Studying the Bible does not have to be complicated. Today I will share the steps I follow when I research any topic, subject, issue, or character in the Bible.
- Start with the right attitude and motivation.
Remember that you will be studying a Bible, not just an ordinary book. This book has the contents of all the knowledge that God Himself wanted to share with His creation. Approach your study with the awe and respect it deserves.
- Make time for your study.
- Do not rush through it.
- Prepare your heart and mind for God to reveal something to you through the study.
- Go into it with the desire to learn what God has for you to understand.
- Look for the change He will bring about in you because of it.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to help you focus and concentrate throughout the study time.
- Give yourself a goal or objective.
For example, let’s say that you want to study the Holy Spirit. The subject is way too big, in and of itself. Trying to study this subject is intensive and time-consuming. People have written whole books on the subject, and if all you want to do is learn about the issue, then just buy a book and read it. But let’s say we make the topic a bit smaller and easier to manage; let’s study about the “Fruit of the Holy Spirit.” There are only nine, and they are specific.
The next question you will want to ask yourself is, “Why do I want to study this subject?”
- Is this study only for your knowledge?
- Will you be using the data to teach a class or preach a sermon?
- Will you need it for some other purpose?
The answers to those questions will help shape the study and guide you on where to search for the information. The answers to those questions will also tell you how much time you may need to devote to the study. For example, If I were to do an analysis of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit to teach the material on our 30-minute Wednesday Night Class, I would know that I had to focus on identifying the nine fruits, explaining their meanings and uses and that I would have only a short time to teach them. I would limit my study to the most necessary information that someone would need to have a basic knowledge of the subject.
On the other hand, I could do a personal study to be familiar with the topic for application in my own life. I would likely spend much more time, gather much more data, and garner as much knowledge from the Scriptures as I could. This (second) method would take more time and demand more research and preparation, but I would learn more. The 30-minute process above would give me a general overview of the topic. Still, the second method could have the probability of bringing change in my life. A study method that is more involved will also be more valuable.
- Avoid heading down the rabbit trails.
“Rabbit Trails” is what you call it when you run across another topic or point of interest that is not specific to your study. For example, while studying the Fruit of the Holy Spirit, you may come across the idea that the Holy Spirit lives in all believers. While this is undoubtedly an important topic and is a subject of great value, it is also not part of the study. Heading down a “rabbit trail” here would mean that you would suddenly start studying this topic and get off your main goals or objectives for your study. A “rabbit trail” is a distraction that is easy to happen because there are so many points of interest in the Bible.
The best thing to do is open a new document and write some notes to yourself about studying this subject later. Title and save your paper and continue the study at hand.
- Use all resources available to you.
There was a time when you had to read books, articles, magazines, and so on, to get information on any subject. Today, because of computers and the internet, you have an immense source of data at your disposal. If you want to study about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, all you have to do to start is open your browser (that’s that page on your computer where you “Google” stuff).
Even if all you used was the Google search, you would get hundreds, if not thousands, of links on the subject. Sure, not all of them would be what you needed or have enough information, but just take your time reading, and you will get enough material.
On top of that, you can sit down with an older, more mature believer and learn much by just asking questions. Too many Bible students miss out on this precious resource. They want a quick and easy way to get at the answers. But, it is the questions that you have that will get you the answers that you need. No, not just for some Bible study, but for how you will live the rest of your life. That is why, for example, we should study our Bible; so that we may know how to live as God wants. So, find someone more mature and start asking questions. They won’t mind it (I promise) and you will learn.
- Become familiar with how to use your resources.
Millions of people use Google Search every day and still do not realize its fullest potential. People will typically learn whatever is the least that they must to accomplish their immediate task. After that, they make no effort to learn more. The search feature alone, in Goggle, provides the serious student of the Bible with an excellent opportunity to search even deeper with even the slightest motivation. Instead of only clicking on the links on the first two pages (too many persons don’t go that far), search deeper into the output pages, and you may find some gems.
Similarly, when using Bible programs like Logos Bible Software, most people will open the program, and get frustrated. The program is not as easy as just 1, 2, 3, and you are now an expert. By the way, free versions of Logos are available for download. Software like Logos has a slight learning curve for those who need and want to tool to help them do a well-rounded study of the Word using the program. For the more serious students, the learning curve is higher but well worth the effort.
As well, the Web offers many other opportunities to do some serious studying. The website “blueletterbible.org” offers the Blue Letter Bible tools. The website is well designed and has the Bible student in mind. It allows you to set up some of its features to feel like your personal Bible software. The program will remember those settings. The website will remember your settings. Similar to Logos, the learning curve will depend on your seriousness in the study of the Word. They even offer up-to-date study tools such as the Brown-Driver-Riggs Hebrew & English Lexicon. If you use this website, you will be happy with the results, but that will depend on how much time you take to learn how to use it.
In addition, another website (and these are not the only two) offers online Bible Study tools for studying your Bible. Biblegateway.com also provides many features, as does the Blue Letter Bible website. In addition, for those willing to put some money behind their study, this website offers an upgrade called Bible Gateway Plus. The Plus costs a measly $3.99 (USD) a month which, they say, comes to only $39.99 a year. It would be well worth the costs.
But, if you are one of those persons (like me) who enjoy the feel of an actual book in your hand, you may do something different. Half-Price book stores are a great place to find commentaries, Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias, Lexicons, Hebrew and Greek Study Bibles, and on and on. Still, for the serious Bible student, it will put you back some bucks (and again, well worth it).
- Locate and accumulate more data than what you think you will need.
If you are studying the Fruit of the Holy Spirit, don’t just get a few verses and think that you got all you need. Be patient, dig deeper, and get more than what you may need. Why? Because, after you have gathered all the data that you will need to do your study, you will be able to use it more effectively than not. I will explain more on this in the next section. At this point, though, you must focus on gathering as much data as you can to help you end up with a complete understanding of the subject, topic, or question you are considering.
Too often, lazy students will gather only enough data to “answer” a question they have. The problem is that they will later end up with other questions unanswered due to the lack of sufficient information. Simple answers will often suffice, but the serious Bible student will want more. Just getting a response is not enough; the question here is, “Did I get the truth?”
Remember that your goal is to get at the truth. Everything in the Bible is true, but not all things in the Bible are the truth. When Satan speaks, for example, the Bible correctly and truthfully records His words and statements. But, because we know that he is the “father of lies,” we know that his words are lies. So, the more info we get on the devil, the more we come to this realization. If you only use a few verses about something the devil said, you could come to the false conclusion he was telling the truth. The more data you get, the better your study will turn out.
- Separate and organize your data according to the points or arguments you will be making.
The way this works is this (using the topic of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit, as an example), you will want to separate each “fruit” into its category.
- Love
- Joy
- Peace
- And so on, for all 12.
Then, “copy and paste” from your researched data. Put all those related to each “fruit” in one section or another. You will end up with the information you have researched in each section to further work with it. I will give you another example using the “fruit” Love..
- Love
- Verses
- a) Galatians 5:22–23 (NASB 2020) – 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
- Definitions:
- An intense feeling of deep affection.
- A great interest and pleasure in something.
- Feel deep affection for (someone).
- Like or enjoy very much.
- Hebrew and Greek meaning:
- “Ahava” (Hebrew) –“It means unconditional or sacrificial love and has everything to do with the giver.”
- Eros: romantic, passionate love.
- Philia: intimate, authentic friendship.
- Ludus: playful, flirtatious love.
- Storge: unconditional, familial love.
- Philautia: self-love.
- Pragma: committed, companionate love.
- Agápe: empathetic, universal love.
- Commentary
- Jesus used the word ‘love’ 51 times during his teaching. In John 15:17, he used the word ‘love’ in a command, “These things I command you, that you love one another.”
- One of the most essential traits of Christian character is love, a fruit indicating the presence of the Holy Spirit. Christian-based love always seeks to do the right thing.
- I Corinthians 13, also known as the love chapter, tells us that love is patient, love is kind, and love never fails. In the world we live in, love often fails. We see it in marriages, families, relationships. Even as imperfect Christians, we often fail at love.
- And so on with each section or point you wish to make.
- Verses
8. Write out each point or argument as if it were a separate study alone while keeping in mind how it will impact the rest.
Using the data above for the “Fruit of the Holy Spirit” regarding “Love,” you would write an explanation of what you have come to understand. For example, you could write:
In my study of the “fruit” Love, I understand that the Bible only uses three of the Greek words.
- Agape means a Godly love that sacrifices personal gain for the benefit of another.
- Phileo means a brotherly type of love like “liking” someone or something.
- Eros means a sexual or romantic type of love.
My research tells me that the “Fruit” love refers to Agape and not the others. I also learned that God wants me to allow the Holy Spirit to develop that kind of love in me. So, I will endeavor to submit and obey the Holy Spirit.
I also learned that it would be seen in my life by others in how I treat them and live my life. Since I want to show my belief in God to others, I will be aware of my behavior around them. In this way, I will give glory to God.
Finally, the most important thing I learned was that I would demonstrate my love for God in how I practice the “fruit” and in my obedience to His Word. Therefore, I will work on remembering what I have learned and share it with others. Maybe this way, I can help someone come to know God.
If you do this for each “Fruit of the Holy Spirit,” you will have a lengthy but well research study.
- Write out your study as if you were writing an article for a newspaper or magazine.
After you have finished working on all your points and sections, you should write out your arguments as if you were writing an article. Why? Because this is the best way to test your hypothesis and ideas about your topic of research. In other words, do you understand what you have finished researching in your Bible study? If you did, then write it out.
One way is the 3-to-4-page method. Using Microsoft Word with the font set at 12 points, with a one-inch margin, explain:
- What you have researched.
- Why you have researched it.
- What lessons God may want the student to learn.
- How can someone put into practice what you have learned?
- And finally, a synopsis of the article you wrote.
If you tell yourself that you cannot think of what to write, I assure you that you learned nothing from your study. If you learned something from your research, you can write out what you learned, right?
- Make a list of the main points of your study, with all sub-points below each section.
After you have written the “article” from your study material, you can proceed to the last step (for now). Usually, when someone writes an article or essay, or such thing, each paragraph will make a specific point. Though all the points made in each paragraph are related to your main argument, they are also separate points in and of themselves. These points can be a lesson that someone can learn and apply in their life (hopefully).
So, for example, using the contents of the “love” study above, you could get the outline below:
My research tells me that the “Fruit” love refers to Agape and not the others. I also learned that God wants me to allow the Holy Spirit to develop that kind of love in me. So, I will endeavor to submit and obey the Holy Spirit.
Point one: the “Fruit” Love refers to Agape.
Point two: We must allow the Holy Spirit to develop that kind of love in us.
I also learned that it would be seen in my life by others in how I treat them and live my life. Since I want to show my belief in God to others, I will be aware of my behavior around them. In this way, I will give glory to God.
Point three: We want to show our belief in God to others.
Point Four: We must be aware of our behavior around others.
Finally, the most important thing I learned was that I would demonstrate my love for God in how I practice the “fruit” and in my obedience to His Word. Therefore, I will work on remembering what I have learned and share it with others. Maybe this way, I can help someone come to know God.
Point Five: We will demonstrate our love for God in how we practice the “fruit.”
Point Six: We will demonstrate our love for God in our obedience to His Word.
Point Seven: We must remember what we have learned and share it with others.
Point eight: We should all want to help someone come to know God.
Your finished outline should look something similar to this:
THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
- Point one: the “Fruit” Love refers to Agape.
- It is a Godly love that sacrifices personal gain for the benefit of another.
- It is something we do, not feel.
- Point two: We must allow the Holy Spirit to develop that kind of love in us.
- We allow this by us learning to listen to the Holy Spirit.
- We learn to listen by obeying the Word of God.
- Point Three: We want to show our belief in God to others.
- The authentic Christian life is easy for others to see.
- We don’t even have to tell them we are Christians; they should be able to see it in our decisions, choices, and behavior.
- Point Four: We must be aware of our behavior around others.
- Since the Christian life is not a secret one, we must be conscious of how others see us.
- We must be aware also that some younger, less-mature Christians can be affected by our life.
- Point Five: We will demonstrate our love for God in how we practice this “fruit.”
- We don’t have to tell people we love God.
- They should be able to see that we love God by just observing us.
- They will know the truth about our love of God just by our life.
- Point Six: We will demonstrate our love for God in our obedience to His Word.
- John 14:15 (NASB 2020) “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
- Obedience is the only way to prove that we love God.
- Point Seven: We must remember what we have learned and share it with others.
- “To remember,” in this case, means to think about what we have learned as often as we can think about it.
- We can also consider ways of applying what we learned in our lives.
- Point eight: We should all want to help someone come to know God.
- We need to always remember what God wants more than anything; to save souls.
- Saving souls should be our highest priority.
- Not that we can save them, but that we can lead them to God.
Your outline will be somewhat different because you will have different perspectives on some points differently from this outline. Nevertheless, your outline should be similar.
The most significant advantage of outlining is that you will have something already prepared if you ever have the opportunity to teach or preach. Even if you do not teach or preach, the outline will be a helpful tool to use in reminding yourself of what you learned when you need a refresher.
