How to study the Bible — why, how, and the tools that help

From a Sunday school class

What the Bible is

We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the verbally and plenarily inspired Word of God — inspired in every word and complete in every respect. They're inerrant, infallible, and God-breathed, and therefore the final authority for faith and life. The sixty-six books are the complete revelation of God to man. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:16–17). "The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter 1:21).

The Bible is from God. God used men to write it — in their language, with their knowledge and experience. The way we believe Jesus is fully God and fully man, the Bible is 100% written by man and 100% written by God. And the Bible we hold is a preservation of that inspiration: the originals were inspired by God and have been preserved by God.

Why study it?

Because it's commanded: "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). Because it's commended: Timothy had known the sacred Scriptures from childhood, and they were "able to make thee wise unto salvation" (2 Timothy 3:15). Because it's beneficial: it's profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and training; "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee" (Psalm 119:11); it's "living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword" (Hebrews 4:12). And because it's the example: Stephen preached from Scripture (Acts 7), Paul wrote "as it is written" more than twenty times, and when Jesus was tempted He answered every time with "It is written" (Matthew 4).

How should we study it?

Thoroughly. The Bible isn't just a book you read; it's a book you study. It should make you think, wonder, ponder what you've read, what it means, and how to apply it.

Consistently. We tend to take some passages at face value and say others need to be explained further — usually depending on which conclusion we'd prefer. Give every passage the same honest attention. Don't treat one with one mindset and dismiss another with the same mindset.

Accurately. The Bible was written in different styles, and we read it accordingly. You don't read a novel like a history book or a legal document like a love letter. The Old Testament has law, poetry, history, and prophecy; the New Testament has Gospels, history, letters, and apocalypse. Always ask: what did the writer want his reader to get from this?

Historically. As much as you can, sit in the seat of the original reader. An actor doesn't just recite lines; he becomes the character. When you read the Bible, don't just read lines — become the reader. Be Timothy opening a letter from Paul. Who was he? How old? What was he doing, where was he living, how was he raised? Before we started our Romans study we spent several weeks just laying groundwork — who wrote it, who read it, where they lived, what the culture was like — and every verse afterward made more sense for it.

Hermeneutics in four steps

Hermeneutics is the art and science of interpreting Scripture. Art, because you get better at it. Science, because there are real rules. The goal is to arrive at the author's intent. Four steps: observation — what does the text actually say? Interpretation — what did it mean to the original audience? Principle — what's the truth here that holds for all time? Application — how do I live it?

Exegesis, not eisegesis

Exegesis draws truth out of the text. Eisegesis reads our ideas into it. We want to be sure we're doing the first. Philippians 4:13, Jeremiah 29:11, and 2 Chronicles 7:14 are three verses that get pulled out of context constantly — each one meant something specific to its first readers, and that meaning is where the application has to start. Always ask what the author was trying to get his listener to understand and take away.

Kinds of study

You can study a topic (worship, atonement, creation), a person (Jesus, Paul, Joseph), a place (Jerusalem, Nineveh, Babylon), a verse (cross-referencing it, defining its words), a chapter, or a whole book. The purpose is always the same: to understand a word or thought so that when you read it you know what the author means and can apply it; to confirm or correct what you previously understood (I once assumed I knew what "worship" meant — a word study changed that); and to understand the whole of Scripture better.

Four rules of the road

Never give up things you know for sure for things you don't know for sure. "We know in part" (1 Corinthians 13:9) — we're all working a puzzle that isn't finished. Work at applying the truths that are clear; as Mark Twain supposedly said, it wasn't the parts of the Bible he didn't understand that troubled him, but the parts he did. Let the Bible explain itself as much as possible — a dictionary and a concordance are your best friends, and finding a word's definition and its other uses across Scripture will be the most accurate and most impactful thing you do. And be slow to tear down a wall before you understand why it was put up.

Practical tips and tools

Read the Bible. Write down what you find. Note people, places, and when things happened. Look for ways to apply what you learn. And share it with someone.

Tools worth having: a concordance (Strong's, Cruden's); a good dictionary (Webster's 1828 is wonderful for older English; Vine's for New Testament words); a few trustworthy commentaries (Wiersbe, Phillips, Matthew Henry); and free online tools like Blue Letter Bible and Precept Austin. And TheWay Bible app puts reading, study, journaling, and prayer in one place on your phone.

Start here

You can own every tool on that list and still not know God. A concordance has never saved anybody. Knowing the Book is not the same as knowing the One who wrote it. And the Book says plainly that you've sinned, that Jesus died in your place and rose on the third day, and that whoever calls on Him gets saved. Do that first, before the study Bible and the highlighters. Then the whole thing opens up, because the Spirit of God who inspired it will be living in you while you read it.

If He already is, then here's your week. Pick one word. One. A word you've read a hundred times and never actually defined — grace, fear, redeem, whatever shows up in your reading tomorrow. Look it up in a dictionary. Run it through a concordance. Write down what you find in your own handwriting, and tell one person about it before Sunday.

That's the whole method. You can start tonight.

Related: How to read the Bible for the first time and Bible study in Big Rapids.