Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (5 page)
Read Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set Online
Authors: Howard G. Hendricks,William D. Hendricks
Tags: #Religion, #Christian Life, #Spiritual Growth, #Biblical Reference, #General
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y now, I hope you are sold on the necessity as well as the value of getting into the Bible on a firsthand basis. I’ve been a follower of Christ for some seventy years, and I can assure you, reading God’s Word has made all the difference in my experience as a Christian.
It will do the same for you. It will revolutionize your life. As we saw in the last chapter, it’s the key to spiritual growth, maturity, and effectiveness.
But please note: effective Bible study requires a method. You don’t teach a child to swim by tossing him into the deep end of the pool and saying, “OK, swim.”
No, you start out slowly, showing her how to float, how to hold her head under water, how to kick her feet, and how to dog paddle. You give her some direction and a process so that she gradually develops the skills required.
The same is true for learning to study the Bible. So in this and the next chapter, I want to introduce you to a method for approaching the Word of God.
By “method” I mean a strategy, a plan of attack, that will yield maximum results for your investment of time and effort. Lacking a method, you can get very frustrated very quickly, as Wendy found out in chapter 1. You can also go
off the deep end in terms of interpretation and application. That was Toni’s complaint, you’ll recall.
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This book presents such a method. And I want to tell you up front what the costs and what the benefits are of using this method. First, let me give you the benefits. Based on more than fifty years of teaching this material, I think you’ll find at least four major advantages to this approach.
As we saw in chapter 1, one of the main reasons people give for not getting into the Bible is that they think it’s too hard. “I’m not trained,” they say. “I don’t know Greek and Hebrew. I’m just a layperson. I’m not smart enough.” All kinds of excuses. Yet the truth of the matter is, they’re making Bible study out to be harder than it is.
The process presented in this book is one that anyone can use, no matter what your level of education or spiritual maturity. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been in the faith five weeks or five decades—the principles remain the same.
As long as you can read, you can study the Bible.
I’m not saying you won’t have an advantage if you know something about the original languages or have additional education. But with all of the resources available to us today, you are not seriously
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advantaged without them.
Another plus for this process is that it can expand as the ability of the student expands. In other words, as you grow in your knowledge and insight into the Word, this method will keep pace with you. You’ll never outgrow it. I’m still using it after all these years. Sure, I’ve added expertise here and there, and I do many things much better now than when I started. But the basic approach remains the same. It’s like a set of tools that increase in their usefulness as the skill of the craftsperson increases.
There’s nothing like the self-assurance that comes from firsthand acquaintance with the Bible. It gives you confidence to think for yourself. Most people
don’t think—they merely rearrange their prejudices. But it’s altogether different when you know what the Bible says, where it says it, and what it means. That kind of personal ownership of spiritual truth cuts you free from the leash of popular opinion.
Furthermore, firsthand Bible study enables you to evaluate the thoughts of others. Suppose I run into a problem in a particular passage. So I go to a commentary to find out what it’s all about. I read commentary A and come up with an answer. How exciting! But then I decide to compare it with commentary B, only to discover that B is diametrically opposed to A. Now what in the world do I do? I was confused before; now I’m more confused. Do I take A, or do I take B? So I decide to read another one. And then I’m really in trouble: the third one agrees with A in some respects but not in others, and it totally disagrees with B. I’m left wondering: What do I do? Just flip a coin and make a decision?
Well, it’s amazing how much light the Scriptures throw on the commentaries! If I’ve got a method that helps me work with the biblical text and understand what the text says, then when I go to an article or a commentary I have a basis for evaluating what is being said.
I can assure you, there is no joy comparable to that which comes from firsthand study of the Scripture. To discover for yourself what God has revealed in His Word will send you into the stratosphere with excitement! Yet most people are not excited by the truth—they’re embalmed by it.
I used to teach a class for professional men and women. There was a doctor in that class whom I’ll never forget. He’d come up afterward, Bible in hand, and say, “Hendricks, let me show you what I found in this passage.” He was beside himself with enthusiasm.
You know what he was saying? “I’ll bet John Calvin never saw this. I’ll bet Martin Luther never heard of this.” And, although he never put it into words, “Hendricks, I’ll bet you haven’t seen it either.”
I met his wife in the parking lot at church one day, and she said, “What in the world are you doing to my husband?”
“Why, what’s the problem?” I asked.
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She said, “I’ve got to set the alarm clock to tell this guy what time to go to bed at night. He won’t quit reading his Bible.”
Now there’s a new wrinkle! But it was a result of this man’s making his own discoveries in the Word. I hope you’ll catch that disease as you get into the process spelled out in this book.
The ultimate benefit of firsthand Bible study is that you will fall in love with the Author. You see, it’s hard to fall in love by proxy. Sermons, books, commentaries, and so on—those can be wonderful resources to spiritual growth. But they are all secondhand. If you want to know God directly, you need to encounter His Word directly.
Yet even Bible study can become an end in itself, if you let it. One of the great problems believers have today is that often we know more about the Scriptures than we know about the God of the Scriptures. But my Bible tells me: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9 KJV).
God has prepared incredible things for you. The Scriptures are His appointed means for bringing them to you.
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But there are costs involved. The riches of God are free, but they are not cheap. Bible study places several expectations on you. Let me mention three.
Scripture does not yield its fruit to the lazy. Like any other discipline of life, Bible study pays off in proportion to how much of an effort you make. The greater the investment, the greater the reward.
Obviously it will take time, the issue that Linda, the homemaker, raised in chapter 1. But if your Bible study is productive, if you are making exciting discoveries that you never knew existed, if the process is making a real difference in your life—you will likely find time for it. Otherwise, you’ll always find something else to do. I’m hoping that this book will help you get started in a
productive effort so that time becomes a price you willingly pay in light of the benefits.
As I said earlier, the ultimate aim of Bible study is to know God. The question is, do you want to know Him intimately? Is that what you’re after? If so, He promises to honor your diligence in the Word.
For example, notice what Psalm 1:2 says about the person who wants to be “blessed” by God: “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night.” Everyone wants God’s blessing. But are we “delighting” in His Word and making it a central focus of our mind “day and night”?
The Bible was written not to be studied but to change our lives. Life-change is the product we are after. Yet there is nothing the human heart resists more than change. Spiritual growth, however, is a commitment to change.
Romans 8:29, for example, says that God intends to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ—in other words, to make you like Christ. If that’s true, how much change do you think you can expect? Are you open to that? Are you willing to allow God to invade your character and conduct with His truth?
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We’re about to launch into the process. In the next chapter I’m going to give an overview of what
method
in Bible study is all about. But before we get there, let me make two suggestions.
First, set some goals. What do you want out of this process? What needs in your life must be addressed? Are there relationships that need to be healed, cultivated, or altered? Are there attitudes that need to be changed or reinforced? Are there habits that you need to break or establish? Questions such as these can help you set goals to guide you in your Bible study.
Second, adjust your expectations. Be realistic. You may feel like a tiger on the hunt, quivering with anticipation. You can’t wait to get started. That’s fantastic! But remember, you’re not going to master the process overnight. It takes time. On the other hand, you may feel like a tortoise: you’ll never get
there; it’s just too hard. In that case, take heart. The issue in Bible study is not speed, but direction. What matters is not how far you get, but whether you keep at it and keep making progress. Diligence is the key.
Are you ready to get started? Then turn with me to the next chapter, and let’s begin by getting the big picture of what firsthand Bible study is all about.
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he most important tool you need to get into God’s Word for yourself is a study Bible. If you don’t have one, get one. It will be well worth the investment. Use it to start applying the principles covered in this book.
There are many excellent Bibles around. Some are even called “study Bibles,” such as the
Ryrie Study Bible
. When I started out as a Christian, someone gave me a
Scofield Reference Bible
—the one, in fact, with the little statement on the flyleaf that I mentioned in the first chapter: “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.”
However, when I talk about a study Bible, I’m thinking of a Bible that has these ideal characteristics:
Convenience is the byword of our culture. For Bibles that means small print since small print produces small Bibles that are easier to carry. But small print can be nearly impossible to study. It not only strains the eye, but it makes it difficult to write in and around the text. Choose an edition with print large enough to read and mark easily.
If you can find one with them. That way you’ll have plenty of room to record your observations and insights.
When you’re studying the Word, you want to come to the text unbiased, without any extraneous comments competing for your attention. Ideally you want the biblical text and only the biblical text.
This is minor, but an ideal study Bible would have chapter and verse indications but no editorialized headings for paragraphs and sections such as “The Lord’s Prayer” and “The Great Commission.” Such headings can be useful to locate material in the text, but they tend to bias the reader.
They can be helpful for comparing Scripture with Scripture.
If you study Scripture the way I suggest in this book, you’re going to give your Bible a real workout. You’ll be flipping from passage to passage, writing in the
margins, using the maps in the back, and moving back and forth between the Bible and secondary sources. So you need an edition that will stand up to serious use. That means high-quality paper and a binding that won’t let go of the cover. Ask someone at a bookstore who knows about book manufacturing to explain what sort of workmanship has gone into the Bible you are considering.
A concordance is a list of the words in the text, with references for where to find them. I’m going to talk more about concordances in chapters 34 and 35. A brief concordance in the back of your Bible can be quite handy.
For serious Bible study, you need an atlas, which I’ll also describe later. But a few maps in the back of your study Bible can be helpful for quick reference. It’s always crucial to consider where the events in Scripture take place.
Make sure you get a complete Bible, one with both Old and New Testaments. If you use just a New Testament, you won’t be able to go back and look at the Old Testament passages that shed light on the New. You’ll also be tempted to become a “one-testament” Christian. Remember, both testaments are the Word of God. Both are inspired. All sixty-six books are profitable (2 Timothy 3:16). In Hebrews 4:12, the writer calls Scripture a two-edged sword. But some people try to work with a little pocket testament, which sort of reduces the sword of the Spirit to a penknife.
Of course you probably will want to work from English translations, unless you happen to know Greek or Hebrew. There are dozens available. They all have strengths and weaknesses and serve different purposes. For a good portion of my life, I’ve used the
New American Standard Bible
(NASB). It is one of the most accurate, though a bit wooden at times. But it is very helpful.
Some other contemporary translations are the
New International Version
(NIV), the
New King James
(NKJV), and the
New Living Translation
(NLT). Those are actual translations, as opposed to paraphrases such as the
Good News Bible,
Phillips’s
New Testament in Modern English,
or
The Message
. Whatever translation you choose, make sure you get a good study Bible, as described above.
And finally, don’t hesitate to write in it. People say to me, “I don’t want to mess it up.” Well, I say mess it up, if that’s what you call it. Write all over the thing. You ought to be going through a Bible every two or three years, if you are diligent in your study. Then you can get another one. It’s wonderful to be able to look back at old Bibles and see the progress you’ve made in your spiritual life.
