Better Than Bread: How to Study the Bible, Part 1
“It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”—Matt. 4:4
As people living on this side of the fall, we have inherited a world that is full of pain. And we will naturally try to find solutions to alleviate that suffering.
Unfortunately, we also have a limited perspective of the world. We will not see every angle needed to make good decisions, which means we will naturally make some poor decisions.
Now, that’s not the problem. It is okay to seek to alleviate the suffering we experience. It is okay to not know everything.
But because our natural bent, the noetic effect of sin, we will turn to anyone, anything, other than God to alleviate that suffering. It’s like we’re blind to Him.
Not only do we come up with faulty solutions, our culture is more than happy to supply us with alternatives: retail therapy, standing up for your rights, addictions that provide you escape.
But the Gospel brings us good news: God has changed something fundamental about us. We are no longer orphans, but new creations, children—saints.
We now have a choice: we no longer must pursue sin! We can choose to follow our new master as we present our bodies to Christ as a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1), our members to God as instruments of righteousness (Rom. 6:13).
Still, though we now have the choice, it is a foreign one. It takes a lifetime to see change, and even if it comes, it is transformation that comes one degree of glory at a time (2 Cor. 3:18). We may be tempted to lose heart, but Paul reminds us that this transformation is happening day by day as we fix our eyes on Christ (2 Cor. 4:16-18). In His goodness, God has given us His Word to fix our minds on truth, to guide us in our path.
I have already written about praying Scripture, meditating on Scripture, memorizing Scripture. In the next few posts, I’m going to focus on something that is foundational to these disciplines: studying Scripture.
Our ability to study Scripture deeply and accurately for ourselves is foundational to a growing faith. When we learn this skill, we have sustenance all the time—not just a hit on Sunday.
The good news is that you don’t need to go to seminary! It does require a bit of training to develop the skill, but even the ordinary lay person can learn it.
We all need to be personally well-versed in God’s Word—students, parents, employees—not just pastors.
It is both sufficient for our salvation—our deepest need—and for godly living. It will not address every issue, but it will address every hidden, underground issue at its foundation: greed, discontentment, pride, guilt, shame, disappointment, grief, fear.
In the gospel, we see our need and God’s solution, as well as training for godly living (2 Tim. 3:16-17). It corrects our faulty thinking and shows us a new path.
The Bible is superior to every other self-help book on the shelf today because it does not merely slap on some Band-Aids. Rather, God’s Word tells us about Himself. Then His Holy Spirit helps us to apply those truths into our particular situations. In this way, Scripture is fully sufficient to help us in every problem we find ourselves in.
So how do we learn to mine its depths?
Prerequisites to Study
Before we begin to study Scripture, there are a couple things to help us get started.
Use a Solid Translation
As English-speakers, we are blessed with a wide variety of translations of the Bible. After taking foreign languages in school, I learned that sometimes, there are a few ways to translate a word or sentence. Our goal is to aim for the most accurate translation as the original writer intended.
Without debating the merits of each, let’s just say that different translations may serve different purposes. For study purposes, I recommend a more literal translation, like the NASB (New American Standard Bible) and/or the ESV (English Standard Version) as the core translation, with a paraphrase, like The Message or the New Living Translation to give a more contemporary or natural tone.
Having multiple translations to use during your study can deeply enrich your time in the Word, giving you different angles to consider. I personally use Bible Gateway’s free version and pull up these different translations side by side to make comparisons easier.
Begin With Prayer
Studying Scripture does require spiritual insight. As recovering sinners, we don’t have this naturally, so before we begin our study, take some time to pray and ask God for help and insight. Before you begin, take a moment to ask God to help you see and understand truth with the new mind He has gifted you at your salvation.
Orient the Part to the Whole: Zoom Out
When studying the Bible, we need to remember that it is one cohesive whole. Here are a couple points:
Note the Testament
Though it may seem obvious, it makes a difference whether the book is in the Old Testament or the New Testament.
Like a well-written novel, every verse in every chapter in every book points to one climactic point: the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. The Old Testament points forward to Christ and His work on Christ; the New Testament looks back at this same event.
Knowing this helps us to look for foreshadows of Christ or understand how the book’s message stems from Christ and the gospel.
Preview the Book’s General Focus
Whether I am choosing to study an entire book or just a portion of it, it helps to know the main focus or message of the book and how it fits into the entire Bible as a whole. There are several ways to do this:
If you’re studying a full book, review the introductory notes if you have a study Bible. (If you don’t have one, check out the ESV summaries on this page or watching The Bible Project’s video on the book.) If there are maps, orient yourself geographically too.
If you have extra time, I highly recommend Nancy Guthrie’s Help Me Teach the Bible podcast to give you the background of a book.
If you’re studying a passage, also take some time to review its position in the course of the book’s development. This will help you put it into context of the entire book’s message.
Some people may suggest that you do this step after you actually read the Bible, but I personally find that doing these steps beforehand help me to read a bit more carefully, even my first time through.
Read (or Skim) the Entire Book
Even if you’re just studying a passage, take some time to read the entire book straight through.
If they are particularly long books, like Isaiah or Job or Psalms, at least take some time to skim the titles of the sections. Though these titles are not inspired by God, they do give a bit of a guide to the subject, the tone, and/or the direction of the argument.
Read Like a Detective: Zoom In
After we have oriented ourselves to the big picture and message, we “zoom in” to the details and particulars. If you’re studying a book, break down the book into smaller sections, repeating the following with each passage until you’ve finished the book.
Generally, in this phase, we are aiming to do two things: 1) observe the text and 2) interpret our observations. In this post, we will focus on the first part—observation. Our tendency is to jump to the second before doing the first, which is where we can come up with problems in understanding Scripture accurately.
Tips on Observing
When we are observing, we are doing just that. Pretend you are like Sherlock Holmes, taking note of what you see, what is actually there.
We are not trying to figure out what those things mean, however. Resist the temptation to try to make sense of things until you’ve gathered the facts.
So what are we looking for?
The 5 W’s and an H: Who, what, where, when, why and how? Apply these questions to narrative stories to understand character, setting, conflict, and so forth. Use your sanctified imagination and use your five senses to visualize the scene, like smells, noises, temperature.
Context: What happens before and after the passage?—what is the main point prior? Where is it leading? Or what happened in the story just before this? What happens afterwards?
Who God is: How is He described? What is His character? What do you discover about the way He thinks, feels, acts? How are they related? If it’s a story, what role does he play in it, directly or indirectly?
Author and Audience: Is the author specified? If so, who is it? Who is he writing to? What are they like?
Repetition: Are there repeated terms, ideas or themes? What seems to be emphasized or stressed?
Imagery: Are there images, similes, metaphors, or personification? These are used to make comparisons, linking the unfamiliar with the familiar.
Grammar: Take note of the verbs in a passage, along with their tenses: past, present, future. If you really want to go deep, check to see if these are imperfect (past, but not completed) or perfect (completed once for all in the past).
Connections: Look for transition words (like “if-then,” “therefore” or “since”), purpose words (like “that” or “for”) and conjunctions (like “and,” “but,” and “or” that can signal a continuation of thought or change in direction). How are phrases or descriptions connected?
More connections: Are there any cause-effect connections? Are their comparisons or contrasts? How do these fill out your understanding of an idea?
Resolutions: How are things resolved in this passage? How does the argument wrap up? How does the conflict end?
Emotions: What emotions are expressed in this passage?
Questions: Are there terms, locations, people, etc. you are unfamiliar with? Are there things that confuse you or don’t seem to make sense? Take note of these, especially if they are key to the argument of the passage.
A Challenge in Observation
Before we go on, start with your favorite passage and use these questions to mine it. Challenge yourself to read and re-read your passage for 5 days.
Before we move on to the interpretation stage of our “zoom in,” see if you can make at least 3-5 different observations per verse. Start with the obvious and easy ones, but don’t settle for those. Stretch yourself using the tips above: that’s often where the payoff comes.
In the next post, we’ll take the next step and focus on interpretation: What does it mean? Until then, keep at your observations and see what you can find!
You’re on your way to studying and learning the Bible for yourself! Keep up the great work!
