How to Study the Bible

Studying the Bible is something we should all do, because it is reading the words of God that He has spoken to us.

Psalm 119:9–16 ESV

9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. 10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! 11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. 12 Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes! 13 With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. 14 In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. 15 I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. 16 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

Are you this excited about bible study? I don’t think any teenager is.

When we think of “bible study” what do you think of?

You can have different feelings about it, but one thing is a fact: the bible is the direct word from your Creator. What better way to get to know the Person who created you, than to read His word.

3 reasons why bible study is ESSENTIAL.

Bible study is essential to growth.

1 Peter 2:2 ESV

2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—

With the our newborn she has to have milk to sustain herself. She screams and reaches for the bottle. We have to have the same attitude. We need to grasp for the Word of God in order to grow.

We need to have an appetite for Gods word. The word of God is “sweet like honey.”

We need to have the right aim for bible study. It is to grow us. Howard Hendricks puts it this way.

The Bible was written not to satisfy your curiosity but to help you conform to Christ’s image. Not to make you a smarter sinner but to make you like the Savior. Not to fill your head with a collection of biblical facts but to transform your life.

Hendricks, William . Living By the Book (p. 22).

Not just knowing it, but growing from it.

2. Bible study is essential to spiritual maturity.

Hebrews 5:11–14 ESV

11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

The writer is saying, “I got a lot to say but its hard to explain.” Not that its hard intellectually, its just the readers are not matured enough to grasp it. They are slow at learning this stuff, thats what the writer means by “dull of hearing.”

Spiritual maturity is not based upon knowledge, but based upon obedience. Putting what you know into action. My daughter can count to 10, but as soon as I tell her to count the 3 apples, she just counts all the way to 10.

3. Bible study is essential to Spiritual effectiveness.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The original language was greek and the greek word for all here really means, ALL! Every bit of it. It means 2 Chronicles, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And Paul gives us 4 ways it is profitable (useful) for us.

a. teaching or doctrine.Having foundational truths. “That’s crucial, because if you are not thinking correctly, you are not living correctly.”

b. reproof or rebuke. This tells you where you are out of lines. Like an umpire or ref. It tells you what sin is.

c. correction. Anyone have junk drawers in their house? Or maybe their closet is a mess or you shove everything underneath your bed. The bible does that in our lives. What needs to get out and clean out our lives.

d. training for righteousness. God gives it to show you how to live.

What is the overall purpose? In order that you might be equipped for every good work. Have you ever said, “I wish my life were more effective for Jesus Christ”? If so, what have you done to prepare yourself? Bible study is a primary means to becoming an effective servant of Jesus Christ.

God wants to communicate with you in the twenty-first century. He wrote His message in a Book. He asks you to come and study that Book for three compelling reasons: It’s essential to growth. It’s essential to maturity. It’s essential for equipping you, training you, so that you might be an available, clean, sharp instrument in His hands to accomplish His purposes.

How can you afford NOT to be in Gods word?

Thats exactly what we are going to do together the next 8 weeks. We are going through a book of the Bible called 1 John. If you have your Bible with you, turn to it with me.

There are 3 parts of Bible Study. Observe, Interpret, and Application.

Observe is asking to yourself, “what do you see?”

Interpretation is answering the question “what does it mean.”

Application is answering the question, “how does it work?”

Whenever you start studying a book of the Bible, you need to first get the context on which the writer was writing it.

If you start just reading and studying the words, you can easily fail to see what God was truly trying to say through the writer. When we do this we fall prey also to misinterpreting scripture, which leads to false teachings or applying the “point” you came up with wrongly. You need context.

What does context mean? Context means “the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.” In laymen terms: Its the conditions or situations that give meaning to an event or behavior. The reason why someone said or did something.

“Susie said she wasn’t my best friend.” Without the context of it being opposite day Susie would look like a mean person. But she isn’t she is just playing into opposite day.

So this is the first step in Observation.

Who was he writing to? Probably some churches in the Ephesus area, modern day turkey.

I want some of you to open up your phones and try to figure out some facts behind why John was writing this letter.

Here are the 3 I saw.

People were walking away from the faith.

False teachers, gnostics, were spreading false teaching within the church.

People were wanting to look like the world.

After we learn the context of what the writer is saying then read.

Lets first read 1 John and we will jump into this bible study. We are going to read ALL of 1 John 1.

1 John 1 ESV

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

What are we talking about in the first section vv. 1-4? Word of Life. John kept saying we. Talking about the 12 disciples that rolled with Jesus when He was alive and after. Just as the Gospel of John opens up about the beginning so does this letter. “that which was from the beginning.” John 1:1

John 1:1 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Who is the word? Jesus. This Word gives life and this life is revealed. It was manifested to them. He revealed eternal life and this didn’t just stay with the disciples but moved them to share it with everyone. So we can have this same fellowship with them.

Okay, lets just stop right there. The God of the universe, created everything into existence. He spoke and it came to be. He came to earth. This earth. And dwelt with man, asking these guys to follow Him, calling Him rabbi. They would have went with Jesus everywhere. They had great relationship with Him. Closest anyone has gotten. They are inviting us to the same relationship. Same fellowship with Jesus.

Do you forget that we are invited to have fellowship with the God? This isn’t some mystery either. No, God wanted to put it out plainly, “Hey here is how you can have friendship with me!” Jesus.

I think we can easily just read over this and verse. 1 John 1:3

1 John 1:3 (ESV)

3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

“to have in common.” We have nothing in common with the Holy God. We are sinners. We can’t stand in His court. But God in His grace sent Jesus to have something in common with us. Christ took on Himself a human body and became a man. Then He went to the cross and took on that body the sins of the world (1 Peter 2:24). Because He paid the price for our sins, the way is open for God to forgive us and take us into His family. When we trust Christ, we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). The term translated “partakers” in Peter’s epistle is from the same Greek root that is translated “fellowship” in 1 John 1:3.

This is awesome. If we have everything in common with God, then we have everything we can ever need.

We are also invited to be in fellowship with each other. I believe that deserves the same level of excitement. No one is higher than anyone. No one is lower than anyone. We have everything in common. Struggles, pain, sickness, you and I are not too far from that.

This false teaching in those days and today, is that some people can obtain and be fully pure because they are the only ones that can be “really spiritual”. They were able to get really complicated ideas that they fabricated together about God. And because of this ideology, they felt that they were better than everyone else. No one could even come close to them. No one could come near their status.

Thats not true, because we see here that John is proclaiming this message about the word of life, and inviting us into fellowship with him.

1 John 1:3 “3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

How can we have fellowship with each other if we are divided? How is it that we can look down on someone because they are not like us. Maybe its a sin that you used to struggle with and they may struggle with it and you look at them with contempt. Its like the parable of the Unforgiving Servant. Matthew 18:22-35.

King forgave a servant, servant went to a co-worker who owed him money, he got mad and had him arrested because he couldn’t pay it, which led to the king arresting the first servant because he wasn’t forgiving of that coworker.

He is inviting us to have fellowship with each other. Living in forgiveness.

And this fellowship with God and each other can complete our joy.

1 John 1:4 ESV

4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Jesus spoke to John firsthand, he saw Jesus firsthand, he deeply looked to grasp the meaning of Jesus, and physically touched Jesus. He is sharing this message of eternal life to us so that we can have fullness of joy. Because He is where the joy is. And we who have had a firsthand encounter with the saving grace of God should share it and invite people into fellowship with Him and the family of God.

If you listened to this and say I want fellowship with God! We didn’t get to it but the next section talks about why we don’t have a relationship automaticlly. Its sin. Doing life our own way and not Gods. But because of what Jesus did on the cross. Taking our sin upon himself and sacrificing himself for us, we can be restored to God. We have to confess that we have sinned and trust in the sacrifice that Jesus made and we will be forgiven. Share this message with someone.