29). Of course, there was something unique about Jesus’ authority as the Son of God proclaiming the word of God.

However, Jesus delights to share his authority with his disciples (Luke 9:1-2). The authority of God’s word is present whenever God’s people seek the Lord in those very words (Acts 17:11) and proclaim them with intelligible simplicity (Acts 17:2-3). Can you do this from the Scriptures? Or do you tend to get stuck in merely explaining the various interpretive schools and camps you have read about?

Because I once read a commentary that suggested it might be a bad idea to do that.

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