FYFS: Sword handling class- learning to rightly divide the Word of Truth
January 6th, 2010 by Kristi Stephens
Yesterday, Teri Lynne shared some fabulous suggestions for where to get started reading God’s Word. Perhaps you’re re-freshing a neglected quiet time routine, perhaps you just needed some fresh ideas for what to read, perhaps you’ve never really read the Bible for yourself.
No matter how much or how little you know about Scripture, reading the Bible for yourself will change you.
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:17
When you pick up your Bible, you are wielding a sharp sword. Just like a person with no training recklessly swinging a sharp weapon around, we can do some damage to ourselves and others if we don’t know how to handle it! On the other hand, it is powerful and effective when used with skill. So today, let’s go through some “sword training” together.
First things first: Getting acquainted with your sword
If you’re unfamiliar with the Bible, you might find this God’s Big Story post to be helpful.
The Bible is a single volume made up of 66 smaller books. These books are written in a variety of genres.
Some of the Bible is written as law – most notably Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. Some laws were specific to Israel in the Old Testament, some laws are based in God’s character and therefore are unchangeable moral statements of right and wrong. Old Testament law is confusing to us as modern-day gentiles, and it is frankly often mistaught. I’d highly encourage you to bookmark this link with posts about interpreting OT law and come back to it when you have time.
Much of the Bible is written as narrative – these are the “Bible stories” that are most familiar to people. Narratives in the Scripture are true accounts that literally happened, but they are not moral statements of right and wrong – ie: Solomon’s staggering number of wives is well known, but the Bible is not endorsing polygamy. Narratives in Scripture assume that we know and are familiar with the law! When we read the wacky and twisted stories in the book of Judges, for instance, the author is assuming that we are familiar with the law and are noticing the very clear theological and moral errors that are resulting in the complete moral decay of the nation of Israel.
Some of the Scriptures are written as poetry. The book of Psalms is full of Hebrew poetry, but poetry also occurs throughout the Bible, sometimes in the middle of a narrative. Hebrew poetry is different than poetry we are familiar with – you can read a more thorough explanation here. Figurative language is also an important element of poetry that can lead people to misinterpret the Bible or assume that the Bible is contradicting itself. Again, you can read more complete discussions of recognizing and interpreting figurative language in these two posts – “How big are God’s hands?” and Understanding Figurative Language, Part Two.
Other portions of Scripture are known as “wisdom literature,” particularly the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. Wisdom literature starts with the base assumption that God is Creator. As Creator, He embedded truth within the universe. Because God embedded order in His creation and His character is the standard for what is “good,” if we live according to His ways, life generally will go more smoothly for us. To ignore God’s principles is foolish and will usually destroy us. One important thing that we must understand with wisdom literature is that these statements are not promises we can claim, but rather they are observations of the way life usually unfolds. When Proverbs tells us, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it,” (Prov. 22:6) this is not a promise! You can read more about wisdom literature here.
Other books of the Bible are comprised largely of prophecy. The second half of the Old Testament consists largely of accounts of prophets that God sent to His people (Israel). They were God’s messengers – rebuking sin, calling for repentance, and warning the people of the judgments to come if they did not repent and obey the Lord. Once again, the books of prophecy assume that we know the requirements of the law, as well as God’s promised blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience that He made to the nation of Israel. The Old Testament prophets also occasionally gave more information about the Messiah who would come (Jesus), speaking both of His first coming as recorded in the gospels and His second coming which is explained in greater detail in the book of Revelation. Revelation, of course, is also prophecy.
*Phew* – that was a lot of ground. Are you still with me? Anyone? Raise that hand a little higher now…
Now, some sword-handling basics:
1. The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to us. It’s primary purpose is not just to be a historical record, nor is it primarily a manual of how we should live. The Bible’s purpose is to reveal God’s glorious nature, ways, and His unbelievable quest to create relationship with humanity.
2. Before we apply the Scripture to our lives, we need to understand what it is saying. Scripture has one primary intended meaning – there can be a multitude of personal applications drawn from a particular verse, but that verse still means the same thing no matter who is reading it. Instead of asking “what does this verse mean to me?,” we must start with “what does this verse mean?” After answering that question we can then productively look at how that truth might apply to various aspects of our lives.
So, how do we find out what it means? Sword-handling skills:
1. The most fundamental, crucial element to interpreting Scripture correctly is context. Context, context, context! Context is king! In case I haven’t made this clear, context is very important. :) If you are reading a verse, read the passage around the verse in context. Better yet, read the entire book. The context for Romans 8:28 is really the entire letter Paul wrote to the church at Rome – be sure you don’t pull one statement he makes out of the larger context of his train of thought! Keep in mind that while the text itself was inspired, the chapter divisions and verse numbers were added later for ease of use. If there is a chapter break inserted, it wasn’t there originally.
2. It is also important to remember what genre of literature you are reading in order to approach it correctly. The links I gave you in the genre section above will explain these things further.
3. The way I typically read through Scripture is by survey reading first. This means reading a large chunk of Scripture relatively quickly in order to understand the context, flow of thought, and main points before diving into the particulars. Those of you who are participating in The Bible in 90 Days challenge are survey reading, and as you are all discovering, it can revolutionize the way you see Scripture because you are looking at the “big picture” before pulling apart the pieces, so to speak!
After I survey read, I go back and start looking for repeated words, phrases, or ideas. These usually start to jump out at you during your survey read – make some notes and go back later. Don’t be afraid to mark up your Bible! Underline, highlight, put a sticky note on the pages with notes… feast on God’s Word! If there are particular themes that occur over and over in a certain book, I like to use different colors to mark them so I can visually see the progression of thought and the overall theme. You can see an example of how I did this here.
Especially in the New Testament, I find that it is very helpful to circle words like “but,” “therefore,” “however,” “if,” “then,” etc. These words show a progression in the discussion or argument – Paul is famous for his long complicated thoughts – you could be five or six verses away from the original point he was making! When I taught high school Bible, I often told the kids “if there is a therefore, look to see what it is there for!”
Once I have a pretty good handle on what the passage is saying, I’ll start looking at other Bible study tools such as commentaries and concordances.
And finally… when I can summarize (in my mind or on paper) concisely what that passage means and what the heart of it really is – THEN I can make applications.
You see, at first blush you might find a passage confusing. Irrelevant. Disconnected from your life. But when you study it, chew on it, think about what it truly means, suddenly it DOES apply to you. Maybe not in a “this makes me feel warm and fuzzy” kind of way, but in a “this is Truth and I need to live and worship accordingly” kind of way. In fact, it often doesn’t make you feel good – because that double-edged sword cuts into our hearts and souls and exposes our weaknesses, false beliefs, and sin. If you’ve hung around here very long, you know how much I love the way God’s Word comes alive and becomes so very applicable and convicting – even when looking at stories like Jephthah’s incorrect worship of the correct God and how complaining resulted in an entire generation dying out in the wilderness.
For advanced training…
Obviously there is a lot more that you could learn – the study of Scripture is a life-long endeavor. To really get into the nitty-gritty of studying the meaning of words in the original languages, the structure of passages, cultural backgrounds of the books, etc is way beyond what I can do here (and I’m not sure if anyone is still with me after this textbook of a post!). If you’re serious about learning to study God’s Word, I’d recommend that you find a good “how-to” book to continue your sword training exercises! Some recommendations:
Precept Ministries exists to train people to study God’s Word for themselves. Lord, Teach Me to Study the Bible is a great basic overview of the “inductive study method.”
Talk Thru the Bible
Please don’t let this huge post be overwhelming.
Using your sword correctly takes practice. It’s hard work. But you can read and study the Bible for yourself. Understanding who God is by reading His Word will truly change your life forever – it’s a journey worth taking!
The links to the resources listed are provided for your convenience. I am an Amazon affiliate and would receive a small percentage of any sales that would result from clicking on the links in this post.
Update! To make this information more usable for you all, I have compiled this post and the others I referenced within it into a free ebook! You can print or download yours here.
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