First Step - Intro

How to Study the Bible

While God’s plan has been to give His people leaders and teachers, there is no substitute for personal study of the Bible. Many have found that they get more from their teachers when they become personally involved in regular Bible study.

One way of reading the Bible is to only draw conclusions from a passage once we’ve read it carefully and considered all the key words and events within it. After asking God’s Holy Spirit to help us, this kind of Bible study requires us to explore the Bible’s words with the intensity of a someone looking for something more valuable than gold (Proverbs 3:13-18).

This approach of Bible study follows this pattern:

Observation Interpretation Application

Step #1—Observation:

What does the context say? The primary purpose of this stage is to collect as many facts as possible about the context (the situation and substance) of the Bible text. We shouldn’t take anything for granted about the passage we’re reading. We need to ask and list as many questions as possible of the text: Who’s writing? Who are they writing to? Where? When? How? Why? What words need to be looked up to determine their meaning? What ‘flow of logic’ markers can be found, such as therefore, then, and, also, but, however, etc? What is the main point of the section? What recurring words indicate a main idea? What elements, arguments or illustrations does the author use to support their main point?

At this stage, a chapter might be outlined or a sentence pulled apart to see how the ideas of the author relate to one another. The purpose of this stage is to discover the meaning and point of the text.

How to Study the Bible

Step

#2—Interpretation:

What does the text mean? Only after doing the spade work of careful observation should we ask, “What does the author mean by these words, as part of the whole book or letter they have written?” We don’t ask “What do these words mean to me?” but “What did they mean to the original author? What was his intent?” The only way to discover what he really meant is by considering our observations from the author’s point of view.

While word definitions and meanings may have been noted in the step of observation, it is at the point of interpreting that we consider directly what the author is trying to say by his choice of words and illustrations.

Step

#3—Application:

What does this text mean to my life? Only after discovering the meaning of a text in its own biblical time and place are we able to ask, “What does this mean to me?” Care should be given to distinguish between cultural facts we need to simply consider and direct applications we need to live out straight away. We need to be able to highlight the main idea of the text before us.

What are the primary issues for me to pray about? What does this passage say about my relationship with God? As we answer these questions, the Bible explodes with significance for us today.

Adapted from How Can I Understand The Bible? © 1985, 1995, 2002 Our Daily Bread Ministries. Read more Bible teaching like this at www.discoveryseries.org