Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

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What the Olympics Taught Me about Bible Study

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This week marked a significant milestone for me: the first time since 1994 that I’ve gotten to follow the Olympic games with any regularity.

I love the drama.  Ryan Lochte wins gold in the Men’s 400 meter individual medley, but Michael Phelps fails to medal in the event.  Phelps goes on, however, to win more medals and become the most decorated Olympian in history.  The USA women’s gymnastics team wins gold, but reigning world champion Jordyn Wieber fails to advance to the all-around competition.  Four badminton teams are thrown out of the games for throwing their games.  A Korean archer with poor eyesight helps his team win bronze.  22-year-old Kayla Harrison overcomes a history of sexual abuse by a previous coach and wins the first ever US gold medal in judo.

The drama is inspiring, but also challenging.  Why isn’t our study of God’s Knowable Word equally inspiring?

Why is it that we’d often rather do anything other than read God’s Word?  When we do read it, why does it feel like such a chore?  When we get together in groups to discuss the unbreakable Scripture, why can’t we think of anything to talk about?  Why can church seem routine and lifeless?  Where is the drama that inspired a generation to turn the world upside-down (Acts 17:6)?

God has revealed his Son to us through the Bible written by his Spirit.  In the Bible He lets us in on what he’s thinking.  He tells us what to expect about the future.  He fills in the back story to our existence.  He advises us about how life works best.  His Word is the most influential book in history.  How can we recapture the drama?

Here are some ideas:

  1. Read a lot of Scripture.  Keep the big picture in mind.  Consider taking an afternoon to read a whole book of the Bible in one sitting.   Just read lots of it and keep going.  As you understand the scope of the whole, each detail takes on new life.
  2. Read it lots of times.  Over the past two weeks, I’ve read the same two chapters over and over again.  I read them and didn’t understand them at first.  So instead of moving on, I decided to try it again and again.  I’ve now read them dozens of times in a row, and they’re starting to make sense.  What was once confusing has become exciting and impactful!
  3. Talk to others.  God puts us in community on purpose.  Others will have insights you don’t have.  So plug into your church, find a Bible study group, talk about the sermons.  Ask people what they’re learning from the Word, and share what you’re learning.  The drama of God’s glorious plan through Christ will infect you with joy.
  4. Put yourself into the story.  Picture what the characters went through.  How would you respond in similar circumstances?  What would you feel, desire, fear, or hope?  Remember that Bible characters were real people, experiencing life much as we do.
  5. Focus on Jesus.  You don’t have to be innovative.  You don’t have to make the Bible exciting.  All you have to do is get out of the way and let Jesus show his glory.

The Olympics are exciting, and I can’t wait to see what will happen over the next week.  But the glory of men will wither; does anyone even remember the medalists from 1994 anymore?  God’s Knowable Word will remain forever (1 Peter 1:24-25).

Everyone Has a Bible Study Method

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I’ve been blogging for a few months now, talking a lot about different principles of Bible study.  Look out for this, pay attention to that, consider these things, etc.  Today I’d like to show my cards a bit by revealing a shocking truth: I follow a Bible study method.

A method?  Yes, a method.  How do you respond to that word?

Does it make you nervous or is it a relief?  Does it make you feel like a piece of cookie dough jammed onto the tray or does it give you hope?

Whatever your reaction toward the idea of a method, I’m writing to propose that, like it or not, everyone has a method for Bible study.

Some methods are unintentional and informal.  For example:

The Divination Method

  1. Open the Bible
  2. Drop your finger into a random place
  3. Read what you find
  4. Trust this is God’s will for you today

The Support Group Method

  1. Read a passage of the Bible
  2. Close the Bible
  3. Consider (or discuss, if in a group situation) how you feel about what you just read

The Prayerful Method

  1. Ask God to bring to mind a passage of the Bible that will address your current problem or need
  2. Listen to what thoughts are put in your mind
  3. Look at those passages for encouragement or help

Other methods, however, are quite intentional and formal.  For example:

The Cross-Reference Method

  1. Read a passage of the Bible
  2. Highlight the key words or phrases in that passage
  3. Look up another passage that this one reminds you of (the cross-references in the middle column of your Bible really help with this)
  4. Look up another passage that the second one reminds you of
  5. Look up another passage that the third one reminds you of
  6. Repeat until you run out of time

The Word Study Method

  1. Decide which topic you’d like to study in the Bible
  2. Identify one or more key words that represent your topic
  3. Search the whole Bible for passages that use those keywords (something like Bible Gateway)
  4. Read each verse that comes up
  5. Compile all the components of your topic
  6. Live in light of what you learned

The Expert Method

  1. Read a passage of the Bible
  2. Read a commentary on that passage of the Bible
  3. Believe and act upon what the commentator wrote

My point is this: everyone who reads the Bible has a method for studying the Bible.  What is your usual method?  Are you even conscious of how you study the Bible?

My secondary point is this: not every method is a good method.  In other words, many methods do not result in correct interpretation.  If, as we believe, the Bible is God’s Word to us, shouldn’t we make sure we understand it?

In future posts, I’ll lay out my method more explicitly.

Why We Study the Bible, Revisited

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Not long ago, I posted a number of reasons for why we study the Bible.  They came down basically to the fact that understanding the Bible accurately enables us to know Christ better and find life in him.

Desiring God just posted a short video interview with D. A. Carson, where he covers similar ground.

You read it here.  Now go listen to the man who’s been doing it faithfully for many decades.  Learn from his example and draw near to God as you study his knowable word.

Why We Study the Bible

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Why should we study the Bible?  Couldn’t we just listen to God’s voice inside us?  Even if we ought to use the Bible, shouldn’t we just read it, expecting the meaning to become apparent?  Doesn’t all this “Bible study” stuff get in the way, slow us down, quench the Spirit?

Let me give some reasons why it’s important that we learn how to study the Bible:

1.  Knowing Jesus is eternal life

Jesus said it himself in John 17:3.  He wants what’s best for us, and what’s best for us is for us to know him.  He prayed accordingly the night before he was killed.

2.  The whole Bible is about Jesus

Jesus said it in Luke 24:44-47.  Phillip realized it early on (John 1:45).  Peter declared it much later (1 Peter 1:10-11).

3.  The Bible was written that we might know Jesus and have eternal life

Romans 15:4, John 20:30-31, 1 Peter 1:11-12, Rev 1:1.  It’s an old book, but it was written with you and me in mind!  It wasn’t written to us, but it was written for us.

4.  God thinks it’s noble when we examine the Bible to know Jesus better

Paul explained the main point of the Bible in Acts 17:3.  Some Thessalonians rejected this message (Acts 17:6-7), but the Bereans eagerly searched it out in the text of the Bible (Acts 17:10-11).

5.  It takes hard work to understand the Bible

Some parts are hard to understand, and those who are untaught or unstable will distort them (2 Peter 3:16).  We must be taught well and given a stable foundation if we are to understand the Bible and know Jesus.  Granted, many parts of the Bible are abundantly clear (John 14:6, Acts 4:11-12), yet they, too, are commonly twisted.

6.  We need God’s Spirit to understand the Bible

Our sin and rebellion against God infects everything about us, even our thinking.  No amount of hard work and no foolproof method will guarantee that we interpret the Bible rightly.  Countless universities have courses taught by learned professionals who miss the whole point (see #1-3 above).

But when we trust in the Jesus revealed in the Bible, we receive God’s Spirit, who helps us to know Jesus better (1 Cor 2:6-16).  Those who believe have access to the very mind of Christ because they have his Spirit.

On this blog, we want to help you know Jesus.  We do that by helping you learn to study the Bible.  Let’s keep working to master the methods, but above all, let’s keep our focus on Jesus as we do so.

How’d You Do That? (7/4/12)

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In yesterday’s post, I tried to demonstrate an important principle for how to study the Bible: correlation.  Correlation is the process of linking different passages together to understand what the Bible has to say about a topic or idea.

When it comes to correlation, it can be pretty easy to make a number of errors:

  1. Cross-referencing too soon: Sometimes when we read a passage, we immediately jump to all the other passages that come to mind.  As we jump from place to place in the Bible, we can feel like we’ve had a good Bible study.  The danger, however, is that we can jump so much that we failed to understand any of the specific passages in their context!  Numerous cults use this technique to justify their teaching, while making it seem biblical.
  2. Isolating a text from the whole Bible: Sometimes we can get so focused on one passage that we develop an imbalanced understanding of a certain topic.  Without connecting this passages to other passages, we might over-focus on one side of an issue to the exclusion of the complete biblical perspective on it.  I find it really easy to commit this error when I’m having a disagreement with someone, and I want to over-emphasize my perspective.
  3. Connecting passages unhelpfully: Sometimes we can connect different passages for no other reason than that they use the same word.  When we do this, we miss the fact that different authors might use the same words in different ways.  We read a certain meaning into various texts rather than drawing meaning out of them.  We often commit this error if we search for a single word in a Bible search engine, and then assume that every verse that turns up must apply to the particular question I’d like to answer.

How do we correlate various Bible texts accurately?

  1. Make sure you understand the passage at hand in its context.  That means identifying the author’s main point before you jump to any other texts.
  2. Once you’ve identified the main point, then look for other passages that speak to the same main point (which may include using the same words, but it also might not).
  3. As you look at other passages, make sure you understand the main points of each of them in their own contexts.
  4. Allow each passage to nuance your understanding of the idea.
  5. Make changes in your life to obey what you have learned from God’s Knowable Word!

How’d You Do That? (6/17/12)

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We just finished examining a bit of Solomon’s biography and credentials for authoring the book of Proverbs.  We saw that God’s wisdom, God’s promise, and great wealth qualified him for this task.

How did I come up with these principles?

The main idea here is that the narrative books of the Bible often give us key information to help us interpret the didactic (teaching) books.  We learn about Solomon’s story from the books that chronicle his life.  As I studied those sections, I began to draw connections to the Proverbs.  Especially helpful was 1 Kings 3:1-15, where Solomon asks for wisdom, and 1 Kings 4:20-34, where Solomon demonstrates his wisdom.

We can follow this same procedure for other parts of the Bible.

  • When reading Paul’s letters, first check out the biographical information on Paul in the book of Acts.  The most helpful parts are the sections where he ministers in the cities he later wrote letters to.  For example, study Acts 16:11-40 for background on the book of Philippians, Acts 17:1-9 for background on 1 & 2 Thessalonians, and Acts 18:1-18 for background on 1 & 2 Corinthians.
  • Consider Acts 14:8-23 and Acts 16:1-3 for information to help you interpret 1 & 2 Timothy.
  • Certain Psalms are connected with events in David’s life.  Psalm 3:1-8 makes sense after you understand 2 Samuel 15:1-37, and Psalm 51:1-19 should be read in connection with 2 Samuel 11:1-12:25.

I’m sure you get the idea.  When you study books of the Bible, first try to understand the author’s life situation and character.  The Bible itself can help you do this.

What Star Wars Taught Me About Bible Study

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It’s a little known fact that I’m a Star Wars geek.  I’ve been watching The Clone Wars cartoon with my children (which is fantastic), and we just finished Season 3.  I think it’s a good time for a Star Wars post.

Star Wars (both in the films and the cartoons) makes abundant use of a fun literary device called the “type scene.”  The Bible uses the same device, so Star Wars can help us understand it.

If you and I are discussing the Star Wars films, and I say, “I love that scene where the evil Sith lord cuts off the good guy’s appendage,” you would be right to ask, “Which one: Episode 2, where Dooku chops off Anakin’s arm, or Episode 5, where Darth Vader slices Luke’s hand off?”

For more examples, see if you can name which Star Wars movies have the following scenes:

  • Sith asks Jedi to join with him and overthrow his evil master.  Together, they could rule the galaxy.
  • A dismembered C3PO makes all kinds of corny jokes.
  • The young, attractive politician attracts the unconventional warrior.
  • A chase through an asteroid field.
  • The young but skilled pilot wins the battle by blowing up the giant space station.

Such vague descriptions could describe numerous “type scenes” that keep repeating in the Star Wars movies.  With each repetition of the scene, a creator connects two different characters or scenarios without having to say “this one is just like that one.”

Let me give some examples of this technique in the Bible.

  1. The man of God leaves the land of promise due to some sort of famine or distress.  In a foreign land, his wife masquerades as his sister but gets kidnapped.  You may have read these stories in Genesis 12:10-20, 20:1-18, and Gen 26:6-11.  What’s the point?  Abraham faced similar temptation all through his life, and Isaac struggled with it just like his dad did.
  2. God rescues his people from Egyptian captivity, and brings them through the Sea and wilderness.  Of course this happens in the book of Exodus, but the prophets use the same language to describe the Exile (for example, see Isaiah 10:24-25).  Jesus went through it, too (Matthew 2:14-15, 3:13-17, 4:1-2).  What’s the point?  Jesus endured all that Israel endured, as their representative.
  3. God’s ambassador heals a lame man by the city gate, and the Jewish officials get riled up about it.  Jesus does it in John 5:1-17, and Peter & John do it in Acts 3:1-4:22.  What’s the point?  Jesus’ disciples truly act in His name, with his full authority and power (Matthew 28:18-20).

Star Wars shows us how useful type scenes can be.  The Bible does it even better, though.

One more tip: pay attention whenever a Star Wars character says, “I have a bad feeling about this.”  It demonstrates another great literary device: repetition.  I’ll save that one for another day.

How’d You Do That? (6/8/12)

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In our last Proverbs post, I looked at what sort of genre proverbs are.  Let me give those comments a context.

When we come to learning how to study the Bible, one of the first steps is to observe the text carefully.  But what should we observe?  I generally consider five categories:

  1. Words
  2. Grammar
  3. Structure
  4. Mood
  5. Genre

You can observe the words themselves, considering repetition, tenses, number (singular or plural), etc.

You can observe the grammar, considering issues such as sentence structure (subjects, verbs, objects, etc.), pronouns, or prepositional phrases.

You can observe the structure, considering things like comparison, contrast, section divisions, or the shape of the text.

You can observe mood, identifying how the author communicated: excited, angry, patient, personal, etc.

Finally, you can observe the genre.  Primarily, you’ll want to notice whether you’re reading prose or poetry.  If I write of red roses, it’s important that you understand the genre.  On the one hand you might find just what you need in a pinch.  On the other hand, you could create too many giggles.  Don’t mix up genres!

In the case of Proverbs, I discussed the wisdom genre of proverbs.  We should not read proverbs like laws, or even like prophecies.  Proverbs are intended to address many fine details of life.  As we go through the text, we’ll see how this fact plays out.  But by way of introduction, I wanted to draw attention to the significance of genre.

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

I observed Proverbs’ genre,

Now you can, too!

What the Avengers Taught Me about Bible Study

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I just saw The Avengers and thought it almost lived up to all the hype.  It’s well worth seeing, and it can teach you about Bible study!

Characters, characters

This movie was well set up by all the (mostly) independent prequels: The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America, and Thor.  Each of those movies tells the story of a single hero.  All the heroes come together as a team in The Avengers.  Needless to say, the movie’s greatest strength was its characterization.

There is no narrator to tell you what’s happening, and there’s not much explanation of plot or setting except through dialogue.  All you have that drives the drama and action is the characterization of the heroes as they relate to each other, and it works beautifully.

Tony Stark (Iron Man) considers himself a “genius, playboy, billionaire, philanthropist,” and his choices, especially in his relationships, directly reflect this chosen identity.  Bruce Banner (Hulk) remains pretty introverted, fearing the monster that rages within him.  When asked how he keeps the monster at bay, he reveals his secret: “I’m always angry.”  We can reinterpret his quiet withdrawal in light of this revelation.

I could go on, but the point should be clear that much of a story can be told through strong characterization.  Notice how the Bible uses the same technique:

  • Jacob’s character drives much of the last sections of Genesis, as his affinity for conflict (Gen 25:22) and deceit (Gen 27:18-19) is used against him by his uncle (Gen 29:23, 31:26-28) before the Lord redeems it and makes him fruitful through it (Gen 32:28).
  • We are told very little about the prophet Elijah, but we resonate with the one whose nature was just like ours (James 5:17) as we see him alternately hiding (1 Kings 17:5-7) and confronting (1 Kings 18:17-19), inspiring (1 Kings 18:38-39) and raving (1 Kings 19:10, 14).  The man who demanded justice (1 Kings 19:10) and saw the Lord only in wind, earthquake, fire, and whisper (1 Kings 19:11-12) eventually saw the fulness of God’s glory on that mountain in the face of Jesus Christ (Matthew 17:2-3).
  • One leper’s character shines when he returns to thank Jesus (Luke 17:15-19).
  • A whiny, victimized, blameshifting invalid (John 5:6-7) demonstrates the opposite of faith even after meeting Life in flesh (John 5:14-16).  We don’t need the author to tell us to avoid his example.

When you read the Bible, be aware of how the characters are portrayed.  By their description, choices, and dialogue, we receive instruction in how to flee temptation by remembering that Jesus is our escape (1 Cor 10:6-13).  If you still have the chance to see The Avengers, do so, and become a better Bible student.