READ, STUDY, AND APPLY THE BIBLE
The main way that God speaks to you is through the Bible. Therefore, it is important to know how to read, study, and apply the Bible to your life. God describes himself in the Bible, teaches Christians who he is, what he thinks, and how he acts. Knowing God’s ways helps you make wise decisions that honor him. The Bible has also been described as “God’s instruction manual for living.” You should read it every day because Christians cannot spiritually thrive without it (Psalm 119:9-24). There are many different methods to study the Bible, but they all have a few essentials in common.
Overview understanding of the Bible. Some Christians suggest that a spiritual seeker or new Christian start reading the New Testament of the Bible about the life and ministry of Jesus in the Gospel of John, or one of the other gospels. Other Christians suggest starting with the beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis. Before you start reading the Bible, it is very helpful to read an accurate overview summary of the Bible so that you understand the overall theme and message of the Bible. See the web page “Has God spoken to you through the Bible?” and subpage “Overview of the Bible” on this website for a summary of two overviews of the Bible: one focusing on the “Redemption” of humanity theme in the Bible and the other taking a summary chronological overview of the Bible. Once you understand the theme and general chronological storyline of the Bible, you will better understand how each of the 66 books of the Bible fits into the overall theme and chronology of the Bible.
Plan a study time. Select a quiet time and place to study the Bible and make it a daily habit. Some people like to study the Bible early in the morning because there are less distractions early in the morning and our daily activities of working and living make it difficult to find time during the day. Other people study later in the evening.
Pray for incite. Pray to God-the Holy Spirit to help you understand the Bible passages that you are reading and studying. Use your own words. For example, “God, thanks for speaking to me through the Bible so that I will know who you are and what you want for my life. Holy Spirit, please help me understand the Bible, apply it to my life, and do what it says.”
Take notes. Write notes about what you discover and how it applies to your life. You may wish to underline or highlight key verses and or write notes in the margin of your Bible or take electronic notes if you use a computer, tablet, or mobile phone to read, study, and apply the Bible.
Context and background. You should always consider the context and background of the Bible verse(s) or book that you are reading and studying. Read the verses, chapters, and books before and after the text you are studying to understand the context. A good study Bible like the ESV, NIV, or Life Application Study Bibles are very helpful and will have an introduction to each book of the Bible that explains the book’s historical setting, themes, outline, and key Bible verses.
In regard to background, observe:
Who wrote the text?
Where was the author (geographic location and specific place) when the text was written?
When in history did the author write the text?
To whom was the author writing the text?
What type of genre is the text (laws, historical narrative, poetry, proverbs, prophecy, doctrine instruction letter/epistle, etc.)?
Why did the author write the text? A good study Bible like the ESV, NIV, or NLT Bibles are very helpful to review to determine the context and background.
Observe. What is the passage about according to the headings? Look for the theme or major lesson, repeating words or ideas, truths about God, and something striking that jumps out to you.
Message. As you read the Bible, use hermeneutics to determine and interpret the author’s intended meaning and God’s truths and values. What is the author trying to say? This is exegesis. Do not try to imply or insert your own presupposition, meaning, or bias into the text. This is eisegesis. What did the author mean in that culture? What would the author say in today’s culture?
Meditate. Meditation involves slowly reading the Bible text several times, allowing the Holy Spirit to help you interpret the text, and thoughtfully pondering on the objective truth about God in the text and how it moves you to take action in your life. Meditation can also involve prayerfully responding to the text through prayers of praise, confession, gratitude, or a request of God to fulfill a promise of God.
Apply. After you determine the context, background, message, and meditate on the Bible text, you should consider how to apply the text to your life, and apply it accordingly.
Biblical literature rules. There are three major types of laws in the Bible. There are moral laws that help people of every era determine right from wrong. There are ceremonial laws regarding the priests, sacrifices, and the temple that instructed Old Testament believers to maintain a proper relationship with God. There are civil laws that applied to the nation of Israel to govern it. Only the moral laws are directly applicable to your life today. You should also look for the principal behind the ceremonial laws and civil laws that indirectly apply to your life.
Historical narratives are story accounts that describe how God intervenes in the lives of ordinary people. You should summarize the theme (or major lesson) of the story account. You should also determine and distinguish between descriptive story accounts that only describe what happened and prescriptive story accounts that tell you how God wants you to act and respond in similar situations.
Over one-third of the Bible is poetry. To interpret poetry, you should first note the historical background of the poem. Second, you should determine the figurative language of poetry that is not meant to be understood literally. Third, look for truths about God in the poem.
Proverbs are general statements or precepts about how life usually works. Proverbs are not absolute promises. God provides the power for putting the proverbs into practice. But you must have a relationship with God and the Holy Spirit must be living in your life for you to benefit from the Bible’s proverbs.
There are 16 biblical books of prophecy in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. There are more prophecy books in the Bible than any other genre of books. Most of the time prophecy does not deal with predicting the future. The vast majority of the prophetic books simply confront sin in people’s lives and urge them (and you) to turn back to God. In other words, prophecy more often involves forthtelling the truth rather than foretelling the future. To interpret prophecy, you should first determine and distinguish between Bible history what has already been fulfilled from what as of yet is unfulfilled. Second, you should distinguish between figurative symbolic descriptions and literal descriptions.
There are 21 doctrine instruction letters/epistles in the New Testament. The apostle Paul wrote 13 of them. To interpret them, you should first consider the historical background of the letter/epistle by using your study Bible to determine the circumstances and reasons that the letter/epistle was written. Second, you should read the letter/epistle in its entirety before you try to interpret parts of it. Third, summarize the main point of the passage. You should not focus on minor details and blow them out of proportion. James L. Nicodem, Context: How to Understand the Bible (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2013), Kindle location 3734-4142.
Theological interpretations. The Bible’s theological interpretations involve studying various themes and Christian doctrines in the Bible. When examining Bible text from a theological perspective, the most important rule is that the Bible must always agree with itself because the entire Bible comes from the same mind of God as the ultimate author of the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21). The second rule to interpret theology is that God does not contradict himself when communicating through the Bible. That is why the best way to check your theological interpretation of Bible text is to compare your interpretation with what the rest of the Bible teaches on the same subject. There should be other Bible texts or passages that support your interpretation. Therefore, the Bible itself can prevent you from misinterpreting the Bible. Nicodem, Context: How to Understand the Bible, Kindle location 4150-4349.
Resources for Bible Study. The following are some helpful resources to study and apply the Bible to your life.
The most helpful resource for studying the Bible is a good study bible in an accurate modern translation such as the ESV, NIV, NLT, NASB, CIB, KJV, NKJ, NET, etc. The Life Application Study Bible is available in various Bible translations. See this website’s page, “Has God spoken to you through the Bible?” and the subpage “Modern Bible Translations” for descriptions of the various accurate modern Bible translations. Study Bibles have book introductions, timelines, outlines, themes, study notes, cross references (references to other Bible verses on the same topic), topic articles, short biographies on the major persons in the Bible, a concordance (an A to Z list of the most common words in the Bible with all the Bible verses that use that word), maps, a topical index, dictionary, etc.
A systematic theology is a textbook that covers every conceivable topic in the Bible in a systematic manner. You look up the topic in the table of contents or in the index at the end of the book and it will direct you to the pages where the author discusses that topic. An excellent systematic theology is Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994, Appendix 6 and glossary copyright 2000). Dr. Grudem is a highly respected theologian and Bible scholar. He is fair and gracious when presenting different theological interpretations on controversial issues. He writes in a very understandable manner for the average reader. It is a reference book of over 1,200 pages to keep on your bookshelf to refer to when you have a theological question about something you read in the Bible. A shorter condensed version of Dr. Grudem’s Systematic Theology is also by Wayne Grudem and edited by Jeff Purswell, Bible Doctrine: Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999).
A Bible software program or application like Logos Bible Software for a computer, tablet, or mobile phone will contain various versions of the Bible and reference tools. You can enter a Bible verse citation, word, or topic to quickly find the Bible verse or reference books or other books by Christian authors on a particular Bible verse, word, or topic.
A Bible dictionary such as Ronald F. Youngblood General Editor, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers: 1999) or David Noel Freedman, editor of Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Erdman Publishing, 2000). A Bible dictionary will provide you more thorough definitions and explanations of Bible words, and background articles on terms, topics, people, places, historical time periods, etc.
A concordance such as John R. Kohlenberger II, The NIV Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Third Edition: A Better Strong’s Bible Concordance (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2015). A concordance is an A to Z list of the most common words in the Bible with all the Bible verses that use that word.
A commentary such as Kenneth L. Barker, John R. Kohlenberger III, et. al., The Expositor’s Bible Commentary – Abridged Edition: Two-Volume Set (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004). This good abridged commentary provides verse-by verse explanations of the Bible along with charts, maps, tables and pictures. It provides the commentary of the 12-volume Expositor’s Bible Commentary, but without all the technical details, so that it is only two volumes. It presents the knowledge of 52 top biblical scholars and covers the Old and New Testaments in separate volumes. It also contains the Goodrick and Kohlenberger numbers for cross-referencing the Zondervan NIV Exhaustive Concordance.
Other helpful books on Bible Study include:
James L. Nicodem, Context: How to Understand the Bible (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2013)
James L. Nicodem, Epic: The Storyline of the Bible (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2013)
Henrietta C. Mears, What the Bible Is All About (Ventura, CA: Regal, 1997)
Benjaman Galan, MTS, ThM, Jessica Curiel, MA, et al. Bible Overview (Peabody, MA: Rose Publishing 2012).
Rick Warren, Rick Warren’s Bible Study Methods: Twelve Ways You Can Unlock God’s Word (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006).
Websites with free Bible study tools and Bible overview videos include:
www.biblegateway.com
www.biblestudytools.com
www.biblesavvy.com
www.bibleproject.com
Software and Applications (Apps) that are all Cloud Based and have free versions include:
Olive Tree, which is free, then expandable with frequent sales.
YouVersion, which is very popular, has many Bible translations, audio Bibles, and reading plans.
Logos Bible Software, which is an excellent Bible program/app, but may be overwhelming. It has different additional selections and levels to purchase.