Session One
Scripture: Selected
Date: October 11, 2008
Speaker: Sean Higgins
I am super excited for this seminar and want to welcome you all to what I hope will be a memorable and profitable day in your Bible study life.
Not everyone would be excited about our meeting like this today, to discuss the specific subject of how to study the Bible. I was at Milligan College in the spring of 1993 when a professor from the School of Divinity at Duke University was our visiting lecturer. Among the many stimulating things he said that week, what caught my attention most was his reference to a book he was working on, now published and titled, Unleashing the Scripture: Freeing the Bible from Captivity to America.
In that book, Stanley Hauerwas argues that the Bible should be taken out of the hands of individual people, and reserved only for properly trained pastors and scholars to study, interpret, and teach. He asserts that by allowing everyone to have their own copy, the Bible loses definition and authority because every untrained, unrighteous person can make an equal claim on the Bible’s message. There is no way to govern, no way to control, no way to protect the Bible when everyone has their own copy.
We can agree with Hauerwas that the consequences of people having their own copies has certainly produced some ill-effects. Most cults start with a Bible verse wrongly interpreted. Different denominations originate from different interpretations of Scripture, not from different sources. Individual believers are confused by the deluge of disagreements, and frustrated as they try to figure out the meaning of the Bible on their own.
What is the answer to fights and quarrels over the Bible? How should we respond to people who refer to Scripture as their source, but use it to lead people into wrong, if not heretical theological beliefs? Should we take back all the copies (like the Catholic church during the Dark Ages)?
The resounding answer is NO! We do not agree with Hauerwas that the answer is to take copies of God’s Word away from the people. Instead, the answer is to train people to rightly divide their copy of God’s Word.
That is the apostle Paul’s answer in context in 2 Timothy 2:14-19.
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
The exhortation in verse 15 is in the context of “quarrels about words” and “ruin” (verse 14), “irreverent babble” that “will lead people into more ungodliness” (verse 16), those who “swerve from the truth” and who are “upsetting the faith of some” (verse 17). The consequences couldn’t be more grave. But Timothy’s responsibility was to “Do his best,” to “Be diligent” as a “workman,” to “rightly handle” (ESV), “handle accurately” (NASB), “correctly handle” (NIV), or “rightly divide” (KJV & NKJV) the “word of truth.”
The answer to misinterpretation and misrepresentation, the antidote to weak and false teaching, the fix for confusion and contentions, is committed (do your best), God-conscious (present yourself to God), conscientious (a worker…no need to be ashamed), and correct (rightly handling) study of your copy of God’s Word.
That’s the reason for this seminar. I assume that’s why you’re here.
It is an amazing advantage to have your very own copy of all of God’s Word. No Old Testament or New Testament believer had that privilege. Most of God’s people in history did not have a complete copy, or a copy in their own language, or a copy that was convenient to carry around with them. Men have given their lives for us to have our own copies. So, we not only have a great benefit and blessing, we have an even greater responsibility to take pains and spare no effort to rightly divide our own copies of God’s Word.
Today is going to go really fast, and many of you may feel like you’re drinking from a fire hydrant. That’s good. I want everyone to get as much as they can. Take notes in your new Rightly | Dividing padfolio. Write down questions to ask me later. But, let me encourage you that part of your registration includes access to all the audio recordings of the sessions as well as my notes, which hopefully will be available for you online in the next couple weeks. I’m even planning on making my presentation slides available, so if you don’t get it “all,” you can get more later.
You’ll be getting a few other things throughout the day. We didn’t give you everything right away this morning, partly to keep you in anticipation throughout the day, and also so you don’t have to carry everything around with you all day.
The schedule is included in your folio. I’m going to do my part to keep on track. I’ve asked Curtis Wentling to help remind people about breaks and such. But I’m going to try to start and end when it says and begin again when it’s time. So if you don’t want to miss anything, keep track of the time.
During the breaks there will be drinks and snacks in the back of the worship center. Please try to keep food and drinks either in the worship center or downstairs in the fellowship hall (that is, not in the foyer), as the carpet is easier to clean in those places.
You all have name tags (thanks to my wife). There are a number here from other churches as well as some from within Grace Bible Church that you may not recognize. Please serve us by keeping your name tag on throughout the day. That will also help us make sure we’re feeding and gifting the right people.
For as high hopes as I have for today, there are a few limitations concerning this seminar.
We’ll talk more about it when we consider spiritual preparation for Bible study, but rightly dividing your copy of God’s Word is a spiritual, supernatural endeavor. Illumination of God’s Word is a work of God’s Spirit, when the Spirit enables us to see, understand, and love the revelation God has given us. No approach or method for study, no tool or resource we talk about today can overcome the spiritual gap between us and God. This seminar cannot replace, it is not intended to be a substitute for, prayer and illumination.
There is no easy system of Bible study, no quick, three-step technique that guarantees you will mine all the gold from any Bible passage in five minutes a day. That’s why we must “do our best” and be workers. Bible study is work. And, you can’t expect to do anything well in minutes. Time devoted to video games, perfecting a family recipe, or getting your grass to be green take time. So does Bible study.
That said, Bible study is straightforward work, and often having the right tools for a job does make it easier or quicker than without those tools. Taking an engine apart is doable, but even with the right tools, it still takes some know-how and elbow grease and maybe even a few late nights. This seminar will not provide you with an alternative from work on your part, though hopefully it will make it so you’re not just beating on the engine, but accelerating your success in rightly dividing your copy.
There are a couple reasons I give this warning. First, it often happens that the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know. It’s possible that you could be overwhelmed by the end of today, or, that you’ll be fired up to study, but come Monday morning, you’ll be disappointed that it doesn’t come as easy for you as it seems today.
It is also possible that the more you learn, the more you think you know. You may think through some issues today that will change how you listen to teaching and preaching for the rest of your life. Some of you have already gone through this process. And once you’ve chewed and tasted meat, it’s hard to go back to milk. Once you learn to look for the point of a passage, it’s very easy to be discontent, and worse, to be critical of others.
On one hand, that’s normal. On the other hand, it’s very dangerous and ugly. If you’ve learned something about Bible study, that is God’s grace to you, not because of you. Watch out for a critical spirit and remember, “knowledge puffs up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). As you listen to sermons, read commentaries, and converse with fellow believers, don’t forget the appropriate and appreciative and humble attitude God wants from His disciples.
Rightly dividing your copy of God’s Word is work, a lot of work, hard work, but good work and rewarding work. You are likely to get more benefit by making some appropriate preparation. Sharpening your axe takes a little time at the beginning, but you’ll be glad you did.
The Bible is a spiritual book. It is the “sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:17) and is spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14). You will not get God’s message unless you approach it as a spiritual work.
Here are three parts of spiritual preparation, and all three are in the context of prayer.
The greatest hindrance to Bible study is not lack of time, or lack of tools, or lack of personal smarts. The biggest obstacle to Bible study is sin. Dealing with sin is a prerequisite to approaching God’s Word. Peter says just that in 1 Peter 2:1-2.
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
In context (1 Peter 1:22-25), the pure spiritual milk is the “living and abiding word of God.” Believers are to crave Scripture.
Notice that the put away action comes before the command to long for the milk. In English, the order of action reveals a prerequisite. If we read the verses in Greek, we would see that the verb in verse one is an aorist participle (a secondary verb), modifying the command (main verb) in verse two. The participle before the main verb typically describes antecedent action, action that must take place before the command.
The same idea and structure is also in James 1:18. Neither passage provides an exhaustive list of sins, but the point is that if your heart is filled with the junk food of malice and deceit and envy, you won’t have room left for the pure milk of Scripture. And if you’re unwilling to deal with sin, why would God give you insight into another passage when you’re ignoring what you already know? I like the following reminder supplied by Howard Hendricks (Living by the Book, p. 13):
This book will keep you from sin—
And sin will keep you from this book.
Approaching the study of God’s Word requires a clean heart and a submissive will. This Book is unlike any other book in the world, in that the Author is also our Creator and our Lord. Each sentence bears divine weight. The commands have divine authority.
Therefore the second part of spiritual preparation is to acknowledge God’s authority. A healthy sense of fear should come over us when we sit down to study or get up to teach this Book. That’s the reason why we should work hard to not be ashamed in the process (2 Timothy 2:15).
What the Bible affirms, God affirms. What the Bible condemns, God condemns. What the Bible commands, God commands. What the Bible prohibits, God prohibits. It is God’s Word, and so it deserves the attention God deserves and carries the authority God shoulders.
When you get a letter from the IRS, when the doctor calls with the test results, you probably stop what you’re doing and give your whole-hearted consideration. It is beneficial to pause in prayer and remember what you’re doing and Whose Book you’re dealing with.
The third part of spiritual preparation is prayer for God’s work of illumination. As I said, the Bible is a spiritual book and is spiritually discerned. Unless the Spirit of God helps you understand the Word of God, you won’t fully apprehend or appreciate Scripture. That’s why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:14,
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
The things of the Spirit of God are contained in His Book. It’s why the Psalmist prays over and over for God to let his eyes behold wondrous things from His law in Psalm 119:18.
Open my eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of your law.
See also Psalm 119:33-34, 73, 125, 135, 169. All these verses are a prayer request for illumination. It’s why we sing “open the eyes of my heart, Lord.”
This is perhaps the most important part of rightly dividing your copy of God’s Word, and it is a lifelong need. Who better to get help from than the One who wrote it? So ask the Author! Don’t underestimate the willingness of God to teach His people when they as for His help.
I suppose there are a lot of things we could talk about when it comes to practical preparation. For example, you need to decide what you’re going to study. “Selected Scriptures” won’t work for long and the bull’s-eye approach won’t be enough to motivate you at the end of a long day. You also should consider the best time for your study. It will be different for different persons. The Bible itself talks about meditating on Scripture in the morning, at noon, in the evening, and during the night watches. Whenever you do it, don’t give God your left-over minutes. For that matter, the place you study is not inconsequential. Get out of the path of distraction or interruption. There is a reason doctors don’t perform heart surgery anywhere. Don’t depend on study happening in hurried breaks, in between your “actual” priorities, or in the food court at the mall, or when you’re least alert and awake.
But I’ll have to let you think through those issues.
The most important thing I can help with is the right tool(s). If you want to frame a house, you’ll need a hammer that you can handle. If you’re going to take an engine apart like we talked about earlier, a hammer isn’t so helpful.
When it comes to rightly dividing your copy of God’s Word, you need a good copy. You’re already one step removed from the original Bible languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), so you are dependent on a translation. There are a plethora of English translations, and I’m not going to spend a lot of time on the subject because, at least based on the registration survey, everyone except for one of you use the NASB, ESV, NKJV, (or NIV). Those will all work (though I’m least happy with the NIV). They each have pros and cons, but again, they will work.
The point is that you want a translation that seeks to translate the original words as faithfully as possible, not one that attempts to rephrase or paraphrase or that has a particular agenda. When you really get serious you’ll want to compare and contrast a few different translations. Having a few, or using Bible software or online sites (which I’ll mention in the final session today) can also help.
Now let me say a couple things about the format of your copy. Not all copies are created equal, even once you’ve chosen a good translation.
Get a copy that has large (enough) print. If you want to carry around a Prayer of Jabez size copy that fits on your key ring, great. But study from one that doesn’t take a magnifying glass to read. And get a paper copy, don’t rely only on a computer. Not only will you be less tempted to respond to the “ding” and check every new email or the five-minute forecast, you can see more context on a printed page, unable to be duplicated by any screen.
And get a copy that is not a study bible. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but we’re here to help you rightly divide your copy, not to give you a copy that someone else has divided or annotated. Own a study Bible, sure. I’ve written on my blog that if I was stranded on an island and could only have one book, I want a copy of The MacArthur Study Bible. (The ESV Study Bible, due out this month, may take its place, we’ll see.) But when it comes to your study, you will be too tempted to get someone else’s answers if it gets hard. Don’t let yourself off the hook that easy.
If you can, look for a copy that doesn’t even include sections headings. They can be helpful, but again, it is someone else’s work and headings will influence your thoughts.
And in my opinion, the most important thing, get a copy that puts poetry in lines and shows paragraphs as paragraphs.
Almost everyone’s Bible shows paragraphs in some way. Even copies that left-justify every verse usually bold the verse number for each new paragraph. But that arrangement isn’t helpful. I want you to be able to look at a page and quickly observe the units of thought. We’ll take an entire hour (Session Five) and talk about the important place of paragraphs in Bible study. Suffice it to say for now, you stand a much greater percentage of rightly dividing your copy if you’re thinking about paragraphs. A copy that lays out paragraphs on the page will not only help you identify the paragraphs, but will also help you remember that any given verse is part of a bigger block, as well as to think about the author’s flow of thought, paragraph by paragraph.
While we’re at it, get one that you’re not afraid to write in and use. An expensive and shiny set of wrenches is worthless if you’re afraid to get them dirty. Don’t use your 20th anniversary Precious Moments limited edition. Don’t get one of those calfskin covered copies if all you’ll do is feel the outside. Get a copy with decent sized margins that you can mark up (or another option might be to print out the section you’re working on. So that’s another benefit of the padfolio you received today).
Notice what I’ve not mentioned: secondary resources.
For each session today I’m planning on finishing with at least two take-aways. Based on the registration surveys, we’ve got quite a variety here today. About half of you (who completed the survey) either never study or are regularly frustrated when you study. Obviously that means the other half of you want to study more deeply, either for yourself or as you prepare to teach others. That leaves me with a daunting challenge to help each group.
The take-aways are going to take the form of milk and meat, illustrations that the Bible uses to describe different maturity levels when it comes to a person’s relationship to the Bible. Studying the Bible is simple, though deep and rich. The Bible has perspicuity, that is, it is written to be understood. But it is divine, so there is always something that requires chewing. I’ve tried to think of at least one element for every hour that each person can walk away with, no matter what category of ability you have now.
Your spiritual growth depends on your appetite and ability to study God’s Word.
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation (1 Peter 2:2)
Take preparation, especially spiritual preparation seriously, because your progress on the salvation growth chart is invariably related to Scripture, and how you rightly divide your copy.
The salvation of you and those who listen to you depends on your taking pains with God’s Word.
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. … Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:13, 15-16)
God in His providence uses teachers to save and sanctify, and that depends on you rightly dividing your copy of God’s Word.