Chapter 2: Are You Ready for Serious Bible Study?
Are You Ready for Serious Bible Study?
Our personal daily devotional time is very important, but it may not be the equivalent of serious Bible study. We need both. Reading the Bible systematically in a devotional way can teach us basic Bible history and doctrine, and as we meditate and pray, we “abide in Christ” (John 15:1–17). We express our love for the Lord, we worship Him, and we pray for ourselves and others. The Lord prepares and equips us for the day before us so that we can face it courageously and live victoriously. But there is more.
Personal Bible study also should be regular and systematic, but it is not necessarily done every day, except perhaps by pastors and teachers who minister to others. When I was in the pastorate and also teaching ministerial students, I maintained a strict study schedule that was bolstered by my daily devotional time—and there were times when the two beautifully blended. Your devotional time is like eating a daily meal, while serious Bible study is like visiting the health club and exercising. We can read the Bible devotionally, but we also need to study it doctrinally, historically, and thematically. We need to see what each book in the Bible says and how it relates to the other books. We need to study the Word of God in depth so that we may know what is right, what is not right, how to get right, and how to stay right. In our daily devotional time, we rarely use other books to help us understand the Bible, except perhaps a daily devotional guide, while serious students consult basic books that are like keys that open the doors to deeper Bible knowledge. Our goal in all this is to grow toward maturity. Read Hebrews 5:12–14.
Those Who Are Born Again
The first requirement for successful Bible study is personal faith in Jesus Christ, your Savior and Lord: “But the natural [unsaved] man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). John chapter 3 introduces us to Nicodemus, “the teacher of Israel” (v. 10) who could not understand how to be born again. He came to Jesus at night and proved that he was “in the dark” spiritually. But he listened to what Jesus taught him, and eventually he was born again (John 19:38–42).
Please understand that unbelievers ought to read the Bible—especially John’s gospel—and take it to heart; but until the Holy Spirit begins to work, their understanding is limited. Their reading is usually routine and not seriously penetrating, but as the Lord works, He may open their eyes and hearts and bring them to saving faith. During my years of ministry, I have heard unconverted religious people teach “Bible lessons” or preach sermons, and I have also read some of their books. Their ignorance of basic spiritual truth has shocked me. They were spiritually dead, and the dead cannot see.
This current age we live in is not only secular in its thinking and teaching, but it is definitely anti-Christian in its living and in its attitude toward the Christian faith. Those immersed in it tolerate Christians but do everything they can to oppose them and their message. That is why we must study the Bible and “be prepared to give an answer” to those who ask about our faith (1 Pet. 3:15 NIV).
Those Who Take the Time Needed for Serious Study
A second requirement is a willingness to devote time to reading, studying, and digesting what the Lord teaches you. I will be giving you “adventure assignments” as we move through the book, and I trust you will take them seriously. The noted British preacher Dr. G. Campbell Morgan would read a book of the Bible fifty times before he attempted to analyze it and write his exposition commentary. Fifty times! All of us claim to be busy, but if we are too busy to allow the Holy Spirit to teach us how to live and serve, then we are too busy. I know professed Christians who can recite endless facts about politics or sports or TV personalities, but they can’t find the Ten Commandments or the Beatitudes in their Bible.
The older I get, the more I realize how precious time is, and I do my best not to waste it or allow others to waste it for me. When we study God’s Word, we are not spending time; we are investing time in that which counts for eternity. When believers get to heaven, they take with them their knowledge of the Scriptures. All of us will have new bodies like our Lord’s glorious body, but we will not automatically know everything about the Bible. Will there be classes to help us catch up? I don’t know, but I do know there is a great deal yet for me to discover in that wonderful book we call the Bible! I have been studying God’s Word seriously since 1945, have written expositions on every book of the Bible, and have taught many of them verse by verse, yet I know how much more I need to learn. I have been privileged to know and to hear gifted Bible teachers and have learned from them, but they have also challenged me to dig deeper and learn more.
Please evaluate your schedule and make time for serious Bible study. Pray these words with David: “But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in Your hand” (Ps. 31:14–15).
Those Who Live in the Spirit
A third essential is faith in the Holy Spirit, your teacher, and obedience to His will. I have often wished I could sit down with authors whose books I have read and have them explain the things I didn’t really understand. Imagine how much more I could learn! We have the blessed Holy Spirit dwelling within us, and He wrote the Bible (see 2 Tim. 3:16 and 2 Pet. 1:19–21). When I was a lost sinner, I claimed John 3:16, and the Lord saved me. Can I not claim John 14:26 and be taught by the Holy Spirit? In that passage, Jesus said, “But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
The Spirit sometimes teaches us personally, but at other times, He uses books or Christian teachers. I don’t know how many times the Lord has awakened me at night and started teaching from passages I had pondered the day before. I prefer to attend day school, but if the teacher wants to enroll me in night school, I am willing to learn. I keep a small lamp on my nightstand, right next to a pen and pad of paper, and I write down what I have learned; if I don’t write it down, it will be forgotten by morning!
I read about a famous philosopher who awakened one night and had an overwhelming insight. He wrote it down and went cheerfully back to sleep. The next morning, he remembered the experience, picked up the piece of paper, and read: “Everything in the world is a manifestation of turpentine.” I have never had that kind of experience, but I can show you notes that were written at night and still made sense! My point is simply this: let the Spirit of God teach you when He pleases and the way He pleases. I confess that I have sometimes left the “table,” where a feast of God’s Word lay before me, to jot down thoughts the Lord has graciously given me. Keep in mind that we must “take in” spiritual seeds through our studies before they can bear fruit. The Holy Spirit does not work in a vacuum.
Prayer is an essential Spirit-led ministry in the Christian life, for prayer and study go together: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). Note the prayers in Psalm 119. On many occasions, I have struggled with making a satisfying meal out of a Bible passage and a stack of notes, and I have paused for prayer. Then I would either remain at my desk and wait or leave my desk and go look out the window, and the Lord would show me my errors and the best way to correct them. Then I would bow and give thanks. I carry note cards and a pen in my wallet so that even when I’m away from my desk, I can still write down what the Lord teaches me, no matter where I am. I imagine most of you have a smart phone that you find convenient for reading the Bible and taking notes. Use it!
Those Who Have an Inquiring Mind
My fourth essential for serious Bible students may seem strange to you, but here it goes: we must have an open and inquisitive mind as well as patience as we study. Back in 1966, a drunken driver going eighty miles an hour hit my car head on, and only God’s grace and a seat belt saved my life. As I lay in bed, first in the intensive care ward and then in my own room, I pondered the event and asked the Lord what He was seeking to teach me. The only other time I had been a patient in a hospital was when I had my tonsils taken out, and I was there only one day. I wasn’t even born in the hospital! I was born at home. Being a hospital patient was a new experience for me.
While confined to bed, Bible promises began to come to my mind; as I read my Bible, new truths captured me and I wondered how long they had been there! Charles Haddon Spurgeon said that the promises of God never shine brighter than in the furnace of affliction, and he was right. When I was released and eventually returned to my ministry, you can be sure that I had much more compassion when I visited people in the hospital. I knew better what to say and how to pray for the patients, and I also knew when to keep quiet—and when to leave! They didn’t teach me those important facts in five years of seminary, but, thank God, I finally learned them. If we open God’s Word, the Spirit can open our eyes and hearts to teach us—through life’s difficult experiences, its joyful events, and even its routine happenings. The important thing is to abide in Christ, pray, meditate, and listen to what God is saying to you. I want to be like those two Emmaus disciples and have fellowship with the Lord, a flame in my heart, and a message on my tongue to tell others (Luke 24:13–35). Cold-hearted saints are complainers and critics, not witnesses.
Those Who Ask the Right Questions
Technicians of any sort must ask the right questions if they hope to discover the problems to address and provide the right solutions, and so must Bible students as they seek to understand a Scripture passage. Here are some simple questions I have used for many years, and I recommend them to you.
The first question is this: What is the major theme of this passage? The Bible is a profoundly rich book, and we can learn many things from one passage; therefore, we must be careful to focus first on the major themes. One Christmas Sunday, I heard a preacher announce Matthew 2:1–12 as his text—the visit of the magi to the baby Jesus—and he proceeded to preach a sermon on tithing. Although the magi gave gifts and we are to tithe our gifts, the larger story has nothing to do with tithing; I did not catch the connection.
Let’s look at Psalm 23, a familiar passage in which David used the image of sheep and shepherds to describe the Lord’s care for His own people, which is the major theme of the psalm. This image was certainly meaningful to the Jewish people in David’s day, but how much does it mean to city folks today? I never saw a flock of sheep until I was in third grade and our teacher arranged for the class to be bussed to a beautiful farm outside the city. The farmer explained shepherding to us and answered our questions, and from that day on, Psalm 23 made sense to me. Psalm 23 is brief and its theme is clear, but what about a passage like Ephesians 1:1–14? It is not a psalm, but it could well have been used as a worship hymn in the early church. The word blessed introduces the passage (v. 3) and appears to be the key word. God’s people have been blessed by the triune God—the Father (vv. 3–6), the Son (vv. 7–12), and the Holy Spirit (vv. 13–14).
In the Old Testament and the four Gospels, you find many narrative passages that are more difficult to tie down. Our Lord’s parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1–8) seems, on the surface, to urge us to pester God and wear Him out with our prayers until we get what we want, but just the opposite is true. Our Lord is not comparing; He is contrasting. The parable is saying, “If an unconcerned, selfish judge finally meets the needs of a poor, persistent widow, how much more would your loving heavenly Father meet the needs of His precious children when they ask Him?” God is not like the judge, for He is patient and generous, and the church is not like the widow, for God encourages us to ask, and He promises to meet our needs. Prayer is not pestering our Father. It is claiming His promises, fellowshipping with Him in love, and telling Him what we need.
The second question is this: How is this theme presented? Is the passage a parable, a poem or song, a doctrinal exposition, a prophecy, a personal narrative, or a slice of history? The possibilities are challenging. You don’t treat a parable as you would a psalm, nor do you read a narrative as you would a prayer. The apostle Paul’s message to the Ephesian elders (Acts 20:17–38) is really a farewell sermon that brought everybody to tears. His review of his ministry in Ephesus is actually a short course in pastoral work! Hidden in the Greek text are at least ten pictures of his ministry that teach us what our privileges and responsibilities are today. I once used this passage as the basis for a series of addresses at a Bible college and then repeated them over the Back to the Bible radio ministry. Mary’s song in Luke 1:46–56 is another rich passage, and it shows that she knew her Old Testament! Jesus’ prayer in John 17 is saturated with practical theology that every believer needs to know and practice.
Question three: What does the passage mean to the original listeners or readers? The ancient Near East and the Roman Empire were radically different from our rapidly-changing world today, although human nature was pretty much the same. We can’t read very far into the Bible before we encounter envy, murder, lying, drunkenness, and indecency. Things were so bad that the Lord had to send a flood that wiped out everybody except Noah and his family. In contrast, the nation of Israel trembled at Mt. Sinai (Exod. 19—24) when God gave His laws, yet people today read or recite the Ten Commandments as casually as if they were a grocery list. How did the churches Paul planted react to his letters? Did the churches in Galatia repent of their legalism, and did the Corinthian church send Paul their promised donation for the Jewish believers in the Holy Land? Did Philemon welcome and forgive his runaway slave when he came home?
Question four: What does the passage mean to me personally? We not only study the Bible but the Bible studies us! One morning, I was working on a sermon from James 4, and I realized I had to phone an acquaintance and straighten out a misunderstanding. James had warned me, and I had to obey. Once I did, my studies went much better. The Word of God is a mirror that reveals what God sees when He looks into us. If I don’t apply the text first to myself, I can’t expect the Lord to help me prepare messages that He can bless. If what I’m preparing doesn’t bless my own heart, it’s not likely to bless others.
Question five: How can I make the passage meaningful to others? Our Lord was a master at telling stories that touched people right where they lived. He also knew how to quote the Old Testament Scriptures. Even the hard-hearted Pharisees knew when He was talking to them. In order to answer this final question, you and I must know both the Word of God and the people to whom we are speaking. An unhappy church member said, “Our pastor is invisible during the week and incomprehensible on Sunday.” Whether you are a preacher or a Sunday school teacher or a youth sponsor, you need to know that people look to you for encouragement. This doesn’t mean we carry secrets into the pulpit, but it does mean we carry the burdens and battles of the people on our hearts and seek to give encouragement. From the first words of the introduction to the final “amen,” we must speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). If we do, the Lord will open up opportunities for personal conversations that you can use to bring wisdom and spiritual growth to troubled believers.
Those Who Obey What God Teaches Them
We do not study the Bible so we can debate and display our knowledge, though we must be able to defend the faith (1 Pet. 3:15). We rob ourselves of blessings and rob God of glory when we know God’s will but don’t obey. Build your “life house” on the sand by not putting God’s Word into action, and the next storm will destroy it (Matt. 7:24–27). “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3). “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:10). Claim the “he shall know” promise of John 7:17.
Those Who Seek to Glorify God and Become More Like the Master
This goal needs no elaboration.
ADVENTURE ASSIGNMENT #2
Set aside time to read Genesis 1 four or five times. As you read, take notes on the facts and truths that the Lord gives you. Keep in mind the questions given in this chapter.