When looking at the 7 basics, some of them should come naturally. Many people miss the relational development aspect of having a quiet time, but still know how to have a quiet time all the same. From there it's just a matter of OYS - are you being responsible or lazy?


TYPES OF STUDY

There are typically three approaches to Bible study:

(1) Mama Bird Studies - This is where a leader chews up all the food for all of the participants and basically spoon feeds it to them. The participants have almost no prep-work. They just come and learn, asking questions and making comments along the way.

  • Great for spiritual infants or those who simply aren't disciplined enough for a true study.

(2) Off the Cuff Studies - This is where everyone shows up without any meaningful preparation and shares their thoughts on a passage or topic with one another. There may be a facilitator, but even the facilitator hasn't done any significant preparation.

  • Great for topical studies or life-on-life groups, where you never know what issue someone will bring up that needs discussed.

(3) True Bible Studies - This is where all participants in the group have agreed upon what passage will be studied and have actually followed through with preparation.

True studies are incredibly valuable for anyone who has even a basic degree of competency in how to understand the Scriptures. That said, they are incredibly rare, as it is overwhelmingly difficult to find anyone who is willing to put in the time and effort to give the passage the level of preparation and dedication necessary.

By way of example only, when I study a single chapter (20-ish verses), I typically expect that I will spend a minimum of 3 to 5 hours with the material itself, 30 minutes in prayer throughout the process, and 15 minutes reviewing commentaries to discern whether or not my interpretations are reasonable. On average, this is about 4hr per week process. This process applies when I'm leading a mama bird study or in a true study. When "off the cuff" issues come up, I get a week off. I'll typically maintain this for about 25 weeks out of a year (i.e. 100hrs of Bible study per year).

A general church group is typically lucky if everyone is wiling to spend 15 minutes skimming the passage and googling a few key phrases. This is unfortunate, but it is a sad reality for modern church-goers who do not prioritize in-depth understanding of the Scriptures. Take this as a challenge to man up. Work those spiritual muscles like you do your physical ones.


THE INDUCTIVE METHOD

Rather than musing over what you think something means, the better interpretive method is to figure out what the author meant when he/she wrote it. The author is the one we agree was inspired by God in writing the Scriptures, not you in reading them. How do we figure out authorial intent?

BACKGROUND: Learn as much as you can about the culture and the context of the passage.

OBSERVATION: Once you have an idea of the context, make as many observations as possible.

INTERPRETATION: Once you have a lot of observations, start asking questions - then use the text to answer the question.

APPLICATION: Make it personal. How are you going to live differently now?


BACKGROUND

I typically advise people to avoid commentaries as much as possible until after their study is complete. When people rely too heavily on commentaries up-front they lose the ability to think for themselves. Instead of studying the Scriptures, it's as if they're sitting in on someone else's Bible study and reporting the results to their own group. Or a more apt example: it's like going to the gym with your buff friend, having him lift the weights for you, and then bragging to everyone around how impressive you are.

Instead, I recommend that people start by going through the entire 4-part process first and then refer to commentaries at the end to discern whether or not their conclusions are reasonably aligned with a scholarly consensus. The one exception I make is in the case of a passage where it is clear that historical context is going to play a major role, in which case there is some necessity to know this historical context in advance.

In place of commentaries, the up-front part of researching the background should be reading the passages before and after and addressing correlating passages that reference the subject matter. A cursory book overview is also immensely helpful.


OBSERVATION

Here's a challenge I give to every man I disciple: make at least 20 observations per verse on average over a passage. So, if you're studying a 5-verse passage, try to make 100+ observations on it. Early on, this will seem almost impossible, as I once thought it was too. As you practice, it'll become second nature and you'll find that even 50+ observations per verse is quite doable.

What types of observations should you be making? I break them up into the following categories with the acronym GRAPES:

Grammar - Look for things like past, present, or future tense; if it says "and" or "or"; who is the object of the sentence? etc.

Repetition - If something is mentioned more than once, it's probably important

Absence - This one is the hardest to process, but look for things that you would normally expect to appear but seem to be missing

Patterns - Look for different things that fit together; for example, if you see the "Father," "Son," and "Spirit" all in a few verses, that's a pretty clear pattern that means something

Extratextual - These are observations based on things outside the text itself; it might involve observing what a Greek word dictionary says or what you noticed in a historical reference book; it most often takes the form of correlating passages outside the one being studied

Statements - This is the most common type of observation and it's the easiest; simply put, you're just noticing what the passage actually says and taking its word for it


INTERPRETATION

As with observation, I give a challenge: 10 questions per verse, then answer them. Let's assume you're studying a 20-verse chapter. You should now have somewhere around 400 observations made. Now, go back through all of those observations and ask 200 questions.

I've found that there are no less than 5 different types of questions. I will use Philippians 1:1 for each of my example questions: "Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons"

BASIC - Questions that are readily answerable by the text.

  • Ex. Who wrote Philippians?

INTERMEDIATE - Can be answered by the text or surrounding passages, but not immediately apparent from the verse prompting the question.

  • Ex. What is an overseer or deacon?

DIFFICULT - Answerable, but require significant research beyond the text itself. These types of questions usually require an understanding of the Bible as a whole and intimate knowledge of God's character to answer.

  • Ex. Why is Paul writing this book to the Philippians?

CRITICAL THINKING - Usually don't have a definitive answer, but are worth pondering because they alert us to aspects of God's character of which we would otherwise be ignorant.

  • Ex. Why did God have Paul write this letter to the Philippians rather than just telling them directly or having someone in their own city write this book?

CATEGORICAL - This is the most important, yet most difficult type of question to address. They focus on observations that span multiple verses and connect them to a single point that can be succinctly summarized. All of your other observations and questions should be leading to this, as these questions (and their associated answers) are the core of what you're trying to get at with Bible study in the first place.

  • Ex. What do verses 1-2 mean? What do 3-11 mean? What do 12-26 mean? 27-30? Based on each of those, what does 1-11 mean? 12-30? What does Chapter 1 mean? How does chapter 1 flow into chapter 2? How does it fit into the greater context of the rest of the book?

APPLICATION

An application references some way your life will change because of what you studied. Applications are worthless unless they are practical. My basic rule is that an application must be observable. It doesn't have to actually be observed; rather it has to be capable of being observed.

For example, "I'm going to love my wife more this week" is not practical. "I'm going to love my wife more this week by doing , and ___" is practical. That can be observed. The fact that she may never see you doing those things is immaterial. Your goal in loving your wife more shouldn't be to try to get her to notice; rather, it's to be the loving man God told you to be - covert contracts being destroyed in the process.