How to Study the Bible Without a Seminary Degree

The Bible is considered the Road Map to Life. The true beneficiaries of the wisdom and instruction of the Bible are those who pick it apart, and apply it to their lives without losing its power or message in 6 easy steps.

Who? When you read the Bible, take a verse that seems to catch your eye or make you want to stop and say, "Who is this verse talking about?" Who is Step One. Some verses are easily identified when the "who" is named. Take your paper and pen and write down the verse, then put Step One: ______. Then fill in the blank. When you are done, you will see the result. Let's take the verse in the Gospel of John where John the Baptist declared, "Behold the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world." (Chapter 1, verse 29) In this case, the answer to our first question is Jesus. This will be fun!

What? Step Two is asking the question, "What is being said here?" Follow the step above and fill in a blank next to the word, What. It is important to say here that in all of these steps, you should read the whole chapter of the verse, before the verse, and in some cases, after the verse, in order to get the context of the meaning of each step. This safeguards you against making the wrong assumption and therefore getting off track in your attempt to understand God's Word to you. The answer in this case is that Jesus is the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world by his sacrificial death on the cross as the atoning Lamb of God.

When? "When is this happening?" Step Three is making you dig a little deeper to determine the timetable here. If you are studying one of the Gospels, you might ask yourself if the time was early in Jesus ministry or near the end. This is important to ask so that you are able to see and anticipate what the outcome will be. Take for instance, when the dove came down and rested on Jesus shoulder. When did this occur? Just after his baptism in the Jordan River, is the answer.

Where did this occur? You can be general and say, "the Middle East." If you want to go further, you can say "Israel" and you would be partly correct. Israel wasn't a nation at that time, though it was the promised land for the people of Israel. This is where having a Bible with study notes comes in handy, like my Dake Bible, or one of many popular study Bibles on the market today. It is important in this study to have access to historical data to prove or validate the authenticity of the Bible.

Why? "Why is this happening; or, why does Jesus have to die for the sin of the world?" Again, reading the context helps but also having an open mind when you take an unanswerable question to your local church leader to get their feedback. This question often times will force you to "get down on your hands and knees and scrape away the dirt gently and eagerly" like an anthropologist in search for ancient artifacts.

The last step, you probably guessed already, is How. How is this possible; or, how will this be done? You might step outside the box and ask how Jesus was going to be baptized. Some people believe that only babies get baptized or you have water sprinkled on you as a rite of religious observance. A Bible dictionary comes in handy along with Strong's Concordance to define what baptism means, literally. When you understand that, then you will better appreciate what He must have felt at that time. It helps when we are wanting to follow in his steps and experience much of the same things.

1. Tips-
   1. When selecting a verse from the Bible, listen to your inner feelings. Are you feeling sad, take a verse from the Psalms - like Psalm 23. Are you feeling tempted to sin, go to the First Epistle to Corinthians, chapter ten and verse 12-13. Are you wondering about the last days, go to the Book of the Revelation of the Apostle John at the end of the Bible. Wherever you choose to go, these six easy steps will build spiritual muscle and make you a more well rounded person.
   2. As mentioned above, taking verses out of context and not considering the context could, and in most cases will, be harmful to your core belief structure. It is always good to take your progress to your church leader and get their feedback. Maybe they can tweak your study or suggest more study helps to add.
   3. Don't let this be as a replacement to your daily Bible reading and prayer. Too often, especially when we want to study the end times, we get distracted from the daily feeding on God's word into studying or reading someone's commentary and lose precious relationship building time with the Author of the Scriptures.
   4. Don't compromise personal family time in lieu of more study. The study can wait, or you can rise up earlier in the morning to study. The child's piano recital cannot wait. Take your spouse out on a date, walk the dog with the family. The Word, like a faithful friend, will be there when you get back home. Even the wisest man in the line of Israel's Kings, Solomon, said that "too much study is the weariness of the flesh." (Ecclesiastes 12:12). Thank you.