III Additional Insights
A. Bible Study Is For Everyone.
This is the expressed teaching of scripture (Psalm 119:18,
Romans 15:4, Colossians 3:16, II Timothy 3:16). Not only that, it
is our obligation. We must study the Bible not only to keep
ourselves close to God's will (Psalm 119:105), but also so that we
can be used of God to express His will to others (II Timothy 2:15,
I Peter 3:15).
Bible study is not just for experts upon whom we rely and
whose teaching we accept blindly. The prime qualification for
Bible study is a saved heart, thirsting for and loving God's Word.
We have no excuse for thinkng that the Bible is too difficult or
that we are not capable of doing any significant study because of
our limited training and ability. Today we have all the helps we
need in the original languages of the Bible, such as good
concordances, lexicons and interlinear Bibles. God has guided men
in the past to write these helps so that we can go back to the
original language and conduct an effective investigation without
previously acquiring an advanced degree in Greek or Hebrew. We
have just as much right, privilege and ability to discover truth
in God's Word as anyone else.
B. Bible Study Helps Further Bible Study.
It is an old but true saying that the best way to study the
Bible is to study the Bible. No matter what we do, if we spend
time in the Bible, we will be learning to think like God. Then we
will discover that passages begin to open up to us because we
have, through constant exposure to God's Word, acquired His
patterns of thought and His vocabulary. Knowledge is cumulative
and in Bible study we find that insights lead to other insights.
And we will accelerate in our ability to pick out key ideas and in
our ability to see the big picture.
Finding the solution to a problem reinforces us. When we
finally find a good answer for the questions we posed to
ourselves, we experience the joy of discovery which motivates us
to continue to study and instills in us a wonder and respect for
the Bible.
C. Bible Study Is Hard.
We must expect that. Bible study is an acquired skill that
takes years of practice. We cannot expect instant wisdom.
Instead we must spend lots of time in the Bible. It could very
well be that we will struggle with a question for years. Perhaps
as we study an issue for weeks at a time we must then lay it aside
for a while and then pick it up for further investigation, only to
have made a small amount of progress.
Because Bible study is hard, it requires a commitment. We
must want to study. We must love to do it. It is not too much to
say that Bible study is a career into which we all enter when we
become saved.
There are no easy, quick ways to acquire Bible knowledge. But
it is good that there are difficulties as we study the Bible.
They force us to study more and to study harder, as we compare,
cross-check and practically memorize the information that we are
wrestling with. It is not surprising that it should be so. Think
of it. We are studying the thoughts of an infinite God. Can we
really expect it to be a snap? Not only that, remember what we
are - sinful and weak, in great need of God's help. It is a
wonder of God's grace that we even have the Bible at all, and
further, that we are able to read it and understand some of it.
We don't study the Bible for some ego trip, seeking for neat
discoveries. We may never discover some big insight. But we must
come boldly to God to seek wisdom. We will find it if we ask in
faith and seek it diligently. It may be that our study will be at
a slower pace than someone else's. But resist the temptation to
desire some big truth or exciting discovery. These kinds of
results are not the measure of good Bible study. The Bible is God
talking to us and it is up to Him to show us what He thinks is
best for us to know. We must wait upon the Lord. If we love God
and therefore His Word, our delight will be simply to spend time
with Him. What we learn will be what God wants us to learn. II
Corinthians 9:8 teaches that no matter what God gives us, He
supplies it to us because He has a job in mind for us to do.
Therefore we must learn to be content in our Bible study. It will
keep our minds cleaner and our senses sharp.
D. God Has A Specific Time For Revealing Truth To Us.
God opens our understanding when He sees fit. As always, God
is in control. For one thing, God has a time to reveal truth to
us each individually. It begins when we become saved and start to
read the Bible. And it continues as we take the time to study.
Also, we must realize that it takes time for us to come around
to truth. Sometimes we happen to have a sin bias that blocks our
vision. In other words, there are times when we would rather not
be shown the facts because they show up our rebellion in certain
areas. We just are not willing to listen to God in a certain area
and as time goes on, He must beat us down so that as we give up we
are freed in order to study with a clearer mind. Sometimes we
have been unduly influenced by a church that we attend. We are
locked into their doctrines, or the doctrines of someone we
respect, or those to which our family holds. Some of those
doctrines are very good, but others are not true. Because a few
verses are quickly quoted does not mean they support a doctrine.
We must learn to think in details. Specifics, the little parts of
the verse that can challenge a widely held doctrine, are very
important. Therefore, when we feel threatened and stubbornly turn
away from a challenge to a doctrine, we are not ready to learn new
truths. At that point, it is not our time to know.
Additionally, God has a time to reveal truth because it fits
into His command of history. For example, God deliberately
withheld information from Daniel (Daniel 12:4). Today we have the
complete revelation that God desires to give to us in the Bible.
Therefore in our case God's timing simply means we do not know all
things about the Bible at once. God provides us with insight into
one thing and allows us to pass over another to be studied at a
later time. Therefore one trait that is very appropriate for
Bible students is patience...patience with God's timing, patience
with other people, and patience with the results of our own study.
E. Bible Study Is Not Always Successful.
We might as well face it. There will be times when all our
diligent efforts will not yield an understanding of a passage. In
a way that is good,. For it means that we are honest in our study
and not prone to jump at just anything that pops into our head.
It means that we really desire that our conclusions stand up to
the scrutiny of serious tests. Just the same we study the Bible
because we want to know the meaning of what we read therein. So
then what can we do when we can't find answers to the questions we
ask about a passage?
One thing we can do is to drop it. Leave the passage for a
while, maybe a long while, and study in another part of the Bible.
Perhaps something elsewhere will be the clue we need to understand
the more difficult passage with which we have been struggling.
Maybe we have been thinking and rethinking the same thoughts and
need to get out of that pattern by leaving the passage long enough
to forget our old line of attack and start again much later with a
fresh mind and new thoughts.
Another and quite surprising idea is to try something bold.
When we can't think of anything significant about a particular
word or phrase, we could take a guess. As long as our analytical
and inductive procedures are faithfully followed, honest testing
will keep us from getting carried away with some of our wildest
leaps of speculation. Maybe some bold new idea will be just the
thing to force us into a new pattern of thought. Who knows?
Maybe it might lead to something helpful. As a matter of fact,
since our guess is a last straw, coming after a great deal of
routine analysis and reflection, it is likely to be more of an
educated guess, tempered and guided by all the things we do know
about the Bible.
Thirdly, we could consult others who have studied the same
passage with which we have been struggling. Yes, there is a place
for asking other people what they think about a passage or reading
a commentary to see what light it can shed. Respected Bible
teachers may be helpful and commentaries have real value when used
properly. We should never be so arrogant as to think that no one
can teach us anything we do not already know, or that we are
completely autonomous in our ability to find Biblical truth. But
(and this is a big BUT) these sources of help should be consulted
only after we have first thoroughly studied a passage and have
many of the details firmly fixed in our minds. In that way we
will be armed with enough knowledge to sort out the bad advice
from the good.
It is dangerous to run for help too soon. Too often a Bible
student's first reaction to a difficult problem, motivated either
by fear of making a mistake or of plain sloth, is to seek an easy
and sure explanation of a passage in a commentary. And often, if
he has read in a commentary of a possible meaning of the passage
with which he is struggling, that interpretation will alter his
thinking of that passage from then on. There is a real temptation
to seek the relief of a solution to our struggles which a
commentary can provide. And many times a student will allow the
strengths of an easy solution to his problem to blind him to its
weaknesses.
On the other hand, there are some valuable Bible study aids
which should be companions from the start. Concordances, lexicons
and interlinear Bibles are powerful tools for helping us gather
data, and are musts for serious Bible students. However, the
place for other helps such as commentaries is on our shelves until
we are very familiar with the passage at hand and have answered
most of the questions ourselves. Bible dictionaries have some
data gathering value; but they do contain a lot of commentary
along with the factual information. These sorts of aids should be
used with caution, fully realizing their strengths and
deficiencies.
In all fairness, commentaries make some real contributions in
certain circumstances. Teachers of a Bible class, for example,
can go over the passage they have studied in a commentary in order
to make sure they haven't missed something obvious. Furthermore
commentaries can help teachers in their desire to give some
helpful applications to their class. In this regard teachers have
the advantage of drawing upon a wider base of experience, namely,
the lives and illustrations of the authors of the commentaries.