Studying God's Word, the Bible

Is there a proper way to study God's Word? Are there some things about studying God's Word that more important than other things?

In Jewish tradition, it was held that there were 613 individual commandments, not just 10. So the idea of determining the respective importance or "weight' of each one seemed important to many. I don't know whether or not this is what the scribe who approached Jesus in Mark 12: 28 had in mind when he asked Jesus, "Which is the first commandment of all?"

Jesus’ answer, however, was very telling. He answered the man;

“The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. 30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’

This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Jesus cut to the chase and really boiled things down to an understandable way to describe how we should be living our lives.

In Matthew 7:12, Jesus said, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Was Jesus’ statement a novel concept to some people’s ears? We call “doing unto others as you would have them do unto you” the Golden Rule, but Jesus was simply summing up the second table of the law. How do we get to, or determine the meaning of the scriptures for ourselves?

Studying the scriptures can be many things, enjoyable, enlightening, exhausting and rewarding. Determining their meaning is one of the most important responsibilities we have as individual believers. But we have to study the scriptures carefully. That means we have to care and take care when we do it.

If we just brush through the Word at a fast clip, we can come away with some very wrong conclusions about what a passage really means. This emphasizes how very important it is to realize that there are some important principles to understand, in how we determine the correct meaning of scripture.

Sometimes when you mention the idea of principles to study with, it turns people off, but studying takes discipline. “Discipline” is another word that turns some people off. It shouldn’t. Jesus’ followers were called “disciples” and they were trying to conduct themselves in a way He found pleasing. We are trying to live our lives in way that is pleasing to, and that glorifies Him, right? The best way to do that is to yield all of it to Him and to study His Word the best that we can.

Some simple things we can do to enhance our study of God’s Word, to understand its meaning and apply it to our lives are readily available to most of us, but he very first thing I believe we should do when we study is to start with prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to give us understanding, and ask Him to make what we learn, something that is productive in His service.

Having gone first to the Lord in prayer for guidance, we need to pay strict attention to the context of the passage in which we’re studying. While the inspiration for scripture came from God, he used men to write it down. These men had specific themes in mind and specific purposes in writing the letters, or books, which they wrote. For that reason, it’s important to read the chapters before and after a passage to gain it’s full meaning. Many cultic doctrines have been started by taking Bible verses out of context by ignoring before and after verses. That’s how far the understanding can get messed up.

We have to make sure we know what topic the author was writing about to be able to properly study a verse or passage and conclude what it means. Sometimes people can assign their own meaning to a passage, when it means something else entirely, so it’s important not to look for any “hidden” meaning. Let the Word speak for itself.

Another thing we can do is look for help from other believers. Study with them when you can and bounce things off of them. That’s part of what fellowship is for. Your friends may tell you that your interpretation is off the wall, but don’t take offense from it. Use it. Go to the Word and pray and study and see if your interpretation is correct or not.

The author of the Book of Acts speaks of the Bereans when he wrote; “These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11

So when in doubt, search out.

Studying with other believers may also help us to remember to apply God’s Word to our lives. We study it together and we see the Word in action in other believer’s lives and we can often be influenced by the Lord through that.

One of the gifts God gives to certain people in the body is the gift of teaching. That’s another reason for fellowship. Our teachers are given to us to help us to understand and obey the scriptures. Our teachers in our churches are meant to guide us in the Word and wet our appetites for it, fostering study on our own.

This is just my opinion, but I think it’s also important to have some good, conservative and reliable Biblical resources on hand to turn to for help and explanation. It helps to have at least a simple commentary on each book of the Bible, breaking down what they are about, what their theme is.Knowing the general theme of a Bible book ahead of time goes a long way toward understanding the book better as you read through it. A Bible dictionary is a helpful tool as well.

One of the most helpful things I can think of as well is a good study Bible. Granted, the comments written by the authors can sometimes contain mistakes. I've found a few. But that goes back to what I said before. If you find something wrong in one of the commentaries or footnotes, just remember this.....where the Bible is silent, let silence remain. Don’t read anything into the silence.

These are just a few simple and very general suggestions to use to study the Word, and I hope they will help others. They’ve been very helpful to me.