Observation and Principles

This is the final installment in my book review of Kay Arthur’s book, How to Study your Bible (Purchase through this link and help support Observation and Principles).

You may want to start by reading the first articles in this series:

• How to Study Your Bible By Kay Arthur (Part 1) An introduction to the inductive study method
• How to Study Your Bible (Part 2) The basics of Observation
• How to Study Your Bible (Part 3) A guide to interpretation
• How to Study Your Bible (Part 4) The challenge of Application

This book is one of the best books to teach the average person how to study, and understand, their Bible.

The Bible was not intended to be a mystery, and God does not want Christians to be left in the dark just hoping to make good decisions.

He has written a book and given us the Holy Spirit to help us understand His plan.

Kay Arthur has written a book to help us clear up any fog that remains.

I have very briefly covered the methods of the inductive Bible study as outlined in How to Study Your Bible. I hope that, in my enthusiasm, I have not overstepped my bounds.

I encourage all of my readers to purchase this book and learn how to study and understand your Bible. The transformation in your life will be incredible when you read, understand, and apply God’s word to your life.

In Part 1 of the series I gave you an overview of the inductive study method. Part 2 discussed methods of observation. In Part 3 I wrote about interpreting a passage based on your observations.

Today’s article will discuss bringing the words of the Bible alive in your home and life through application.

This will be the most challenging part of your Bible study, not because it is the most difficult but because once you know what the Bible says, you are responsible to live it. Application often leads to a crisis of belief. Will you respond in obedience?

The foundation of correct application is through accurate observation and correct interpretation.

All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousnesses; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

The critical tool in the inductive study method is questions. When you are ready for applying the Scripture to your life, these questions may be helpful:

• How does the meaning of this passage apply to me?
• What truths am I to embrace, believe, or order my life by?
• What changes should I make in my belief, in my life?
• What does the passage teach?
  • Is it general of specific?
  • Does is apply only to a specific people?
  • has it been superseded by a broader teaching?
• Based on my understanding of this scripture, do I need to adjust my beliefs or behavior
• What is God telling you to do now?

The challenge of the inductive study method is to take a passage written to a particular culture, and find out what the words meant to the people in that culture. From there, you try to find the basic principle that the Holy Spirit expressed through the writings, and then apply that principle within your own culture.

You are building a bridge from the culture in Bible times to the culture in modern times. That bridge is the timeless principles of the Bible.

update:  Part 5 , the final post of this series, is now available. 

This is part 3 in a review of the book How to Study Your Bible by Kay Arthur. You can find Part 1 (Introduction) here and Part 2 (Observation) here.

The second step in inductive Bible study is interpretation. When you approach the bible with the purpose of interpretation you should always consider the context of the passage. Interpretation of a verse will never contradict other scriptures within the Bible. You should look for interpretation based on what the Bible actually says, rather than what a specific school of theology says. Bible commentaries should be used as a last check for the accuracy of your interpretations rather than as the starting point for Bible study.

Useful tools for interpretation:

• word study: used to discover the meaning of a word in the original language using a Bible concordance or Bible dictionary.
• cross-referenced scripture: used to compare scriptures with scriptures because the bible will never conradict itself. You can use concordances, word studies, or topical bibles to aid in cross referencing scripture. Often study bibles have their own cross references included.

These can be found online at Bible Gateway or purchased through Observation and Principles Recommended ProductsWhen interpreting the Bible, watch carefully for figures of speech such as similes, metaphors, and parables. The Bible can often be interpreted literally, but figures of speech should be recognized and handled appropriately. Prophecy and proverbs are also unique and should be interpreted in a unique way.

For more information on accurate interpretation and handling unique texts within the Bible, you should read the book How to Study Your Bible by Kay Arthur. This book review is not intended to be complete instructions on inductive Bible study.

Update: Part 4 and Part 5 of this series are now available.

Tuesday, I gave an overview of the book How to Study Your Bible by Kay Arthur. Today I will be continuing with the book review by outlining the basics of observation as described in the first three chapters.

Accurate interpretation and correct application rest on the accuracy of your observations.

The foundation of inductive Bible study is observing what the passage actually says.

Always begin your study with prayer, invite the Holy Spirit into your study time. His purpose it to guide you in truth.

John 15:13-15 (NLT)

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’

The starting point of inductive study is to get an overall view by observing the message in the big picture (Bible, book). Then looking at the smaller sections (chapter, paragraph), and tying the message in the smaller sections to the message in the larger sections and to the message in other smaller sections.

You start by reading through the book you have chosen several times. Look for keywords, phrases, ideas, and facts. The key things are usually repeated.

The main tool for inductive Bible study is the observation worksheets.

Observation Worksheets are individual chapters of the book you are studying typed up (or copy/pasted) and printed out with double space lines, and extra wide margins.

They are used for marking key words, phrases, ideas, etc in the text. For example, I might draw a yellow triangle whenever “God” or “Jesus” appears in the text and a red heart for “Love.”

Precept Ministries has produced an inductive study Bible that is basically a Bible of observation worksheets. You can purchase it through this site’s recommended products store (all orders handled through Amazon.com)

Another way is to make your own Observation worksheets using Bible Gateway to copy and paste the passage into a text editor such as Word.

If you are the kind of person who likes to use the computer, try E-Sword to keep track of your observation notes (download here-offsite link)

Using observation worksheets to mark keywords allows you to see the important ideas at a glance. Repetition is a good way to discern the main theme.

You will probably read through the book multiple times before you start seeing it all fit together into a one or two sentence summary. After you have prayerfully discerned the main theme of the book, look for a key verse that states this theme.

Step two is to break down the book into smaller pieces (chapters) and focus on the keywords and phrases and develop a summary sentence for each chapter.

Bible Gateway offers dictionary concordances and various study tools that are useful for understanding what the verses meant to the original readers.

A Bible dictionary concordance is like a dictionary that translates the Bible words into their original language and then tells you (in English) what the original Greek or Hebrew word means. Sometimes the actually meaning gets lost in translation.

As you go through each chapter, also watch for contrasts contrasts (i.e. Day and night, spirit and flesh), comparisons (like/as) expressions of time (after this, when all these thing had happened), and conclusions (therefore, so that).

Try to discern a theme for the chapter, and for each paragraph.

As you go, write an outline for the book

• Book–Theme
  • Chapter–Theme
  • • paragraph–theme
  • • paragraph–theme
  • • paragraph–theme
  • Chapter–Theme
    • paragraph–theme
    • paragraph–theme
    • etc.

All this seems like a lot of work when you could just pick up a Bible commentary, but you will be able to remember and apply the lessons so much better if you study it for yourself.

A word of caution
While the Bible is certainly capable of speaking directly to your heart and to your needs, your observations should be made without looking for that healing balm. Observation is the foundation for interpretation and application. The Bible best ministers to your personal situation when you are applying in correctly.

Kay Arthur suggest that you begin with a short book such as 2 Timothy. Remember, the rewards are a personal relationship with God.

• Part 1 (Introduction)
• Part 2(Observation)–current page
• Part 3 (Interpretation)
• Part 4 (Application)
• Part 5 (Conclusion)

The book How to Study Your Bible by Kay Arthur is a introduction into the inductive study method.

This study method lets the Bible speak for itself by using the Bible to interpret the Bible.

Three steps are used during inductive study:
1. Observation–What does it say? Do you know what to look for when you read the Bible?
2. Interpretation–What does it mean?
3. Application–How can I put it into practice in my life? Once you know what the Bible says, you will be confronted with an opportunity for obedience.

Accurate interpretation and correct application rest on the accuracy of your observations.

The hardest thing about following the inductive study method is slowing down enough to read, really read, what the Bible is saying.

This isn’t a race to see how many times you can read through the Bible in a year. Running to win means understanding and applying the Truth that the Bible teaches.

There are a two very good reasons to study the Bible for yourself rather than relying on commentaries:

• Bible commentaries are not the inspired Word of God and the conclusions in them are colored by the scholar’s background and present situation.
• You will remember the things you study and discover for yourself better than you will remember the things you are fed through a commentary.

Inductive study is developing firsthand knowledge of God and the Bible. A personal relationship with God can never be replaced with commentary. It’s like playing in the football game versus reading about it in the newspaper. The two just don’t compare.

Are you ready to experience the Bible for yourself?

Update:  You can now read Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 of this series.