How to Study the Bible - Week 2 Session 2

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. (Colossians 3:12–13)

Learn to slow down, dine on a paragraph, and read for two simple things: what to believe and what to obey.

Are There Boring Passages in the Bible?

Someone texted in a great question about how to study the "boring" passages—lists, lineages, measurements. I would encourage you to begin in narrative passages or in the Epistles. There are different genres of Scripture, and narrative is largely the historical stories—books like 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Ruth, the Gospels, and Acts. Start there and in the Epistles, which we'll look at a lot tonight.

As you grow in understanding those passages, your hunger will increase for things that at first don't taste quite as good. You remember as a kid certain foods seemed distasteful—mushrooms, maybe—but as your palate develops, your taste changes. I'll be candid: when I hit a long genealogy in Chronicles, sometimes I'll skip ahead if I already know what's there. But there is real value in digging into those lists, seeing the connections, and doing what we'll later call character studies. God listed those names for a reason. The greetings list at the end of Romans, for example, teaches us a lot about the early church. Sometimes it just takes developing a taste for passages you don't yet have a taste for.

What Did James Have to Read?

Someone asked what Scriptures James, the brother of Jesus, had when he wrote. James is very likely the first written work of the New Testament, even though it appears later in our Bibles. So what did he have? Two things to keep in mind.

First, Acts 2 says the early church "continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching." The initial things being taught were the teachings of Christ, delivered by the apostles who had been with Him three and a half years. Jesus commissioned them to make disciples, "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you."

Second, they had the Old Testament Scriptures. The Jewish Canon existed at the time of Christ, also available in Greek through the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures from 285 BC. They had the Torah, the writings, the history books, and the Psalms, which were rich and important to the Jewish people. They also had extra-biblical rabbinical writings—commentary on the Old Testament.

Very early on, the church began to recognize Paul's letters as Scripture. Peter refers to Paul's letters as Scripture—and even admits Paul is sometimes hard to understand. If you've found Paul hard to understand, you're in good company with the apostle Peter. The Gospels began circulating within about 25 years of the resurrection and were also recognized as Scripture; Luke's writings are even cited as Scripture in later New Testament works.

The Apocrypha and the Role of the Spirit

Someone asked about the apocryphal books in the Catholic Bible. The Roman Catholic Bible has additional books in the Old Testament that Protestants do not consider canonical—Tobit, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, among others. Through a significant portion of church history these were not considered part of the Canon. That doesn't mean they lack historic value. First and Second Maccabees tell us about the intertestamental period—those several hundred years between Malachi and Matthew—describing events in Israel under the Greek Empire, the Ptolemies and Seleucids. They give insight into Jewish theology during that time, but Protestants have not held them to be canonical.

As for the role of the Holy Spirit and personal revelation in study: the Spirit is absolutely essential. Jesus promised the Spirit of truth would guide us into all truth. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, so God can give us wisdom and understanding in His Word—and we should ask Him to. But there is real danger when people say "God told me this." Put it up to the plumb line of Scripture. Many Christians have become self-deceived by assuming they heard something not in line with Scripture. God may reveal certain things, but chiefly and primarily His revelation is always Scripture, and we must use the Word to judge what we believe.

The Bible as Food We Must Digest

The Bible uses food metaphors—milk for the newborn, solid food for the growing, bread for the hungry. These are helpful because food is something we interact with every day; you will die if you don't eat consistently. In America we don't have a problem with that. We understand consuming food to be nourished and grow.

The same is true of God's Word. If we're going to grow spiritually, we must consume it—but we must also digest it. Think of an eating disorder where someone binges and purges; they consume but never digest, and it brings no sustenance. God's Word must become a part of our lives. So how do we consume and digest it for growth? There are many methods. Tonight we'll talk about devotional Bible study; later we'll cover purposeful study and inductive study.

Slowing Down to Dine

What I'm sharing tonight is simple—so simple it's almost difficult, because I want to slow you down. One problem Christians face is a buffet mindset. January 1st comes, and we grab a "read the Bible in a year" plan. For years I read through the Robert Murray McShane plan—chapters in the New Testament, the Old Testament, and the Psalms every day. The only way to keep up with a job and children is to speed-read.

That has value for the big picture, but the problem is you get a couple days behind, then five days behind, then you have 47 chapters to catch up on. It becomes drudgery, and people give up. My advice when you fall behind: just start where you are today. But even then, it can feel like gorging on Scripture until you're going to throw up. I want you to slow down and dine on a few verses, a paragraph.

Our Bible is divided into chapters and verses, which seems to compel us to read a whole chapter. But sometimes you just read three, four, five verses—a paragraph. There are reader Bibles that lay the text out in paragraphs rather than verse-by-verse columns; that's the format I've taught from and read from for years. We've handed out Bible journals like that when we went through Esther and Nehemiah—single books in reader format with room to write—precisely to slow you down.

When I study Philippians—my favorite book, which I've read dozens of times and translated from Greek—working in the original language forces me to slow down. It might take me twenty minutes to break apart two or three verses. I'm not asking you to learn Greek; I'm using this method to do for you what Greek does for me: force you to slow down so you consume enough for growth.

The Aim: Truths to Believe and Truths to Obey

The aim of devotional Bible study is very simple. We look for two specific things: truths to believe (doctrines) and truths to obey (commands). This works especially well in the Epistles, which is the bulk of the New Testament and where many Christians spend their time.

When we get to word studies in a few weeks, we'll see that Greek verbs have moods—the indicative mood gives us doctrines to believe, and the imperative mood gives us commands to obey. But you don't need a Greek Lexicon. Looking only at the English Bible, we hunt for truths to believe and truths to obey. That's the whole extent of devotional Bible study.

All you need is a Bible, a pen, and a piece of paper. You don't need a commentary, concordance, Bible dictionary, encyclopedia, lexicon, Blue Letter Bible, or Logos. Just write the reference at the top of the page and maybe copy out the text.

Working Through Colossians 3:12–13

Start by praying: "God, open my eyes to behold wonders from Your Word." Then read the passage—twice, then in a different version. At blueletterbible.org you can read for free in the NIV, NLT, CSB, NASB, ESV, KJV, and NKJV. Read it multiple times to get the flow into your mind.

A note on translations: the NKJV is a word-for-word translation, trying to find the best English word for the Greek. The closest word-for-word English translation to the Greek is the NASB. The NKJV, ESV, and CSB are also more word-for-word. The other paradigm is thought-for-thought—the NLT, the Living Bible, the Amplified, and the NIV. You'll see similarities and differences because one Greek word can have a dozen English meanings—a semantic range—and translation teams work hard to capture it. Every translation I mentioned is excellent. The Passion Translation, in my opinion, is only good for the trash. And the New World Translation that may show up at your door is not helpful.

Now work through it step by step. "Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved"—stop. That's something to believe: I am elect of God, I am holy, I am beloved. Some here struggle even with that. "Holy" is the same word translated "saint." If you came from a Roman Catholic background where a saint must be canonized, you may say, "That's not me." But this passage teaches: I am elect, holy, beloved. Write it down.

Next: "put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering." That's a command—something to obey. Then verse 13: "bearing with one another"—a command—"and forgiving one another"—a command. You may even find the Holy Spirit reminding you of someone you're angry with, and now you face the command to forgive. "If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you"—there's another doctrine—"so you also must do"—another command.

So I write down eight things: I am elect of God, I am holy, I am beloved, I am forgiven of God; and things to obey—put on tender mercies, bear with one another, forgive others, forgive as I have been forgiven. If all you did in the morning was pray, read, and write that out in fifteen or twenty minutes, you'd have something to share with your spouse. You wouldn't need the Greek tense; you'd simply share what you learned: the text says God loves me.

I took a class on cognitive behavioral therapy, and it's striking how well it fits teaching the Bible. Its aim is to take what is true and change our thinking to conform to it—exactly what we do when we bring our thinking into alignment with what the Bible teaches. The Bible says I am a saint—not by how saintly I've been, but because God loved me and forgave me. That sounds like the gospel in just two verses.

Working Through 2 Timothy 3:16–4:5

After praying and reading in multiple versions, walk through it slowly. When I study to teach, I keep four or five English versions open at once. Paul writes, "I charge you therefore." Whenever you see therefore, ask what it's there for—it points back, here to 3:16–17, that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction.

Then we find doctrine: "the Lord Jesus Christ." That's not His first, middle, and last name—there's theology there. He is Lord (Greek kurios, Master) and He is Christ (Hebrew mashiach, the anointed One the prophets awaited). More doctrine: He "will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom." He is the Judge; He will appear; there is a kingdom coming. I don't need every detail—I just observe that it's there.

Down further: "the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears." I notice a group—"they"—who will turn from good teaching, heap up teachers, and be turned aside to fables. I don't have to answer who they are or what the fables are; I just note that the text says it. These may be among those judged by the Lord.

Now the commands: "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort"—all imperatives—"with all longsuffering and teaching." And what do we preach with? The Word, which 3:16 says is profitable to convince, rebuke, and correct. Then in contrast to "they": "But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry"—commands, commands, commands.

So I'd make two columns. Things to believe: Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Christ, Jesus will judge the living and dead at His appearing and His kingdom, and there is a group who will not endure sound doctrine. Things to obey: preach the Word, be ready, convince, rebuke, exhort, be watchful, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. The fullness of our calling is fulfilled when we share the good news of who He is with others. Doing this might take thirty or forty minutes and produce a page of notes—time that is not wasted.

Working Through Ephesians 4:17–24

A sideline: Paul is the king of the run-on sentence; the grammar teachers would have red marks everywhere. After praying and reading it in several versions—NKJV, NLT, NIV, perhaps the J.B. Phillips paraphrase or The Message as part of study—go through it slowly, rightly dividing the word of truth.

"You should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk." That reads like a command (technically an infinitive, but it functions as an exhortation). Now there's a contrast between me and Gentiles. How do Gentiles walk? "In the futility of their mind," with understanding "darkened," "alienated from the life of God." Why? "Because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts." We can set aside everything we thought we knew about Gentiles and simply say: they are not connected to God, they don't know the way of salvation, and as a result they are "past feeling," desensitized—their conscience no longer working—"given over to lewdness" and "uncleanness with greediness."

"But you have not so learned Christ." Something is different about you because you've learned what they have not. "If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus." There's a truth to dwell on—the truth is in Jesus. Then commands: "put off... the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts," "be renewed in the spirit of your mind," and "put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness."

You could spend five days on this one paragraph, slowly underlining and writing down every truth to believe and every command to obey. "What does it mean that the truth is in Jesus?" "What does it mean that Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind?"—walk around Escondido and you'll see emptiness and vanity. "What does it mean to be past feeling, given over to sin so that you're almost incapable of doing right?" Note them, and you can chase the questions later. This is devotional Bible study.

The TIPS Method

After prayer, study the Bible this way—TIPS:

T — Identify the Truths in the passage: truths to believe (doctrines) and truths to obey (commands). Circle, underline, write them down.

I — Examine myself in light of those truths. Do I believe I am holy, beloved, forgiven? Or do I think I could never be good enough, never be loved, never be forgiven? Do I actually do these things—am I bearing with and forgiving others as God has forgiven me? Be honest. Write "no, I struggle with forgiving people," even naming the person you're having a hard time forgiving.

P — Pray and plan to obey. "God, help me to bear with so-and-so, help me to forgive the person I actually kind of hate." Be honest in your prayers. David was honest about his anger at his enemies—even praying imprecatory prayers like "break their teeth in their mouth." That's God-honoring because it hands vengeance to God rather than taking it into your own hands.

O — Obey with the Spirit's help. "God, help me by Your Spirit to be patient with this person, because in and of myself I'm not." Patience, love, and joy are fruit of the Spirit. "Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation," David prayed at his lowest. Be honest with God—you're not perfect, and He already knows it.

The Homework

This week you have homework that does exactly this. Choose three passages from the selected Epistles—Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, James, and 1 John. Take 20 to 30 minutes, three times this week. Step one, pray. Step two, read the passage slowly two or three times in multiple versions. Step three, identify the truths to believe—you don't have to be perfectly right. Step four, identify the commands to obey. Stay in the passage you're studying; don't jump to another verse it reminds you of. There's space at the bottom for your thoughts. Yes, you're turning it in next week, with your name at the top. That's accountability—and it's necessary and important.

Questions

Memorizing the books of the Bible? Search "books of the Bible song" on YouTube. Otherwise it's repetition, repetition, repetition, helped by mnemonics like "Gentiles eat pork chops" (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians).

How many verses to read? As Gordon Fee's book encourages and as I'll keep driving home: read the Bible in paragraphs. Get a reader Bible, use the YouVersion app, or go to blueletterbible.org, select a version, and choose the paragraph option.

A journal with this method? I just use a plain journal—I love the little Moleskines, though the Amazon Basics ones are cheaper—writing the verse at the top and then columns for truths to believe and truths to obey.

On translations and Gordon Fee: Every Bible teacher has biases. There are two primary manuscript sources behind English translations: the Textus Receptus (the "received text") behind the KJV and NKJV, and the Westcott and Hort texts behind most modern translations. That's why you'll see notes that "some manuscripts omit" a verse—this is the field of critical textual analysis. The divergences are not huge and don't create major doctrinal inconsistencies. My preference is the NKJV. Fee favors the NIV largely because it's an easier read, but the NIV is a thought-for-thought translation; if you want the closest to the Greek, use the NASB (now updated in the 2020 edition, which renders the divine name "Yahweh" in the Old Testament). Read from multiple versions and see how they align.

Applying the Old Testament to the New Testament Christian: I'm a history buff and love the Old Testament and seeing its connections. But it's challenging—our pastors' meeting today wrestled with Deuteronomy 22. There are things in the Old Testament that aren't culturally correct with 21st-century America, and many people shy away because it's hard. We come with a presupposition—"God, this is Your Word, help us see how to make sense of it and find the underlying principle." When we study tools in a couple weeks, I'll show you commentaries, concordances, lexicons, Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias, where to find them free, and I'll post resources like my Acts timeline and an Old Testament history timeline. I highly recommend reading the New Testament chronologically alongside Acts to see when and where the books were written. The Bible is the most studied book that has ever existed, and there are wonderful free resources available.

Closing Prayer

Father God, stir in us a love and a desire for Your Word that is on the same level as our appetite for food—that we desire it more than our daily food. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.