Step #1
OBSERVATION
What does it say? Investigating the passage.
Your first task in Bible study is to ascertain what God has said. Through focused concentration you gather the facts, the details, the substances of the Scripture. You will need to become a detective Sherlock Holmes as you become saturated with the particulars of a passage.
A. Questions to answer:
1. Who?
2. What?
3. When?
4. Where?
5. Why?
6. How?
B. General Principles
1. Good observation requires reading and re-reading with careful dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
2. Good observation requires reading and re-reading with focus and concentration.
3. Good observation requires reading and re-reading with a persistent desire to know.
4. Good observation requires reading and re-reading with an eye that captures details.
5. Good observation requires reading and re-reading with patience and determination.
C. Targets of observation:
1. Look for key words.
2. Look for commands, rebukes, promises.
3. Look for contrasts and/or comparisons.
4. Look for questions.
5. Look for modifiers.
6. Look for lists.
7. Look for linking words.
Step #2
INTERPRETATION
What does it MEAN? Explaining the passage.
You don’t ask what it means until you know what it says. Interpretation answers the questions that observation has uncovered. Your goal at that point is to grasp the intended meaning of the passage.
A. General Principles (see R.C. Sproul’s Knowing Scripture, Chapter 4 for further information)
1. Consider the context.
2. Understand the words.
3. Understand the grammar.
4. Grasp the author’s intention.
5. Always interpret Scripture with Scripture.
B. Helpful Tools
1. Consult a good Bible dictionary.
2. Consult a good concordance.
3. Consult a good Bible atlas.
4. Consult a good commentary.
5. Consult a good study Bible.
Step #3
APPLICATION
How does it apply to me? message.
Application is the third step of effective Bible study. What difference will this Scriptural truth make in the specific categories of my life? Good Bible study doesn’t stop with discovering the meaning, it pushes forward to genuine personal confrontation, obedience and change. That is application.
A. Questions to ask. (Points A-E have been selected from Christ-Centered Preaching by Dr. Bryan Chapell p. 210-222).
1. What does God now require of me?
2. Where does He require it of me?
3. Why must I do what he requires?
4. How can I do what God requires?
B. Helpful steps.
1. The goal of sound application is situational specificity, not personal identification.
a. This means knowing your audience and knowing their situations that need scriptural guidance, comfort, and challenge.
2. Prudence and judgment need to be applied to keep from inappropriately criticizing or exposing individuals.
3. Applications that are true to the goals of the lesson explain how believers today should live in specific situations while remaining faithful to Scripture.
C. Remember that the power to do what God requires resides in God.
1. Responsible teaching does not tell people their responsibilities without also informing them how to plug into this power.
a. Jay Kesler, president of Taylor University, says that a lesson without enabling instruction is like shouting to a drowning person, “Swim! Swim!” The advice is correct but not helpful. It simply tells someone to do what in their situationthey have no means to accomplish.
D. Use common-sense proposals.
1. Applications should be relevant, realistic, and achievable.
2. Applications lacking in common sense destroy the credibility of the teacher and impede the acceptance of scriptural truth.
3. Teachers use three common types of applications without common sense:
a. Pie-in-the-sky principles. “Smile more every hour”; “Love every neighbor with all your heart,” and “Resolve never to fear again,” exemplify applications that live only in pastoral idealism and spiritual hyperbole. The instructions as stated are unattainable. As a result, they have no connection to real life and should not have been uttered. These applications either will convince listeners that they cannot do what Scripture requires or that their teacher lives in a make-believe world.
b. High hurdles. These applications are based on behaviors beyond the capacities of all but a few listeners, “You should learn Greek and Hebrew so that you can confirm the truth of my words,” or “Everyone here should resolve to go to the Holy Land so that you can see the type of terrain Jesus faced.” No one would deny that such goals would be nice to achieve, but the average person has no chance of doing what the teacher instructs.
c. Narrow focus. Applications that the teacher knows nearly no one will do even if they are able are not worth the breath and time. For example, too many teachers sell books from the pulpit. But unless the book obviously makes a dramatic impact on a large number of people, how many in the congregation will actually take the time that week to drive to the local bookstore, make the order, and plop down their money? One, two, any? How many will even remember the name of the book by Sunday dinner? Teachers who too often offer applications that few can apply lose the confidence of most.
E. What application should look like.
1. Task sensitivity. The teacher who raises his fist and angrily teaches, “The people in this church must love each other more for us to grow,” probably makes an impact opposite to that intended. The tone must match the task. A teacher whose application compels love must speak in love. A teacher who says, “If we really understood the resurrection we would not struggle with grief,” should realize the words will more likely condemn than comfort. Some applications require stern expression (Tit. 1:10—13); others need gentleness (2 Tim. 2:24—26). Jesus drove moneychangers out of the temple with a whip and yet the Scriptures say he would not break a “bruised reed” (Isa. 42:3). The authority that the Word of God grants its proclaimers does not mean we must always speak in rebuke. Our authority also grants us the right to encourage (Tit. 2:15).
2. Mature guidance. If only the teacher decides what parishioners should do, they will not grow. Nothing creates and perpetuates spiritual babies more than pastors who will not allow people to come to their own conclusions and take responsibility for their own actions. We need both direct and indirect application in lessons. Such teaching can help listeners build up their own faith resources by giving them the information needed to make correct decisions, then confronting them with the decisions they must make.
3. Mandate clarity. Teachers who cannot differentiate between a scriptural mandate and a good suggestion drain biblical power from their ministries. You must make sure the Scriptures—not you—demand what your application requires. A twenty-minute devotional every day is a good suggestion, as are reading the Bible as a family at meals, engaging in a small-group Bible study, and enrolling in a Scripture memory courses. However, the Bible requires none of these specific practices. When we take a good suggestion and make it a biblical mandate not only do we promote our own thoughts to the canon of Scripture, we inevitably teach a pharisaism that implies people can earn grace by meeting our standards.
4. Respect for complexity. One of my favorite radio commentators says, “For every complex problem there is a simple answer ‘that is wrong!” A teacher’s willingness to admit that a lesson will deal only with a narrow aspect of a large concern, or that more extensive answers must await later occasions and further reflection may do far more to bolster application than flip responses, quick solutions, and cliché condemnations. Young teachers often feel that they will damage their credibility if they confess, “I don’t know,” or “I will have to study more before I have a good answer.” Yet such responses may best display the wisdom of the teacher. Thoughtful congregations know no one has all the answers to every concern. Teachers destroy their credibility when they pretend otherwise. Respect for the complexity of life’s concerns does not mean that all our applications have to be complex. We should not he afraid of simple applications spoken with sincerity and thoughtfulness that make them powerful. At the same time teachers must be cautious not to make simplistic applications about controversial subjects without sufficient exposition to enable uninformed or non-agreeing listeners to handle the instruction.
5. Spiritual integrity. Application also requires personal trustworthiness. Why should people listen to a teacher tell them what they do not want to do, have not done, or will need to change? If the answer is not “Because they know the teacher loves them and the Lord too much to withhold truth they need,” then the application will fall on deaf ears. Even when it hurts, people listen to application when they perceive spiritual integrity in the teacher. Such trust results as a teacher’s life reflects the indwelling Spirit.