How Do I Study the Bible?

There are some skills we need to dig into God’s Word that help us understand Scripture more. Think of these skills like steps in a recipe.

There are three.

1. Observation (What’s it say?)

2. Interpretation (What’s it mean?)

3. Application (What now?)

These skills will unlock your ability to study with confidence and joy.

Observation

An observation is a statement about the text that requires no interpretation. Readers can discover these concrete details without any previous knowledge of the Bible or Christianity. Like facts presented in a courtroom, observations should be obvious to everyone.

Using John 3:16 as an example, here are some observations from this verse:

• The thing God loves is “the world.”

• The verbs attributed to God are “loved” and “gave.”

• “Everyone” is an all-inclusive word.

These observations may not feel very inspiring. They may even come across as boring, but paying attention to these details is key to clarity and understanding. It sets the stage for God’s Word to come to life in our hearts. The more you practice this discipline, the more it will become second nature to you as you read the Bible.

While the Bible ultimately attributes our understanding of Scripture to the Holy Spirit, it’s never without our careful study and consideration of the Spirit-inspired words on the page. Paul gave Timothy a model for this truth in 2 Timothy 2:7, “Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”

Notice the pattern: the Spirit gives understanding as we consider. So, if our job is to consider, then marking up the text is one great way to do it. This practice requires us to slow down to notice details and how they are connected.

First, read the passage once to get familiar with it. Then read it three more times, each time marking something different. You could choose to mark the verbs, connecting words, repeated words, number lists, series, or sets of words. After you finish marking something, take a minute to write down what annotating the text helped you notice.

Interpret

The skill of interpretation is really just the skill of learning. As we give our time and energy to assembling the pieces, we’re making connections. We’re understanding truths and realities about God and His kingdom.

This is less daunting than it sounds. Good interpretation—assembling the puzzle—always begins in the simplest of ways: asking good questions.

If you’ve ever asked yourself these kinds of questions while reading Scripture, congratulations! You’re on the fast track to being an amazing Bible student!

Questions are our best friend when reading our Bibles. They show us where we have a knowledge gap that needs to be filled. They point us toward what to investigate next.

There are three principles that guide us in interpretation. The first is this: Consider the context. When we talk about the context of a verse or passage, we simply mean the surrounding environment. The best way to know the context of a passage is to read the whole book in which it’s located. However, you can find the basic context of a passage by reading the paragraphs directly before and after it. Researching the context will answer most of our big questions and protect us from many errors.

The second guiding principle for interpretation is this: Let the Bible explain the Bible. Start with looking up cross-references. A cross-reference is simply a footnote that directs you to another passage in the Bible with related content. These references point to similar words or phrases, similar themes or events, or direct references or quotes. Cross-references help us see how the Bible is connected, identify unifying themes, spot fulfillments of prophecy, and more.

The third guiding principle for interpretation is this: Look for Jesus. This rule comes from Jesus Himself. By its own admission, the Bible is about what God has done for us in Jesus. Cover to cover. The Old Testament points forward to Jesus and the New Testament points back to Him. This doesn’t mean that every sentence in Scripture is somehow secretly talking about Him, but that in various ways and to various degrees, all roads in your Bible lead to Jesus. This has huge implications for how we study Scripture.

Application

Application is taking the principles we find and converting them into practices we live. The result of good application isn’t occasional bursts of right living but rather a slow transformation of how we do everything—eating and drinking and working and parenting— everything.

Walking in the path laid out in Scripture is a daily commitment. But there’s one really important truth you need to know before we go any further: You can’t do this. Yep, you read that right. You are totally unable to live out God’s Word on your own. You lack the ability, motivation, and resources to do what’s required of you. This is the very reason Jesus came. He came to do what you could not.

So, what does that mean when it comes to applying the Bible? To being doers of the Word? We can summarize it in these three life-changing sentences:

Anytime we see something in the Bible we need to live out, we can stand on all three of these truths.

To keep learning about how to study the the Bible with confidence, read Jimmy Needham’s 10-session Bible study, See For Yourself: How to Study Your Bible with Confidence and Joy.