This is a simple but powerful method of personal Bible study. It requires only a Bible and a heart and mind ready to hear what the Lord would teach them. You do not need to be a bible scholar to use this method. This method can be applied on any size passage from one verse to a whole book. It can take as little as a couple minutes or it can take as long as several weeks or months. The time required depends on you and how much you would like to get out of the passage.
The Methodology
- Choose the passage for study
- this method can be used during daily devotions
- it is also the basis for in depth study of the Word
- Read through the passage to get a general understanding of what the author is saying.
as you read, look for:- Observations
- repetition – repetition can be used to emphasize points
- subjects, phrases, or words that are repeated
- examples: love, encouragement, faith, works, etc.
- Comparisons or Contrasts
- Conditional statements
- grammar
- use of prepositions and participles
- means / manner
- purpose / result
- cause / condition
- imperatives – commands
- use of prepositions and participles
- speaker and audience
for example:- Paul to the Jews, or to the believing Jews
- Paul to gentiles, or to the believing gentiles
- Paul to all believers
- repetition – repetition can be used to emphasize points
- Questions:
- As you look at each sentence, or verse, or phrase, ask simple questions.
- Who, what, where, why, when, how?
- what do we learn about God in this section?
- Notes:
- Don’t shy away from questions with obvious answers. It is amazing how much we can learn by noticing and thinking about what we already know.
- Questions that are hard to answer can show us insights we might’ve just read over
- you do not need to know or be able to find the answer to the questions you ask on the passage
- Use the questions to dig in and learn more about what is being said. If you can find the answer to your question in the passage, great! But if you can’t, these questions can be the starting point for further Bible study later on.
- Don’t get bogged down trying to answer all the questions you may think of. Remember the purpose of this method is to learn more about God and His word and apply it to our lives. We can never come to a full knowledge of God, but we are encouraged to grow in the knowledge of God.
- As you look at each sentence, or verse, or phrase, ask simple questions.
- example 1 – John 1.1-2 – In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were created by Him and without him, nothing was made that was made.
- repetitions:
- ‘in the beginning’
- the word/God
- created/made
- What do we learn about the word?
- What does it mean that the word was in the beginning?
- How can the word be with God and be God?
- Who created all things?
- repetitions:
- Example 2 – Galatians 1.1-5
- Observations
- Find the main theme of the passage – the one thing the author is trying to tell the readers
- Use the observations from the previous step. For example, if the author mentions love a lot, he just might be trying to tell his readers something specific about love.
- Note:
- the main theme of the passage must fit in with the theme of the book
- by looking at the theme of each section of a book it is possible to see the flow of the argument of the author throughout the book
- Most importantly, the main theme that you find may be different that the main theme someone else finds.
- That is OK! If you were to pick up three commentaries, you would find that they don’t agree on the theme either.
- But, if you think about it, you may be surprised to see that there are similarities. For example, one person may find the theme of a passage to be hope, while someone else may see it as encouragement. These two are different, but also very similar.
- Application
- how does this passage affect our lives?
- If I truly believe that this passage is true, what difference should there be in my life?