The Ground Rules 2/3
Before we get into God’s word, there are a few ground rules that we must go over. 2 Timothy 2:15 tells us that we ought to be workmen who are unashamed, who correctly handle the word of truth. In the previous two lessons, we talked about how important it is to take Bible study seriously. Today, we are going to talk about the principles of Bible study. What that means is that we’re going to discuss some of the philosophy behind why we do what we do.
There are five principles of Bible study that we must be sure to follow if we want to reap the blessings of God’s word for our own lives. They are:
- You must do original investigation.
This might be redundant but it underscores the importance of you and your personal relationship with God. God speaks to you through His word. If you read a book about the Bible, that is not Bible study because that is someone else’s account of what God had shown them, and so it becomes that person speaking to you. But for you, you need to do Bible study yourself—it has to be original to you. You cannot rely on someone else to do personal Bible study for you.
2. You must have written reproduction.
This is what sets Bible study apart from just reading the Bible and from meditating on the Bible. The written component makes you think and consider more deeply what the Word of God says. Writing things down helps you to remember, it also helps you to sort out difficult ideas.
Sometimes when we read God’s word, there are a number of things being taught. It can be hard sometime to trace all the things that God is teaching. That is where writing things down becomes helpful. When we write down all the things God is teaching us, we keep a record of how these ideas interact with each other and with us as human beings. The writing down of everything that we are learning helps us to sort out everything in a way that we can easily remember and apply to our lives.
Not only does writing things down help us to remember, it also is a way of encouraging us in our faith. Even though personal Bible study is different than journaling, it is also similar in that we can go back and see what God was teaching us a certain time in our lives. When we feel discouraged or let down, we can look back on your Bible study notes and see that God is very much alive and real, that he does care about you and that he does want the best for you.
3. Your study must be consistent and systematic.
In our last video, we talked about one of costs of Bible study which was effort, particularly diligence. This is part of the principle that our Bible study must be consistent and systematic. It must be consistent in that you do it regularly, preferably every day. It must be systematic in that you employ a regular method of Bible study. Remember the joke about how to eat an elephant? You do it one bite at a time. So it is with Bible study, we must be regular and consistent with it.
Some people just plop the Bible down on their table and wherever it opens is what they read. That is not being systematic, that is being random. A good Bible study is organized with a method in mind. There are different ways of being systematic, for instance, one of the most common ways is to commit to studying one chapter of the Bible per day, as you move through a particular book of the Bible. Did you know that if you studied one chapter per day, in a little more than three years, you will have studied the entire Bible? That is the power of being consistent and systematic! By studying one chapter per day you know where to start and where to end each day. If there is a particularly long chapter, you could divide it into two days, especially if there was enough things to chew on for one day. I find that in almost every chapter of the Bible, there is at least one truth that I can apply to my life, and usually two or three. There have been times when I have decided to take a book of the New Testament and only study a paragraph each day. It takes longer to finish the book that way, but I can look more closely at what God’s word is saying and how it connects to everything.
My point is that your Bible study must not be random and disorganized because then it will not be as helpful and as fruitful as if you took the effort to engage it systematically and regularly. Of course, God speaks to us in moments that we do not expect and in a flash, but like a sharp rock that is rounded off by water flowing over it constantly, our regular and systematic Bible study is often the means God uses to soften our hard hearts and gradually help us to learn something that we wouldn’t understand in just an instant. Our Bible study must be consistent and systematic if we want to fully reap the fruit of God’s word.
4. Your study must be ‘pass-on-able.’
God’s truth is not secret—it is meant to be made known. If God has taught you something in Bible study, he wants you to share that with others. John 17:17 says, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” Truth changes lives, but it must be made known in order to do that. When you study God’s word, you should also be studying it to find out what it means, but you should also have in the back of your mind, “How can I share this with others?” God’s Word always applies to your own life first, but you should also be asking yourself how you can share it with your family, with your friends, and with anyone who will listen. When we pass on what we are learning, a few things happen: First, we remember it better because we have now repeated it. Second, we encourage others by it because truth builds up and edifies others. And, third, others can help us process that truth more deeply by perhaps adding to it or helping us to clarify it better.
Throughout Scripture we read exhortations about passing on God’s truth: Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” So, go ahead and share what you are learning with your family! The Apostle Paul says 2 Timothy 2:2, “and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” When you pass on what God is teaching you, only God knows how far it will go in helping others! But that is the point, God means for his truth to be passed on and made known throughout the earth.
You don’t have to have the spiritual gift of teaching to pass on what God is teaching you, all you have to do is say, “God taught me this today and I was really encouraged by that…” Most of the time, others will be blessed, too, by what God has taught you. So make your study ‘pass-on-able’ and begin to bless others.
5. You must apply what you study to your life.
The last principle of Bible study is that you must apply what you are learning to your life. If you remember one of the costs of Bible study is openness to change, God’s wants to change your life through His word. It does no good if you learn from God’s word that you should love your neighbor if you refuse to love your neighbor. It is not helpful if you learn that God wants you to rejoice always if you want to complain about everything. One of the demands of God’s word is that we must apply it to our lives.
There are too many people who know God’s word very well—they know it on an intellectual level—but they have not applied his word to their lives. Don’t be a hearer of the word, be a doer! (James 1:22-25) Remember that we do not study the Bible to increase our knowledge, we study the Bible to change our lives. So, every time that you open God’s word, ask God to show you what you need to change in your life in order to follow him more closely. When you come to Bible study with an attitude of humility and openness to change, God will bless that attitude and help you to become more like Jesus Christ.
So, those are the 5 principles of Bible study. They must guide your Bible study, no matter the method you will choose. But I can assure you that if you build a Bible study habit that includes these five principles that you will be blessed when you study God’s word and that your life will be a blessing to others.
Thanks for sticking with us and keep reading God’s word!
