How to Study the Scriptures (Part 2)

Grasping the Context

One of the foundations of effective Bible study is grasping the context of the entirety of scripture. It is not possible to consistently understand each passage of scripture without having an accurate grasp of the whole Bible. There are some who ignorantly believe that the Old Testament no longer applies. The Old Testament is crucial in understanding the New Testament. The works of the Law of Moses that were fulfilled through Christ are no longer practiced, but must be understood. The Law of Moses was the tutor (or schoolmaster) that teaches and points to Christ. Now that Christ has come, there is no more need of the schoolmaster because what was taught is now fulfilled in Jesus. Even now, knowing what the law taught instructs us and helps us to understand the necessity of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

Throughout the New Testament, the apostles quoted directly from the Old Testament in order to teach the New Testament principles. Most of the spiritual symbols used in the book of Revelation come directly from the Old Testament. If we do not understand the Old Testament, it is impossible to understand the symbolism of prophecy. Not to mention that the Old Testament prophecies provide many vivid details that explain in greater detail the same prophecies found in Revelation. Jesus quoted heavily from the Old Testament, the apostles quoted heavily from the Old Testament and the final Revelation of Jesus Christ relies heavily on the Old Testament. The Old Testament holds many of the keys we need to unlock our understanding of the New Testament. If there was no need for what was previously written, God would have shown this to be the case. In truth, God has shown the opposite by affirming the Old Testament throughout the New Testament. The Old Testament points to Jesus Christ while the New Testament reveals Christ and the redemption we have in Him.

In order for us to accurately divide the word of truth we must commit time and diligence to our study of the word. You must exert yourself to know the word. This takes time and discipline. To become an athlete you must train hard and dedicate time, energy and discipline. To acquire a job skill requires time, effort and discipline. To gain a degree takes time, effort and discipline. The truth is that you will exert your self and commit your time to what is important to you. Perhaps you should pray that God would give you a love for His word, a seeking heart and help you recognize the value of knowing His eternal word. Once you recognize the value of the word and the benefit of knowing God, you will make it a high priority in your life. If you don’t recognize the value or you value other things more, study will be a low priority and you will not exert yourself to study and know the word. Where you invest your time reveals what is important in your life.

I heard a man recently say that many years ago a pastor said that each Christian should commit themselves to reading the entire Bible through 7 times in one year. He took that advice to heart and said that this was the best advice he has ever received. How many people do you think heard this message? How many do you think took it to heart? Statistically speaking, it is very likely that this is the only man who applied this instruction to his life. Even so, it should be an encouragement that if only one person applies the word to their life, that life is directly benefited and even one soul makes the message worth the effort.

I agree that at a minimum we should read the Bible through seven times in a year. I encourage people to read the New Testament at least three times through within a 90 day period so that they can remember the scriptures from Matthew as they reach the end of the New Testament. It is important to read the entire scripture through several times a year. Based on the time it takes to listen to an audio version of the Bible, I calculated that it takes approximately three minutes to read the average chapter. Some are long such as Psalm 119 but many are very short. The average is around three minutes. If you are a slow reader and can only read a chapter every 5 minutes on average you can still make tremendous progress. There are 260 chapters in the Bible so you can read the entire Bible in less than 22 hours. If you commit to an hour a day you can read through the entire Bible in three weeks. In less than half a year you can read the Bible through 7 times easily.

Reading the Bible through seems like a big challenge, but it is not. How many novels do you read? How many newspapers and other publications do we read? It is important to understand the entire context of the scripture so that we can understand the context of each book of the Bible. We can accurately understand the context of an individual verse by understanding the complete thought that surrounds it, the context of the book of the Bible and how it fits into the context of the entire word of God.

One thing I would note is that you should not get caught up on genealogies. While I do think it is beneficial to read through these from time to time since there are little nuggets of truth tucked away in the genealogies, but don’t let yourself become discouraged by reading the begats for several chapters. Remember that your goal is to gain a foundation of knowledge not follow a rigid regulation. There is nothing wrong with skipping the dimensions of the temple or genealogies that go on for some length in Numbers. These do indeed contain valuable information and have a purpose, but do not feel guilty if you get bored and want to skip these parts.

What is important is that you study and understand the entirety of the word of God. Consider these passages:

Psalm 119: ¹⁶⁰ The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.

Proverbs 30: ⁵ Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.  ⁶ Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.

Matthew 4: ⁴ But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' "

Matthew 24: ³⁵ "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

Both the Old and New Testaments affirm the same truth – the entirety of the word is truth and will never pass away. This is not just the New Testament, but every word that has been given to us from the mouth of God.

Tying it all Together

One of the important truths of God’s word is that each passage is in agreement with the entirety of the word. You must learn to understand each scripture in light of the entire Bible and draw your understanding from the context of the scripture as a whole revelation. Poor doctrinal beliefs are the result of a lack of understanding of the entirety of the word of God. Many passages can be taken out of context and made to appear to say something that the Bible does not teach. Almost all cults use passages out of context to ‘prove’ their unbiblical beliefs. Let me give an example. The Word of Faith movement teaches that faith is a tangible substance and that God used faith to create. It is also taught that each person has the power to create by tapping into the substance of faith and filling our words with this faith. This belief system has been in the New Age cults for centuries but has only been accepted into mainstream Christianity within the last few decades. In order to persuade Christians that the Bible agrees with this doctrine they quote Hebrews 11:1  

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Of course the Bible does not teach that faith is a substance as we will soon see; however, even if we did not have the ability to look at the Greek word, we would still understand this passage in light of the context of the whole scripture and this would not even be a question. The confusion is the result of ignorance of the word. The Bible clearly says that faith is the ability to believe the spiritually understood word of God. Faith is believing God (Romans 4:3, 9), it is measured to us from God (Romans 12:3), it is a gift given to us by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4-9), and that faith is manifested in our life as a fruit produced by the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). So even if we could not clearly get an understanding of Hebrews 11:1, we could still understand what is being taught about faith from the rest of scripture. So simply by tying the harmony of scriptures together, we can get a clear understanding of sound doctrine even in passages that may not be clear. We interpret what may be cloudy by drawing from passages that are crystal clear. When we do this we will have the checks and balances that prevent us from deviating from the truth of scripture.

The word ‘substance’ in this passage in Hebrews is the Greek word ‘hupostasis’ which means foundation or full assurance. This is different from the word ‘substance’ found in Luke 8:3, “Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.” This word substance is the word ‘huparchonta’ which means goods or possessions. In Luke the word is a physical possession but in Hebrews it is a sure foundation or something we can have confidence in. Even if we did not have the ability to look of the Greek meanings, we can still understand and benefit from this passage by drawing from our understanding of the entire Bible. Since we know that what God is teaching must and always will agree with what He has already said, we can be confident in our understanding by looking at how the Bible interprets passages that may not be clear.

Tying scripture to scripture not only helps to understand what is unclear, but it also is extremely valuable for understanding the depth of what God is teaching in a portion of scripture. For an example, let’s look at the Bible’s doctrine on unity. First look at 1 Corinthians 1:

¹⁰ Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

We can fully understand what is being taught by bringing in passages from two other books in the New Testament. This passage in 1 Corinthians commands us to have unity and not be divided. Alone the meaning is clear, but some get confused with the modern concept of unity at all cost. This passage tells us to be knit together by having the same mind and the same judgment. What if someone claims that God is doing something new and that those who don’t agree are causing disunity in the church? This is clarified by examining Romans 16:17-18   

¹⁷ Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.  ¹⁸ For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.

What causes divisions in the church? According to the Bible, those who teach or walk contrary to the doctrine we have learned through the scripture are the cause of divisions. In this case we are not commanded to be unified, but to avoid these people for they do not serve Jesus Christ. So you can see that the doctrine of unity is clarified by drawing from the context of the rest of scripture. In 1 Corinthians we are told to have unity, in Romans we are told what causes divisions and who we should separate from, and in Ephesians we are told how to accomplish unity. Look at Ephesians 4:11-16  

¹¹ And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,  ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,  ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;  ¹⁴ that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,  ¹⁵ but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head -- Christ --  ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

How does the church come to the unity of the faith and have the same mind as discussed in 1 Corinthians? This is accomplished by church leaders God has appointed to equip the saints of God for the ministry. Teachers, preachers, evangelists, prophets and the word taught from the apostles themselves edifies the church and equips them – not only for ministry, but also shows us how to be knit together with the body of the church as we grow into the head which is Christ. To be perfectly joined together, we must be taught biblical doctrine by those appointed by God. The only way to be knit together is to be drawn into the head of Christ and the only way to abide in Christ is to obey the word (John 15). It is impossible to have disunity with Christ and be unified with the body of Christ. A body without Christ is a corpse. They may be unified, but this is worthless. When the Bible talks of unity, it is always being unified with those who are unified with Christ. If someone calls you to reject the word and detach from the head in order to have unity, they are the division and do not serve Christ.

So you can see that when we have a broad perspective of the entirety of scripture, this gives us a sure foundation in which to understand the doctrines (teaching) of scripture. Having the big picture helps to identify errors and helps us to understand truth. The only way to tie it all together is to be diligent to study the word and learn how to rightly divide the word of truth. When your understanding comes from God, you will be approved and you will be able to divide the word so that you can accurately take the teaching on a specific topic and accurately divide it out of the entirety of God’s word. The Bible instructs us to accurately divide the word of truth. This is only possible when we are diligent to know the word so that we can clearly see where to accurately divide it.

Journaling

Journaling is a powerful tool in Bible study. In fact, my written studies are nothing more than journaling organized into a teachable format. The reason journaling is so powerful is because this practice causes us to discipline ourselves so that we listen to the Holy Spirit as He teaches us the truths of God’s word. It is vital that you understand that the Holy Spirit teaches you the word without the need of a guide or instructor. In fact, I did not really begin to grow until I left my books behind and began to study the scripture without any mediator between me and the word. The outside influences have a tendency to blind us from the teaching of God. Even though they are well intentioned, study guides are a hindrance to truly understanding the word. I realize that this is a radical statement but I can tell you from personal experience that I never saw the deeper things of God until I started looking to God as my Teacher. The Bible affirms this. Look at the words of Jesus in John 6:

⁴⁵ "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.

If you will listen and incline your ear as you seek God through the scriptures, you will be taught by God. It is God’s desire to teach you and as we have already seen in 1 John, you do not need any man to teach you for you have the anointing of the Holy Spirit and He is your teacher. Look at this amazing passage in Psalm 119:97-105   

⁹⁷ Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.  ⁹⁸ You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; For they are ever with me.  ⁹⁹ I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation.  ¹⁰⁰ I understand more than the ancients, Because I keep Your precepts.  ¹⁰¹ I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Your word.  ¹⁰² I have not departed from Your judgments, For You Yourself have taught me.  ¹⁰³ How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!  ¹⁰⁴ Through Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.  ¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

This is in perfect agreement with the words of Jesus found in John 14:23-26  

²³ Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  ²⁴ "He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.  ²⁵ " These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.  ²⁶ "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

Notice that Jesus does not refer to ‘new revelations’ but rather the teaching of the word that has already been delivered. The Holy Spirit reminds us of the word and teaches us how to know, understand and live in the word so that we obtain the promise that we will walk in the love of God and abide in Him and He in us. Do you want to have more understanding than your teachers? Do you want to be wiser than your enemies and even have more understanding than the ancients (the teachers of the past)? All wisdom, understanding and knowledge comes from God alone. Look once again at one of the passages I live by in Proverbs 2:6-9   

⁶ For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;  ⁷ He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;  ⁸ He guards the paths of justice, And preserves the way of His saints.  ⁹ Then you will understand righteousness and justice, Equity and every good path.

How can the common man or woman have more understanding than their teachers or those of times past? It is simple – your understanding and wisdom is nothing. True understanding comes from God and since you have the promise that you will be taught by God, no wisdom, knowledge or understanding is out of your reach. If you trust in yourself or think that you can gain understanding by reading and studying, you are missing the mark. We study with our ears inclined to God’s wisdom and our heart seeking the Lord. We look expectantly to God to reveal these things to us. This is what journaling is all about. When I get that pen or begin typing, I am listening expectantly to the Spirit of God knowing that He is teaching me.

When I see a passage or see a topic that I feel inspired to write about, I don’t know what I am going to write. I feel God drawing me and I begin to write. Every time I spend time journaling I am amazed at what God teaches me through His word. I see things I never knew and were never taught. Journaling must be an act of faith. I believe God’s promise that He will teach me; therefore, I begin to write so that I can discover the amazing truths God is calling me near to teach me. It is like sitting at the feet of the Master eagerly seeking to discover the words of life that will change my life.

If you do these things you will discover that you also will learn more than your teachers for the understanding that comes from God comes only from God. I can teach you words but only God gives you knowledge, wisdom and understanding. This is how you discover that His truth is sweeter than honey, gives life, and becomes a light that guides our paths.

To journal, pick out a passage that you come across during your reading and dig in deeper. Begin to write what this passage means to you and write down other passages that come to mind. Nothing is more exciting than seeing the word of God come alive before your eyes and see God reveal to you the truths from scripture that you have never been taught and never would have been taught if you had not taken this time with God. Look at the book of Psalms. This is the journaling of King David as he wrote down what God was revealing to him. You and I serve the same God David served. God still reveals the truth of His word to those who seek Him. This is as close as you can get to seeing God face to face this side of eternity.

An amazing benefit of journaling is that you do not need to have already determined what a passage says to begin writing. We journal as we look expectantly to God to reveal the truth of the word to us. Most of my studies are revealed to me as I write and explore. I do not write about the knowledge I have already mastered, but instead I write expectantly knowing that God is going to reveal the word to me. Frequently I begin a study on a topic that has areas that I desire to understand and as I journal, God begins to teach me by bringing other scriptures to mind, making the meaning of the text plain and tying the passages I am discovering together in the context of the whole scripture. I begin with an inspiration to explore a topic God has stirred in my heart and I discover the word as I go. In the end I look back with amazement at what God has shown me that I did not know before. I begin with the uncertainty of what to even begin to write and I end with a deeper understanding of the word and see how my life can be enriched by applying God’s principles to my daily walk.

Find a place and start digging.

Reading for context is essential but there are other aspects to studying as well. Digging into the word is also very important. Our goal is to know the word, understand what is being taught and apply it continually to our lives. Look again at John 14:23-24  

²³ Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  ²⁴ "He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.

It is not the one who has the most knowledge that experiences the love of God but the one who keeps the word. Knowledge alone cannot benefit you. There will be times when we have to really dig in to draw out the meaning of what God is instructing. Since the Bible was written primarily in Hebrew and Greek, it has to be translated into English. Any time you translate from one language to another, there is a language gap. Most of the language gap is clarified through understanding the context, but there are times when looking deeper through a word study is a great benefit. Make no mistake about it, if you study the word faithfully and apply it to your life, you will succeed in the Christian life even if you don’t know the original text behind the words. Even so, there are great treasures to be gained by digging deeper into the word. Let me give an example of what I am talking about. For this example I am going to use the KJV.

The word ‘world’ in the KJV is used in two completely different contexts and easily missed if you are unaware that the original Greek words are different. Look at this passage from Matthew 28:

²⁰ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen

The word ‘world’ in this passage comes from the Greek word ‘aion’ which means, an unbroken age or period of time. Jesus is making it clear that He is in control and throughout this age of time, all believers can hold to the promise that He is with us and in complete control. Now look at 1 John 2:

¹⁵ Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  ¹⁶ For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.  ¹⁷ And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

The same English word is used, but the Greek word and the meanings are completely different. In this passage the word ‘world’ is the Greek word ‘kosmos’ which depending on the usage can mean government system, physical world, inhabitants of the earth, universe or arrangement of stars. This shouldn’t be too surprising since our English words have similar usages. The word ‘bare’ can mean something is empty, ‘the cupboard is bare; it can mean that someone is unclothed; it can mean to confess – to bare our soul; it can mean limited such as the bare necessities. There are many such words in any language. Since the context in this passage clearly refers to a world system, the meaning is clear. What is not clear is that there is more than one word being translated. It is important to realize that two completely different ideas are being communicated with the same word ‘world’. Knowing this shows that there is a benefit of doing word studies to discover a deeper understanding.

Even the old great preachers of the past committed themselves to word studies in order to gain a deeper understanding of what is being taught in a text. Charles Spurgeon spent forty or more hours a week studying the text and looking at the Greek meanings of the passages he was preaching on. This is why he was so effective bringing out deeper insights and communicating the truth of scripture in his messages. Spurgeon did not have concordances, modern lexicons or computer software. He was committed to manually searching out these truths by hand. Today we have more resources available than at any point in history. With our modern advanced Bible study software, we can do in minutes what once took hours. How is it that the modern church is so biblically illiterate while we have so much at our fingertips? The only possible answer is that we allow the word to be choked by crowding our lives with other things such as entertainment, hobbies, work and any number of other distractions. We must purposefully set aside time to study the word.

I heard a news report that the average American’s commute in metro cities is over an hour each way. Is there a better opportunity to listen to the Bible and start building our foundation of understanding? If we use this two hours a day for study, we can listen to the entire Bible in just over two weeks. Just in our commute alone, we can accomplish our quantity Bible study which will leave opportunity throughout the week to dig deeper in the word.

I have both the KJV and the NKJV on audio. During my road time I listen primarily to the KJV. I highly recommend the Alex Scourby version of the KJV on audio. He doesn’t just read the text, but he tells the message of the scripture by the emphasis he places on the events of each passage. I highly endorse this version of the Bible on audio. You can also listen to this online at http://www.audio-bible.com/bible/bible.html. I also like to listen to the NKJV while reading the KJV version of the Bible. I like to take study time doing this because it alerts me when there is a difference between the versions. This lets me know that this is likely a passage that will be better understood by looking up the Greek or Hebrew text.

It is also beneficial to mark and annotate your Bible. I like to get wide margin Bibles that give ample room to write information. I personally do not reference any of the commentaries in study Bibles; in fact, I don’t use study Bibles. I like a Bible with a very good concordance for looking up passages and that is all I use. The only exception is looking up historical information, reading archaeology, or looking at maps. The only study Bible I recommend to people is the Thompson Chain reference. It does not commentate but only provides references. This provides a good resource but does not distract the reader with someone’s opinion on a passage. It is much better to study for yourself and then consult others if you feel it is necessary. Trust the Spirit’s teaching and don’t put your trust in commentators. Commentators generally tow the denomination line and sometimes cloud controversial passages by explaining away scriptures that are not in agreement with the current church’s ideas.

Color coding is a good study tool. Use four or 8 colors to identify the passages being underlined. I found that four colors didn’t narrow the notations down enough so I use eight colors.

Finally, I want to mention the value of Bible memorization. There was a time when I thought scripture memorization was the most important study tool, but now I recommend investing the bulk of your study time in quantity reading. Scripture memorization has limited benefit unless we understand the context. Many people quote scripture out of context believing in error that the Bible teaches doctrines that in fact is contradictory to the biblical message. Nothing is more important than understanding the context of a passage. Every passage must be understood in the context of the complete thought surrounding it, the context of the book of the Bible it originates, and the context of the entirety of scripture. When you memorize, include all the supporting passages of the complete thought so that you have it in the right context. We are commanded to hide God’s word in our heart and this is done through study, journaling, and memorization.

If you obey God’s command to diligently study the word to show yourself approved by God, He will honor you by revealing the truths of scripture to you. If you take what He reveals and apply it to your life, God will reward you and continue to reveal the depth of the word to you. Apply what Psalm 19 says about the word of God to your life:

¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.  ¹¹ Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward.

The truths of scripture are truly more valuable than the finest gold or the wealth of the world. God has chosen to reveal Himself to you through His word. Everything God does in our lives has its foundation in the word and those who seek God with all their heart must do so through the word. Since God has given us a glimpse of Himself through the word He has given, if you truly want to know God and have an intimate fellowship with Him, it must be through the word He has given. If you do not care to study what God has given you, do not expect God to reveal more. Those who are ignorant of the word will be led into deception and will be carried about by every wind of doctrine that is presented with persuasive words. One thing that is required is that we are found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:2). To those who are faithful, more will be given but to those who are not faithful because they have not applied themselves to what has been given, what they have will be taken away (Matthew 13:12).

If you do not have a desire to study, pray earnestly that God will give you a love for His word and a desire to seek Him. As you do, God will draw you into His will through His word. God draws, but we must respond. Look at Psalm 27:

⁸ When You said, "Seek My face," My heart said to You, "Your face, LORD, I will seek."

Eddie Snipes
Exchanged Life Outreach
http://www.exchangedlife.com

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