Are you ready to dive deeper into the Bible but aren’t sure how? Are you tired of the pithy women's devotional books and Bible studies that dish out shallow, feelings-oriented questions that leave you thinking..."surely there is more studying the Bible than this, right?"
Many of us have felt that way and let it prevent us from really uncovering the richness of God’s word. But knowing how to study the Bible doesn’t need to be an overwhelming or intimidating process, and you don't have to rely on someone else to write a fill-in-the-blank Bible Study for you to fill out for you to learn what the Bible says. Truly, training yourself to ask a few key questions while studying (and knowing of a few good tools to help you look up info!) can help guide your approach to understanding and applying Scripture.
Read on for five important questions you should consider when studying the Bible!
1. What is the literary style of this book?
You don't read Genesis the same way you read Psalms, or Isaiah the same way you read one of the Gospels. The Bible was written with multiple literary styles - called Genres. God is a genius! He used multiple different STYLES of writing to communicate and express the ideas He wanted to reveal His grand redemption story to us in Scripture. It's worth taking a few moments to look up the Genre or literary style of a book of the Bible before you start reading and studying it.
2. Who wrote this book?
No matter what you are reading, knowing the author is important for the context of the book. Many books these days have an "about the author" segment on the back or inside cover. The Bible is a little different - the ultimate author is God, but He used a wide variety of humans over a few thousand years to compose His story.
The Bible is a compilation of 66 books written by human beings, all of them under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It truly is a miraculous, supernatural book! Being inspired by the Holy Spirit doesn't mean that God forced the biblical authors to write with a different voice than their own. He used their unique personalities, viewpoints, experiences, and places in history to compose the exact book and message He wanted! So when you are reading the Bible, knowing who authored the book you are reading gives helpful context to what you are reading. Just like when you get a letter in the mail, you immediately look to see who it is from - because knowing who wrote it gives you helpful clues into their personality, experience, and context.
3. Who was the audience of this book?
The Bible was written FOR us, but it wasn't necessarily written to us. Each of the books of the Bible were written in a unique historical context with a specific intended audience. If you zoom out to ask yourself who the intended audience was, you'll find important clues and insights into the original context. In the New Testament, many of the books will state who their intended audience was (especially the letters written by Paul or others). A good Study Bible should have information about this at the beginning of each book, or you can look this up (and tons more Bible info) at GotQuestions.org.
4. What was happening in this book? Where and when was it happening?
Ok, I know this is technically 2 questions in one 🤣 but they all go together. If we just jump into a Bible passage without digging to find out any of this context, we might find ourselves in the middle of events that are unfolding over many chapters. Imagine jumping into the middle of a movie you've never seen before, and trying to figure out all of the story lines! This is a pitfall we have to be careful to avoid, because it makes it easier to take verses out of context and misinterpret their meaning. I know it takes extra time, and digging into historical context doesn't always feel like you are connecting with God, but I promise it is important.
Before you jump into a study, take a moment to look at the context and find the answers to the questions
- What was happening?
- Where was it happening?
- When was it happening?
Again, GotQuestions.org is an excellent resource for finding the answers to these questions and more.
5. What do I learn about God's character?
All of the BIble is useful for teaching us who our God is. This miraculous book is how He primarily chooses to speak & reveal Himself to us! It contains absolute objective truth that gives us a lense through which we can see the entire world, and how God works in it. After we have done all of this digging for context about a book or passage of the Bible, and actually read and studied the text itself - it can feel like we did a lot of research. But what did we learn about God Himself? Make sure you take the time to reflect & ponder what you just learned about God's character.
Sometimes when we study the Bible, we have to wrestle with what Scripture says about Him vs. what we thought we knew about Him. We often bring our assumptions and pre-formed beliefs about God into our study of the Bible, and it can feel disorienting when those assumptions are challenged. There are parts of Scripture that are hard to understand, and we get to dig deep and search for understanding of God like hunting for buried treasure!
My encouragement to you is to never believe anything bad about God. If you feel that your study of Scripture is causing you to believe something bad about His character - keep praying, searching, and digging for understanding until you believe that He is good.
If you'd like a resource to help you study the Bible this way, you can grab my guided Daily Bible Study journal here.
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