Bible Study: Get More From God's Word

1.  Plan Time For Regular Study

The bible is still a very popular book. It is generally revered and respected. Most households own a copy. But it remains unread.... sort of like a family, or cultural heirloom. That might even be the case with you.

I know its there, I don't enjoy reading it, my mind drifts, I don't understand how to apply it to my life, I've already read it. 

God's plan for you will not be accomplished without regular contact with His word. God has given you His word as tool to be used in the work of preparing yourself, changing yourself, understanding your purpose. One of the works of the holy spirit is the washing of the Ephesians 5:25-26.

2. Let The Bible Interpret Itself

2 Timothy 2:15 "rightly dividing" ... means to cut straight [analogy of surgeon operating on spleen but ends up cutting out a liver]

Once you have committed yourself to regularly reading the word of God it is good to have some guidelines. Passionate readers of the bible can still take it in weird, anti-social directions. They "discover" things that lead them to separate themself from the body of Christ. You want to guard against that!

A) If you come upon a particular verse you find confusing/unclear/contradictory, then let other more direct/clear verses in the bible provide understanding.

Bible verses and passages do not contradict one another... they complement one another. Some of the concepts God's word tackles are huge/deep/require thought. The bible may have a lot to say about a subject like salvation. One verse or passage cannot encapsulate it all. The bible approaches the subject from various angle and various points of view. You have to put all the angles together to come up with the whole teaching.

B) Don't force your personal point of view onto the word of God. Instead use context and other relevant scriptures to arrive at the correct meaning. 2 Peter 1:20.

Understanding the context begins with understanding the types of biblical writing you’re reading. Some of the bible is in the form of historic narrative, short biographies, some is poetry, songs, rhymes, contracts [like the second half of Exodus], litigation, jurisprudence, case law [large portions of Numbers and Deuteronomy], dreams and symbols, personal letters, sermons, official court correspondence.

[Discuss the ABC song]

Considering the context also means viewing the verses before, and after the text being studied. If you pluck a verse out of the larger passage and try to interpret it with little or no regard for the surrounding subject matter. You can lead yourself into grave error.

Example: Genesis 3:4 ... so the bible says I will not die... I could run with that and say "human beings have an immortal soul"...  in which case the bible contradicts itself because other verses indicate that I do not have immortal life… or I could say "the bible does not correlate to human experience. We all know from simple observance that human beings die"… in which case the bible is in conflict with science.

Consider the context: who was speaking? Satan who is a liar. In the surrounding verses Genesis 2:16-17 we learn that the Creator said they would die. So verse 4is our record of a lie being told. Genesis 3:14-15 goes on to show the serpent was punished for lying.

Mark 7:19 some pull this out of context as a declaration that all animal flesh is suitable for food. But the context of the chapter is hand washing, not clean and unclean meat, they are discussing washing dirt off your hands as a sign of righteousness.

You want to look at the context and all the other scriptures on the subject.

3. Study Topics - Dig Deeper

Acts 28:23 Paul taught about Jesus as the promised Messiah using all the scriptures. He was using a wide variety of scriptural references to make his point about a given topic.

2 Corinthians 2:13  comparing spiritual truth with spiritual truth. Using the bible to interpret the bible.

When you are reading and studying God's word, at various times you should concentrate on specific books of the bible, key doctrines, or subjects. Gather the relevant scriptures on the matter. This allows you to see what the word of God says on a particular topic. [describing an elephant]

For those of you who are new to all this, a good way to work your way through the important foundational topics is to use the --> United Church of God's bible study course.

4. Use Study Aids

The Church's bible study course will walk you through the important foundational topics. The booklets published by the Church will do likewise. But at some point you are going to want to look into topics that interest you, or relate directly to what is going on in your life at the moment [diligence, patience, anger].

Study aids can help you look into topics. I am going to list the most common types in a form of hierarchy. Starting with those least likely to inject the opinions and biases of the editor down to those that are the most likely to be filled with false teaching and the traditions of men.

Concordance: helps you find bible words. A concordance takes each word contained in the bible and then lists every verse where that word is found. For example you might turn a page in the concordance which features "P" words. You might see the word patience and then 22 scripture references showing where you can find the word in your bible. You can then read all those verses about patience in the bible to get that more complete understanding we have talked about. Note: printed concordances are usually keyed to the KJV.

These days most bible programs feature a digital concordance that allows you to look up all the occurrence of a given word as if the bible were a type of database. Same concept: it allows you to gather all the verses on you topic.

You want to be sure you go into an actual bible and look at them so you can get the context. Obscuring of context is probably the biggest negative for using a bible on you tablet or phone. However they are excellent for looking up scriptures and searching. 

Dictionary/Lexicon: you might look up all the instances of a word like “patience” in your bible. Then you might want to investigate the meaning of the word with a dictionary or lexicon. A dictionary or lexicon is going to give you more insight into the meaning of the word and tie it into other biblical concepts. Remember the bible in your lap is a translation from a different language so the meaning might be a little different. You'll want to know that.

Topical Bible: these will generally provide a listing of scripture verses by topic rather than just key word.

Bible Encyclopedias: these add historical context, setting to a given topic. These are more likely to introduce the bias of the author, and can introduce false teachings, false traditions etc.

Commentaries & Study Bibles: these offer viewpoints on books of the bible and/or verse by verse comments from a particular writer. Commentaries are highly subject to the biases of the author. Commentaries require caution. They can range from conservative [an author who at least believes scripture is God inspired] to very liberal [authors who may view scripture as merely a historic document written by human being with their own agenda].

Caveat: we do not establish doctrine by what these authors write in these bible helps. Doctrine is established by letting the bible interpret the bible.

5. Read the Whole Bible

Much of the bible is narrative, creation, Abraham’s family, Israel, life of Jesus. Other books require a different approach, law, poetry, wisdom sayings … etc. Reading the whole bible all the way through ensures you become aware of all the bible says about various matters. Only studying topics may mean you miss out on a wide variety of subject material.  

A helpful approach to reading the bible through is to use a reading plan. There are lots of these out there. The most common type is a daily reading plan with the goal of getting a person through all the bible in 365 days… a few OT passages and a few NT passages each day. They work!

You’ll never get it all in one reading. Its important to read and re-read. The washing of the word is a life-long endeavor.

During the course of the message I referenced a reading plan which was distributed to everyone present. If you are interested you can get a PDFversion here: Bible Reading Plan

6. Compare Different Translations

God's word is given to us in the format of a written document. The bible was originally written in Hebrew, a little bit of Aramaic, and Greek.

In addition to originally being written in a different language, God's word is also written within the context of human culture. God's word is not written as if it all occurring in a supernatural world beyond the clouds. God's instruction for us are written in the context of the customs, traditions, laws, worldview, history of ancient Israel, Persia, Greece, and Rome… firmly grounded in reality and human history.

Thoughts and ideas are expressed differently from person to person [or from God to a person] depending on the culture they are in.

An English translation of the bible is therefore the handiwork of translators, sometimes a committee, sometimes a single person. A translation is merely a tool to help you understand what is written. The translation itself is not sacred. It is an attempt to transmit to you that which is sacred.

Different translators are going to express ideas in different ways.

One one end of the spectrum you would have a transliteration. Where each Greek or Hebrew word is replaced with a suitable English word.  A transliteration is reliable but almost impossible to read. Its accuracy depends on the choice of English words.

A step further would be something like the KJV. Many times the KJV inserts additional words and changes the order of the words to conform to English grammar and make the sentences flow in a manner more closely representing English.

The King James version [and NKJV] is very reliable.  You definitely want to have a KJV bible since it is used and the key for other bible study tools like concordances, lexicons, and dictionaries. But it can be difficult to understand for modern day readers.

The next step would be a “thought for thought translation” like the NIV or the ESV. These types of translations are much better at conveying the meaning of the ancient forms of speech in modern language.

Example:

NKJV Hebrews 2:17-18 <--> NIV Hebrews 2:17-18

Another type of translation is a paraphrase version like the NLT or Good News bible. These are good for children and light reading but are next to useless for doctrine.

So you want to read the sections of scripture you are studying in more than one translation. A good tool for this is a parallel bible.... where on a single page one column might be the KJV and the other might be the NIV. Digital bibles have made reading parallel translations much easier than in the past.

Regardless of which version of the bible you use the important point is that you use it!

7. Seek Guidance From God's Church & Ministry

Acts 8:30-31, Romans 10:14-15, Matthew 28:19-20

The church of God is assigned the task of teaching those who would be disciples. The disciples responsibility is to hear and to heed.

What is the Church? It’s a group of people led by God's spirit. Fellowship with these people can help you learn the spiritual truths taught by J.C.

1 Timothy 3:15 - doctrine and proper understanding begins with the Church of God.

1 Titus 1:5-9 - the elders are the ministry and must teach as they have been taught

1 Thessalonians 5:21-20 - your responsibility 

Jesus warned that deceivers would come into the church, the apostles warned that deceivers would come into the church... “I know after I depart ravenous wolves will come among you”

The ministry must remain faithful to the truth... but how do you know if they are faithful?

Revelation 14:12 the church will be know by its commandment keeping. Isaiah 8:20 ... to make this call, you need to know what is in God's word and what it means.

Get more from your bible… do this and you’ll get more from the Sabbath as well. 

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