Of course, you can do both. But I’m curious—do you open the Bible directly and study it that way or do you use a Bible study guide or devotional to structure your reading?
Which Bible study tools are your go-tos? A concordance? A study Bible? Something else?
There are advantages to bible study that are topic, word, or book studies. Using something someone else wrote to help study the bible can lead you to pick up their biases. However, if you can spot and ignore the biases, they can be useful.
I think you make a really good point about the value of both approaches. Topic or word studies can open up things you’d never notice just reading straight through, and devotionals can definitely come with someone else’s perspective baked in. But at the same time, those perspectives can sometimes highlight things I might have missed on my own.
For me, I’ve found that mixing approaches works best. Sometimes I’ll read directly and let the passage speak for itself, and other times a study Bible or a short devotional helps me focus when I’m not sure where to start. I guess it just depends on the season and what I need at the time.
I keep it simple. The primary tool in my toolbox is the Bible itself, freshly opened and read in context. I use a concordance only to trace a word through Scripture to see how it’s used because that keeps it’s meaning grounded in the text. Scripture also warns us not to go beyond what is written ~1 Corinthians 4:6. So my default tools are Bible, concordance for word tracing and prayer for understanding because the Spirit uses the Word He inspired to teach and correct us ~John 16:13 and ~2 Timothy 3:16. Everything else gets measured against Scripture.
I’ve learned that it is always better to open your Bible and study it directly because Scripture is the only God-breathed authority we have ~2 Timothy 3:16. Devotionals can be helpful at times, but there are far too many false teachers putting out material that sounds good but does not match what the Word actually says. The Bible warns that many deceivers have gone out into the world ~2 John 7 and that we must test everything by the truth ~1 Thessalonians 5:21. You cannot test a devotional unless you already know what the Scriptures say. God commands us to meditate on His Word day and night ~Psalm 1:2 and to be like the Bereans who examined the Scriptures to see if what they heard was true ~Acts 17:11. That is why I always compare anything I read to the text itself and encourage others to do the same. Open your Bible first. Let devotionals be secondary, not the source of truth.
Have to go with @bdavidc on this with just one bit of xtra. If you eat accept your food with thankfulness in your heart and prayer; same with the Bible which is food for your spirit, give thanks and dig in. Trust me on this.
I can offer a few suggestions, although they might sound a bit bold and will probably get some pushback, yet from what I have seen this forum leans more toward devotional sharing and keeps core doctrine-s to a minimum, just something I have noticed.
Shalom.
J.
Good point. We can always go to the Bible directly first and then use devotionals or other Bible study materials as resources if we need clarification or want to dig into a topic more deeply.
I also like using a journal to jot down thoughts/lessons from Scripture as I read.
We definitely need to approach any devotional or Bible study commentary with discernment!
I am all for being thankful when we open the Bible, but we have to remain tethered to what the Scripture actually says. The Bible never commands that we treat the Word of God as we would a meal to be blessed before we partake. It commands us to hear, believe and obey. Jesus said “Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth” ~John 17:17. Paul said the Scriptures are God breathed and profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness ~2 Timothy 3:16. We are to receive the Word with readiness, examine it carefully and let it correct us ~Acts 17:11.
Yes, thankfulness is good, but the emphasis must be on the text. The strengthening of the inner man comes through hearing and doing what God has spoken ~James 1:22. The Bible compares itself to food, but the nourishment is received by believing and obeying the Word, not by adding extra practices the Scriptures never command.
Open the Scriptures. Read them in context. Let God speak through what He has written. Everything else is secondary.
So the question isn’t, “Does it feel bold?” The question is, “Is it biblical?” The Bible says, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God” ~1 Peter 4:11. In other words, whatever we have to say has to be rooted in the text, not impressions, trends, or observations about the forum.
Again and again, you have moved the discussion away from the Scriptures and back to your own conclusions. That is not the way to discern truth. The Bible says to “prove all things” and “hold fast that which is good” ~1 Thessalonians 5:21. The only way to do that is by opening up the Word and showing it plainly.
The forum does care about doctrine. Doctrine is not man’s opinion. Doctrine is what God has spoken in His Word. When people request chapter and verse, that is not minimizing doctrine. That is keeping it where it belongs, nailed to the Scriptures.
Your comment that this forum is more “devotional” is just an excuse to stop showing your claims from Scripture. When a person cannot prove their ideas from the text, the discussion always moves to impressions and context instead of the Word itself. But impressions have no authority. Scripture does.
If you think something is being missed, then show it from the Bible in context. Claim after claim with no chapter and verse is hollow. Impressions are not truth. God’s Word is.
I agree that topical studies, word studies, book studies, all of these can be good as long as they keep you in the text. The danger is, as you noted, is that anything someone else has written, is going to have that person’s angle, emphasis, or bias. We’re warned in Scripture not to go beyond what is written ~1 Corinthians 4: 6 so every tool must stay under the authority of the Word itself.
If a resource takes you deeper into Scripture and keeps your eyes on the verses, it can be good. But if it takes over and starts shaping the way you see the text, instead of the text shaping you, that is where one must be careful. The safest route is to crack open the Bible, read in context, and let the Spirit use the Word He inspired to teach and correct us ~2 Timothy 3:16 and ~John 16:13.
You can use helps if you want, but keep them in second place. Let Scripture be the lens, not the other way around. When the Bible stays central, you stay grounded in truth.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14 NASB
Words – Adin Steinsaltz makes the following comment in his book, Simple Words: “Because we know these words for such a long time, because we seem to know their meaning so well, we never have the chance to really understand what they mean. When we grapple with the meaning of the words, we discover what they are. Through this process of trying to understand, the words may become very different; sometimes we also gain a new understanding of ourselves and what we have been doing all our lives. This understanding is itself a revelation.”[1]
In my opinion, this insight applies across most of our understanding of Scripture. Our familiarity with the Bible, as a result of the centuries of Christian influence in the culture and our own immersion in Christian thinking, has altered the way we read the text, not only in translation but also in the original languages. We no longer hear the words as they were spoken because we don’t live in the world that first heard them. In order to truly understand God’s revelation, we need to strip ourselves of the accumulation of meanings from our own history – personal and cultural. This is our task, not because we have been remiss but simply because we are millennia removed from the history of God’s declarations. But we can recover.
In order to read Scripture with the mind of those who first heard it, we must carefully articulate the paradigms that influence the meanings of our words. This is a big task, but not an impossible one. For example, by studying the use of hesed in the culture and history of ancient Israel, we discover how rich the word really is – and how anemic our translations of “mercy” or “lovingkindness” are. What is true of hesed is true of most of the Bible’s words. In order to understand we must go back. The meanings we seek are in the past, not the present or in some eschatological future.
Far too often, when we realize the enormity of this task, we experience two conflicting emotions. The first is the feeling that all we have previously learned is wrong. The second is the denial of this same feeling by claiming that surely God oversees His word so that culture and history make no real difference to our faith. The first feeling of panic is not warranted. Our experiences with God are not invalid. They are the very things that brought us to this point. Without them we would still be in the dark. God uses every human experience to bring us to the light, even those that ultimately turn out to be false or sinful. Rather than feeling as though the past is a loss, let us embrace it as the path that brought us here – superintended by God Himself.
However, the second reaction is insufficient and probably in error. The history of the transmission of Scripture is quite clear. There are lots of mistakes. That does not mean that the words God delivered were not accurate. It means that they have been put into the hands of men, and men often massage the words in order to accomplish their purposes rather than God’s. God doesn’t supervise the sins of men, so when these sins affect the transmission of His word, He doesn’t act as a proofreader. Of course, God still uses those words to reach the hearts of men and women, but that doesn’t mean the words themselves didn’t contain mistranslations and mistaken theological doctrines. It simply means that God uses what human beings allow Him to use. He does not violate our free, and often fallible, will.
What’s the bottom line? Words! Words that we know so well we don’t even think about them anymore. Words that are so much a part of our vocabulary we have stopped thinking about their real meanings. Our objective is to examine these words as best we can to understand what they would have meant when God first spoke them. Our goal is to bring these “dead” words back to life so that they may become words that “are acceptable in Your sight.”
Topical Index: words, paradigm, Adin Steinsaltz, Psalm 19:14
Biblical interpretation is a rational and spiritual process that attempts to understand an ancient inspired writer in such a way that the message from God may be understood and applied in our day.
We must be consistent and fair to the text and not be influenced by our personal or denominational biases. We are all historically conditioned. None of us are objective, neutral interpreters. This seminar offers a careful rational process containing four interpretive principles structured to help us overcome our biases.
First Principle
The first principle is to note the historical setting in which a biblical book was written and the particular historical occasion for its authorship (or when it was edited). The original author had a purpose and a message to communicate. The text cannot mean something to us that it never meant to the original, ancient, inspired author. His intent—not our historical, emotional, cultural, personal or denominational need—is the key.
Second Principle
The second principle is to identify the literary units. Every biblical book is a unified document. Interpreters have no right to isolate one aspect of truth by excluding others. Therefore, we must strive to understand the purpose of the whole biblical book before we interpret the individual literary units. The individual parts—chapters, paragraphs, or verses—cannot mean what the whole unit does not mean.
Third Principle
The third principle is to read the Bible in different translations in order to grasp the widest possible range of meaning (semantic field) that biblical words or phrases may have. Often a phrase or word can be understood in several ways.
Fourth Principle
The fourth principle is to note the literary genre. Original inspired authors chose to record their messages in different forms (e.g., historical narrative, historical drama, poetry, prophecy, gospel [parable], letter, apocalyptic). These different forms have special keys to interpretation (see Gordon Fee and Doug Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, D. Brent Sandy and Ronald L. Giese, Jr., Cracking Old Testament Codes, or Robert Stein, Playing by the Rules).
Through the years I have video taped my Seminar on Biblical Interpretation in several formats for different groups and purposes.
A brief introduction to the Historical/Grammatical method, often called “the common sense” method:
Written
Video (40 minutes)
The original videos of the seminar (1987) to fulfill my doctrinal work at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois:
Written Lecture Notebook
Videos (Fourteen 17-35 minute lessons)
The Seminar designed to function as a quarterly Sunday School class or Bible Study (2010, Lakeside Baptist Church, Dallas, TX):
Written Lecture Notebook
Videos (Thirteen 40-55 minute lessons, 6 example Bible studies, and more)
The Seminar in a weekend version for a local church (5 lessons, Bridgeway Church in Copper Canyon, TX, 2022):
Click here for Videos.
An audio version of III (above) to help those who missed a video class to keep up with the lecture series:
Click here for Sound Files.
A full version of the Seminar reflecting Bob’s hermeneutics class at ETBU. It is provided to function as a university or seminary class. It was created in 2023 via Zoom for pastors in Mexico City.
Written Textbook (PDF)
Eight Video Lessons
J.
My recommendation is to take a Bible course offered by an accredited University. I attended a fantastic Christian University that did not sugar coat the information or sway the information to align toward any one Denominational belief, which I have experienced at mega churches that offer their own classes.
A legit University Course will show you the variety of sources at your disposal, everything from scholarly research to theological sources from hundreds to a thousand plus years old, as well as offer courses to study the original languages of the text.
But that is for someone mature in their walk who truly wants to grasp the meat of the Fath and who can allow room for unanswered questions without it affecting their Faith. These courses are meant to educate Ministers and Teachers with a Calling who need to know the depths before teaching children how to swim. And obviously, you don’t take children with floaties to swim in the deep ocean.
I believe a newer Christian or someone who only wants to focus on inspirational Scripture would do well with any Bible or devotional study, in all honesty. My first Bible was an illustrated NIV Bible for children (I was 17.) And for 5 years I learned a great deal with very little. Just open a page and God will speak to you, if you are listening.
But so will the devil, so focus on your heart transformation to start and God’s Will. We interpret toward good or evil all we pervey based on what is found in our hearts, whether we desire to love heal and save or to steal, kill, and destroy, The compass of our hearts leads us to our destination so make sure the path truly is going in God’s direction.
Brothers I have been quiet long enough. It is over learned theology that weilds the scripture as a ‘two edged sword’ and separates new christians and the unsaved alike from the joy of salvation. I am not going to debate you ‘sola scriptura’ I am simply going to tell you what I know after a lifetime of spiritual warfare the kind I hope you never have to face.
@Johann @bdavidc I do value your deep knowledge and dedication to scripture but I caution you both to use more love and discernment in your replies. I have had several private messages from people here that you have both hurt and confused with an adherence to YOUR absolute doctrine that a 3rd century papal would be proud of.
A great highly respected theologin who spoke 7 languages and was on Fox news all the time declared my salvation lost because I was saved too young and removed me from my church. It took me over 20 years to realize that he was wrong and that big church was destroyed 2 years later.
Well said, and also nearly verbatim the exact reason my Ex fiance and many others refuse to come to christ because they heard from someone learned that the modern Bible and all its translations are flawed and false.
It is statements like this that prevent / destroy the intent of his word which is to bring his lost children to the cross.
I made a simple statement that was revealed to me by the ‘helper’ (John 14:15-21) that has helped me and many others be blessed by bible study. Right on cue those with “much learning” swooped in to dismiss my advice. I challenge both of you to describe any combonation of prayer, scripture, and thankfulness that could prove harmful to a beleiver.
I suggest both of you and the rest of the braniacs take a deep dive into 1 Corinthians 13 in whatever ancient text you choose and ask yourselves “Am I saying this out of Love”? Because if I can’t witness or minister from a standard KJV without reubuke from a scholar then something is wrong.
Your knowledge will pass away (1 cor 13:8) but love will not and when your inflexibilty turns away someone from their faith you’re pitching for the wrong team.
I am truly sorry for the wounds you carry from leaders who acted without grace,
yet those painful experiences cannot be allowed to redefine how the people of God handle the word, because love never replaces truth and Paul says plainly that love rejoices with the truth in ~1 Corinthians 13 which means love does not silence correction but celebrates it, and when you suggest that challenging an interpretation harms believers you are forgetting the biblical call to rightly divide the word of truth in ~2 Timothy 2 and the Spirit Himself uses the written word He inspired where verbs like didasko teach in ~2 Timothy 2 and elegcho convict in ~Titus 1 show that correction is not arrogance but pastoral care, and the failures of one theologian do not turn careful exegesis into coldness since Jesus Himself corrected misunderstanding constantly in ~Matthew 22 when He said you err because you do not know the Scriptures, and the apostles confronted error as an act of love in ~Galatians 2 when Paul opposed Peter for the sake of the gospel, so when we call believers back to sound interpretation we are not crushing anyone but protecting the flock just as shepherds are commanded to do in ~Acts 20.
So..no one here is rebuking you for using the KJV and no one is claiming that knowledge saves, for salvation rests on Christ crucified in ~1 Corinthians 1, yet the church is commanded to test everything and hold fast what is good in ~1 Thessalonians 5 and that cannot happen if every disagreement is labeled unloving, because Scripture never permits emotion to outrank revelation and Jesus tells us that true worship is in spirit and in truth in ~John 4, meaning both heart and doctrine matter together.
If someone refuses Christ because a believer corrected an error then the issue is not too much scripture but too little surrender to it, and the remedy is not throwing out exegesis but anchoring ourselves more deeply in the cross where Christ bore our sin and called us to follow Him in obedience in ~Luke 9.
So brother let us not weaponize our wounds against the discipline of study and let us not confuse emotional discomfort with spiritual harm, because love speaks truth, truth guards the flock, and the Lord joins both in one faithful walk as His people cling to His word with humility, clarity, and open hearts.
Emotional reaction is unstable, but thoughtful response shaped by Scripture and the Spirit is the mark of Christian wisdom.
Yes?
J.
Brother,
Again your response is elegant and scriptural. I am not saying it is not. But, I am saying here in a public forum with unknown quantities (age of salvation, church affiliation, baggage etc…) That you temper all responses and corrections, in this highly restrictive medium, with a very gentle and loving manner.
If we do not we are in danger of tripping into the pharisee lot.
example: I am a highly educated computer engineer with 30 years experience. When i teach basic classes to senior citizens I never discuss hardware architecture or preferred compilers. I save that for peers in the field.
And I hardly post here on this forum if you have not noticed, so if anything I said came across as hurtful it was unintentional, and I want you to know that I see you as part of the same body of Christ where we are many members with different gifts just as Paul teaches in ~1 Corinthians 12 and in ~Romans 12 where he reminds us that each member serves differently yet all belong to one another, and my aim is never to wound a brother but to walk in the kind of unity Paul calls for in ~Ephesians 4 where we speak the truth in love and grow together toward Christ who is the head of the body.
Read Matthew 25:14 and, better yet, the entire chapter, because this was the guiding blueprint for our Outreach Ministry in South Africa, carried out in partnership with Open Doors.
All good?
J.
Every time we bring the discussion back to the plain text of Scripture, you point people to videos, seminars, academic principles, and outside material. That is exactly the problem. You are constantly shifting people’s eyes away from what God actually said and toward human systems God never told us to use. Scripture warns about this. “Do not add to His words, lest He reprove you” ~Proverbs 30:6. Yet you keep adding layers that God never gave.
This is the same kind of error the Pharisees fell into. They surrounded God’s commands with human methods and claimed it helped people understand, but it only buried the Word under their own ideas. Jesus said, “You make the word of God of no effect by your tradition” ~Mark 7:13. When someone leans on hermeneutics textbooks instead of the Scriptures themselves, the result is no different.
And this is exactly why so many people today do not know the truth. They depend on someone else to tell them what the Bible means instead of studying the Scriptures themselves. God never told His people to outsource truth. He said, “Man shall live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” ~Matthew 4:4. He told us to meditate on His Word day and night ~Joshua 1:8. He commended those who searched the Scriptures daily to test what they heard ~Acts 17:11.
When people trade the Bible for systems, courses, and academic filters, they walk straight toward the broad road Jesus warned about. He said many would go that way and only a few would find the narrow path ~Matthew 7:13 through 14. The narrow path is simple obedience to the Word. The broad path is depending on men instead of God.
Paul said not to go beyond what is written ~1 Corinthians 4:6. You are going far beyond what is written. You promote methods the apostles never used and tools God never commanded. The Spirit leads believers into truth ~John 16:13. Scripture interprets Scripture ~1 Corinthians 2:13. The Word is sufficient to make the man of God complete ~2 Timothy 3:16 through 17. Nothing else carries that promise.
So let me be direct. Your approach is not biblical. It is academic. It is man made. And it keeps distracting from the one thing God actually gave us to know truth, which is His Word. People lose the truth because they stop opening the truth. When you push them toward anything except Scripture, you are helping lead them toward the broad road that ends in destruction. The only safe ground is the Word of God itself.
Yes, I will disagree with your harsh and self focused assessment, and I am fine with whatever you want to throw at me because Paul says in ~1 Corinthians 12 that the body has many members and we all stand accountable to Christ together, but I am asking you to leave the other members alone since we are called in ~Ephesians 4 to build up the body in love and not tear it down, and in ~Romans 14 Paul commands us not to put a stumbling block in a brother’s way, so if you have an issue, direct it at me and let the rest of the flock breathe in peace.
Rom 14:1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
Rom 14:2 One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
Rom 14:3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat must not judge the one who eats, because God has accepted him.
Rom 14:4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Rom 14:5 One person esteems one day above another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
Rom 14:6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.N1 The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
Rom 14:7 For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself;
Rom 14:8 for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
Rom 14:9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
Rom 14:10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.
Rom 14:11 For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confessN2 to God.”
Rom 14:12 So, then, each of us will render an account for himself to God.
Do Not Cause Another to Stumble
Rom 14:13 Therefore, let us no longer pass judgment on one another, but rather decide this: not to place a cause for stumbling or a temptation before a brother.
Rom 14:14 I know and am persuadedN3 in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
Rom 14:15 For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.
Rom 14:16 Therefore, do not let the good you do be spoken of as bad;
Rom 14:17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Rom 14:18 For the one who serves Christ in this way is well-pleasing to God and approved by men.
Rom 14:19 So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.
Rom 14:20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. All things indeed are clean, but it is harmful for the man to eat and cause stumbling.
Rom 14:21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything over which your brother stumbles.N4
Rom 14:22 The faith that you have, keep it to yourself before God. Blessed is the man who does not judge himself by what he approves.
Rom 14:23 But the one who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not do so from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.
Yes?
J.