Every now and then I’ll hear someone make a comment such as “at our church, we don’t overthink things. We don’t get bogged down in trying to dissect every scripture. We just focus on loving God and loving our neighbors. Read the red words, and listen to Jesus’s overall message, and you’ll be better off for it.”

Comments like that give me mixed feelings. There’s so much to appreciate in a statement like that. Yes, focus on loving God and loving neighbor. Those are, according to Jesus, the two greatest commands (Mt. 22:35-40). In 1 Corinthians 13:2, Paul said, “If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to apply the same principle to Bible study. Even if we grow to be experts in Bible knowledge, and can answer all the difficult questions about doctrine with skillful precision, but we don’t love God and don’t love others, all that Bible study is worthless.

And yes, one principle of good Bible study is to never loose sight of the big picture message (that was Bible Study Tip #13). And yes, ultimately all of Scripture points to Jesus, so the words written in red are of utmost importance. So yes, there is so much to appreciate in a statement like that.

What bothers me is the suggestion that clear thinking and attention to detail is somehow antithetical to love. Is it not possible to meditate on God’s word and be loving while we do it? Is it not possible to ask hard Bible questions without being a jerk about it? If we really love God, shouldn’t that drive us to make sure we are understanding and applying His words correctly? Is it not possible to pray attention to the details of God’s word without losing sight of the big picture message? Is it not possible that our assumptions about the big picture message could actually end up skewed if we don’t pay close attention to the details?

It is not a spiritual flaw to seek precise answers to hard questions. You don’t need to repent if you’re not satisfied with someone else’s explanation of a passage. Dampening our neighbor’s desire to understand scripture better by suggesting that they aren’t being a good disciple by asking hard questions isn’t part of loving our neighbor. Clear thinking is not antithetical to love.

There were multiple times in college when I would pray before taking an important exam. I would ask God to help me to do my best, and, if it be His will, for me to get a good grade. But I still studied.

Don’t misunderstand me. I believe that God answers prayers. I believe that God is powerful enough to providentially guide someone to select a correct answer now and then, if that’s what He decided to do. But if I had attempted to go through college without ever studying, and only praying before every exam, I’m pretty sure that God would have answered my request for a good grade with a big no.

It’s the same in Bible study. All too often people want to understand the Bible without putting in the time it takes to really think through what they are reading. And so they pray that God will guide them to a correct understanding of the Bible, and then trust that whatever impressions they draw from scripture must be correct, all because they prayed about it. There’s an unfounded assumption that the Holy Spirit will simply pick up the slack for us when we don’t study.

Now, we could do a careful study about John 16:13 to show that Jesus wasn’t discussing personal Bible study, but rather was addressing his apostles about how the Holy Spirit would lead them into all truth. But for the moment, let’s leave that discussion aside. Because even if God answers prayers for a better understanding of the Scripture, we are still warned “do not believe every spirit, but test to spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4.1). We’re supposed to closely examine our ideas, and not simply assume they are from God.

I don’t see any reason to believe that God is in the habit of giving Christians a miraculous download of knowledge without them putting in the work. If God is going to answer our prayers for a better understanding of Scripture, He’s going to use the informational content that we’ve put into our minds.

It’s a good thing to pray while you study (see Psalm 119). But the Holy Spirit is a poor excuse to be lazy when it comes to studying Scriptures which are inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes the Bible doesn’t give us many details. Think about Melchizedek. We know almost nothing about the guy. We don’t know anything about his family. We don’t know how he became a priest of the Most High. We don’t know hardly anything about his reign as king. Very often, the Bible doesn’t tell us everything we want to know. But when the Bible does give details, pay close attention.

The fact that Melchizedek’s genealogy isn’t mentioned might at first seem quite insignificant. But that tiny detail was very significant to the author of Hebrews (Heb. 7:3).

There’s other times when tiny details in the text actually end up being very significant. When Jesus confronted the Sadducees about the resurrection (Mt. 22:32), He based His argument on something as simple as a verb tense. In Exodus 3:6, the LORD says “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” He didn’t say “I was the God of Abraham…”. The fact that God spoke in present tense implies that He is still Abraham’s God, even though Abraham is dead, which implies that there will be a resurrection of the dead. It’s a tiny detail, with huge implications.

In Matthew 22:44-45, Jesus bases an argument over something as seemingly insignificant as David addressing Psalm 110 to his “lord”. It’s a tiny detail, with huge implications.

In Galatians 3:16, Paul develops an argument based on the fact that God made a promise to Abraham’s “offspring”, rather than to Abraham’s “offsprings.” It’s a tiny detail, with huge implications.

Yes, it is critically important to understand the gist of what is being said in Scripture. But it’s not just the main idea that matters. When God spoke through prophets, He put specific words in their mouths (Jer. 1:8, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.”).

In 2 Timothy 3:16 it says that all Scripture is “breathed out by God”. Notice it doesn’t say that God simply breathed into already existing words. He breathed out the words themselves. Although the process of inspiration was very earthly, using human writers, who wrote to human audiences, in response to very earthly situations, the end result is the same. All Scripture came into existence as human authors were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21).

Every word of Scripture was breathed out by God. When the Bible includes details, pay attention. Tiny details can have huge implications.

We’ve all seen photo mosaics before. If you zoom in close, you can see lots of little pictures, each with their own little details. But if you stay zoomed in, you can’t make sense of the big picture. If you step back, you can see how all those little pictures fit together into one big picture.

The Bible is the same way. Sure, it can be enjoyable to pick out a random Bible verse or story we like, and we can admire the little details. But if we’re only looking at the tiny pictures, it can make it really difficult to figured out how to use some parts of the Bible.

Sure, some verses are good to highlight and put on refrigerator magnets. But what about those verses in Leviticus that describe how different bodily fluids can make a person unclean? Those verses don’t make good magnets. Sure, some Bible stories make really good children’s books. But what about the story where Simeon and Levi murder a whole village of men who were sore from being circumcised? When is the last time you attended a Shechem-themed VBS? Yes, there is value in studying Bible stories up close on their own, or on meditating on a particular verse. But to really make sense of the whole Bible, we have to take a big step back.

Think about Jesus’ conversation with his disciples when He first appeared to them after his resurrection (Luke 24:36-49). As Jesus tried to explain what what had just happened, He said, “Thus it is written, that Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem” (vs. 46-47).

What Scripture was Jesus quoting? Where was it written in the Old Testament that the Messiah was to suffer and rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations? Absolutely nowhere in particular. There’s not a single Old Testament Scripture that says that. At least not until we take a big step back and look at the big picture story. Once we look at the big picture, we can see that the death and resurrection of the Messiah, and the necessity of preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations, is written everywhere!

Jesus wasn’t making up an imaginary scripture. He was in the habit of thinking about the big picture story. We should develop that same habit.

There are some people who tend to avoid hard questions in their Bible study. They think they have it all down. That’s not a healthy approach to Bible study.

But there’s also some who thrive on hard questions. Take some time to read some scholarly books about the Bible, and you’ll see what I mean. Often times scholars love to raise different, often overlooked, questions. They very frequently remind others that maybe they don’t have things down as firmly as they think they do. They love reminding others that there’s more to think about.

Scholarship isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes we might not have as firm of an understanding of a subject as we think we do. Sometimes we need to be reminded of those hard questions. Sometimes we need to be challenged to think through our positions a little more thoroughly. Sometimes we might even hold incorrect positions, and through the process of considering someone’s questions and objections, we end up exchanging error for truth in our own understanding. Go ahead. Ask the hard questions. Wrestle with scripture. The process of wrestling with questions can actually be a really enjoyable process. But we also need to remember that questions are not conclusions. We should seek to draw conclusions when we study Scripture, especially when it comes to critical points of doctrine. Yes, it is true that the Bible is clearer in some places than it is in others. But if your Bible study always ends with open ended questions and uncertainty, that’s not a healthy approach to Bible study either.

It is important to draw conclusions so that we can have a framework to make decisions. We are not supposed to be “double-minded” and “unstable” people who are continually filled with doubt (Jas. 1:5-8). Meditating on God’s word is supposed to leave us grounded like a tree planted by rives of water (Ps. 1). No, we may not always feel like we have a perfect answer for every questions all the time, but if Scripture is profitable to teaching, reproof, and correction (2 Tim. 3:16-17), this implies that we should be drawing conclusions about how Scripture should impact our lives. As we mature as Christians, we are supposed to develop “discernment” (Heb. 5:14; Phil. 1:9-11) to draw wise conclusions.

At some point we have to land the plane in Bible study, even when we know that the plane will eventually have to take off again. You can draw conclusions, and still remain humble about the limits of your knowledge. It’s okay to draw tentative conclusions, and then allow yourself to revisit an issue at a later time. But at some point we have to draw conclusions.

“What if someone asks me a question and I don’t know the answer?” This is a very common concern for people when they are asked to teach a Bible class or lead a personal Bible study for the very first time. But it’s not just first time Bible teachers who have a hard time admitting “I don’t know.” Sometimes experienced teachers, preachers, elders, and deacons have unique struggle with this as well. People often presume that we have it all nailed down. We don’t. It’s not always easy to sound uncertain in front of people, but sometimes it’s the truth. Sometimes we’re just not certain. It happens with every one of us non-omniscient beings.

But the truth is, even if we put up a front of confidence, I don’t think we’re fooling anyone. None of us have all the answers all the time, and we all know it. It’s okay to give it your best shot at giving the right answer right now, and then say “but I’m not positive. I’ll keep studying and get back to you.” People tend to respect those who are humble and honest enough to admit that they don’t know it all.

Psalm 1 describes the ideal Bible student as someone who meditates on God’s law day and night. The Bible is not a book that is designed to be perfectly grasped on the first (or even the hundred and first) reading. It is a book that is designed to be meditated on throughout a lifetime. There’s always more we can learn.

Embrace your ignorance. If you remain humble, continue to ask hard questions, continue to absorb information, continue to grow more familiar with scripture, and continue remain submissive to God’s word, you will continue grow. You will change your mind from time to time. You will grow more nuanced in your understandings of certain topics. You will grow more firmly convinced of others. Don’t be discouraged by your lack of omniscience. Just keep studying.

When you read “Insist on getting it right”, what comes to mind? Maybe it’s just me, but I must confess, my initial reaction to that phrase is not entirely positive. It makes me think of stubbornness. It makes me think of people who can’t be reasoned with. It makes me think of harshness. It makes me think of unloving relationships. It makes me think of rudeness. Maybe it’s just me, but I have a hunch that most of us have had negative experiences with people who were so stuck on one particular way of viewing things (“the truth”… at least from their point of view), that they end up saying all kinds of hurtful things towards those who draw different conclusions.

So when you read “insist on getting it right”, if your initial reaction is a negative one, I get it. But hear me out. When it comes to Bible study, truthful interpretation still matters. It is still important to get it right.

Insisting on a right interpretation of the Bible doesn’t necessitate stubbornness. In fact, stubbornness often stands in the way of understanding truth, because it makes us less likely to recognize our own mistakes.

Insisting on a right interpretation of the Bible isn’t antithetical to love. It isn’t antithetical to kindness. It isn’t antithetical to listening to others. It isn’t antithetical humility.

It is possible to love truth, and love people at the same time. It is possible to love truth and be kind towards those who draw different conclusions. It is possible to love truth and to remain humble and open to the possibility of being wrong.

Just because you’ve had bad experiences with people who justified unloving actions in the name of truth, that should not lead us to the conclusion that truth doesn’t matter.

When it comes to Bible study, we want to understand it rightly. If we believe the Bible is inspired, we need to follow what it says, even when right interpretation comes in conflict with what we’ve been taught to believe. If the Bible is a guide for our lives, a light to our path, a protection from sin, a source of divine wisdom, the way to understand the gospel, the way we know how to please God, the source of Christian doctrine, a guide for right relationships with others, we want to get it right.

Yes, be kind. Yes, be loving. Yes, remain humble. But insist on getting the Bible right. Think critically. Be tenacious. Demand clarity. Wrestle with scripture, and insist on getting it right.

Not all Bible study methods are created equal. Unfortunately, some very popular methods of Bible study just aren’t that good.

Think about the way topical Bible studies are often done. The student begins with some premise in mind, such as a particular topic or application they want to make from scripture. And then they begin searching for all the scriptures that correspond to that subject. “Ready references” and Google searches can be very helpful in this part of the process.

Although topical studies can be done well when they are done very carefully by Bible students who already know their Bibles well, they can also be dangerous. Mining scripture for a particular point of application can easily lead to false conclusions, because it usually fails to carefully observe important details about the text, such as context.

This approach to Bible study tends to increase the possibility of false conclusions due to confirmation bias. We all have preconceived ideas about what we think the Bible teaches. When we mine through scripture for a particular idea, we will usually find what we are looking for, even if our preconceived ideas are wrong. Even many experienced preachers with high levels of Bible education tend to fall into this type of mistake.

Objectiveness requires an openness to the text. That’s why good Bible study begins with observation before any conclusions are drawn. Since we cannot simply “unknow” our preconceived ideas, we must intentionally set them aside and approach the text with as much openness and objectivity as we can possibly muster.

Better Bible study begins with careful observation of what a text actually says rather than a search for information that will support our ideas. When we observe before we interpret and apply, we will be far more likely to discover the text’s structure, rather than impose our own outline on it. We will be more likely to let the inspired context inform our understanding rather than taking a text in isolation. We will be more likely to discover the inspired author’s intended meaning rather than using his words for our own intentions. We will be more likely to discover the shortcomings in our own understanding rather than ignoring the unknowns in the text. When we begin with observation of the text, we will be less dependent on the interpretations of others, and more dependent on the original authors.

Another benefit of putting observation before interpretation and application is that it is more exciting. There’s something thrilling about discovering something new about the Bible. A Bible student should approach the text with a commitment to let the text speak for itself. A careful examination of the text will often lead to the discovery of new insights we have never noticed before. When this happens, we will find ourselves eager to share our insights with others! By the time we finish our study, we will have enjoyed the process so much that we will be eager to study the Bible more.

Who said that Bible study has to be boring? Start with observation, then interpret, then apply, in that order.

There are two kinds of Bible students, sectarians and truth seekers. We all run in different groups. A sectarian is one who firmly aligns himself with his group, and always seek to defend the views of his group. A sectarian takes it for granted that the views of his group are the right ones, and anyone who opposes the views of his group should be opposed. Some sectarians are liberal. Some are conservative. Some are traditionalist. Some are critics. Sectarians can be found in all kinds of different groups, but all sectarians align their own beliefs with the beliefs of their particular group.

Truth seekers are always willing to look into the views of others, and will examine those beliefs to see if there is any truth in those views. He won’t simply accept the views of others without close examination. But if a different understanding can withstand close examination, the truth seeker is always willing to admit that he was wrong and is ready to change his mind. The truth seeker is willing to adopt truth, even if it means opposing his own group from time to time. The truth seeker is always willing to examine truth, even if it means admitting that an opposing group is right on a particular point. Some truth seekers can be found in conservative groups. Some truth seekers can be found in liberal groups. Truth seekers can be found in all kinds of groups, but they are willing to separate themselves from their group whenever truth demands it.

If Jesus is Lord, then He deserves our allegiance. If our allegiance to our group is stronger than our allegiance to Jesus, we may end up becoming skilled at arguing for what our group says a passage means rather than becoming skilled in actually studying the text for ourselves. The goal of Bible study shouldn’t be about finding ammunition to make someone guilty, or to shame someone on the other side of an argument into submission. If our allegiance is to God, our Bible study should be aimed at righty understanding Scripture, regardless of who is right.

God created humans to be emotional beings. We can’t have deep, meaningful relationships with God or with other people without emotions. If we truly love God, we should be emotionally moved from time to time when we spend time in Scripture.

But the goal of Bible study is not to achieve some sort of emotional buzz. Good Bible study seeks to understand the intent of the author, regardless of how the text makes us feel.

Have you ever sat in a Bible class and heard someone say “Well, I don’t thing God would ever _____” Or “I could never serve a God who _____”? These are common phrases that come from an emotional approach to Bible study. This is a dangerous way to study the Bible. What if the Bible is actually supposed to challenge our emotions from time to time? If we go to the Bible and ask “Okay, what can I pull from this verse that feels good to me?” we will end up skipping over all kinds of texts in the Bible just because they don’t incite the kind of emotional buzz we are looking for. Or worse, we may disregard the author’s intent entirely if it doesn’t match up with our more emotionally appealing reading of the verse.

For example, look at Romans 8:31 without considering what happens before it:

“What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

At first glance, it sounds so empowering! “No one can stand in the way of my dreams!” But this over simplified, and misleading understanding of the verse fades away entirely when we study the verse in context. If we ask harder questions, such as “What did Paul mean when he said this?”, and “How would the original audience have understood Paul here?”, we will easily notice that Paul is actually encouraging Christians to embrace a life of Christ-like suffering! If we understand a verse differently than how the original audience would have understood the verse, we’re the ones who have it wrong.

Sometimes people will speak of “letting the Spirit lead them” in order to justify this kind of emotional-response method of reading. But the Bible actually teaches nearly the opposite. “For God has given us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim. 1:7). A spirit that has self-control over emotions is actually a gift from God.

Nowhere do we read that the early Christians “Searched the scriptures daily” to feel a certain way. Bible study is not about you. We study to gain a better understanding of God, a better understanding of His plan, and a better understanding of what He wants from us. God created us as emotional beings. We can’t have a true understanding of God – and the emotional impact that brings – without disciplined, self-controlled study of God’s word.