Introduction to Bible Study Methods

Hey there friends,

A while ago I asked if I could teach a Sunday School lesson on Bible study methods to our youth group. This isn't usually my class but as I was sitting in service one Sunday morning I was reflecting on the things I wish I had learned earlier on in life. Bible study methods was the first topic. As I thought about it more I realized how much I would love our youth to have access to the information I wasn't taught until Bible school. This blog post is an adaptation of the lesson I taught them. My lesson was over two Sundays and so this blog post will be a two-parter as well. I hope you find this interesting and informative. Let's get into it!

I grew up in a Christian home—a very involved and active Christian home. In fact, by the age of 11, I lived full-time in ministry. My family and I lived and worked at a Bible school, my dad was an elder, and I helped in the nursery at our church. I also worked at the Bible School summer camp! From there, we went directly onto the mission field when I was 14. We had a Christian English school where I taught the Bible and English hand-in-hand five days a week until I was about 16. That’s when I transitioned to working for the short-term mission teams that we hosted 10 months of the year.

I moved out of home and back to Canada when I was 18 and worked at a coffee shop for 10 months. There I worked with a lot of Christians, and I was very involved in my church and our College and Career Group, which is like a youth group for High School graduates. I then went to Bible School for a year. Essentially, I lived with, ate with, and was surrounded by Christians 24/7. I studied the Bible for a minimum of 25 hours a week, and on top of that, I was part of an outreach ministry.

I’m telling you all this so you can understand how immersed I was. Growing up, I consistently heard that studying the Bible was important and that I should do it more. But I didn’t know how, and despite my immersion in Christianity, I wasn’t taught how until age 19, when I was at Bible school.

That’s why I want to teach you this today. You may not be interested in studying the Bible right now, but I’m hoping that you all learn something practical and that one day when you do want to study the Bible, you will already have some basic skills. That was a long enough intro.

I hope that you all have a copy of God’s word with you today because we will be reading a lot from it. I want you to follow along in your Bibles so that you can see for yourself that what I’m saying is from God and that I’m not making it up. If I say something contrary to God's Word, call me out! It’s the same with all your teachers. God’s Word—not mine—is the ultimate authority. I will be using the NASB translation, but you don’t have to use the same. Our pastor uses the ESV, which is another awesome translation. 

Whether here or at home, I hope that you all have a physical copy of the Bible. Digital Bibles are wonderful! I think it’s awesome that we all have a copy of God’s Word in our pockets at all times. I love that I can read multiple translations quickly and easily. However, I personally think it’s so important to have a physical copy as your go-to for Bible study.

Why do I think it’s so important to have a physical copy? Let me go over this quickly.

1. Phones and tablets can be distracting. It can be hard to control our impulses. Notifications can be very distracting! You have no idea how many times I’ve been studying and using my phone to look something up then see a notification and get distracted for up to an hour! If you’re using a digital copy today, please put your device on “do not disturb.” I often do this when I’m studying at home. If you need to know a good Bible app, I can help you with that! We will also cover some Bible study tools later. There are so many awesome digital ones!

2. Reading physical words is better for you! Print is much less demanding on your brain and eyes. Reading on screens can impair your comprehension. A study done in 2016 found that students who read an article on a screen missed more details than students who read the same article in print form. And in 2017 another study found that “participants’ reading comprehension suffered when they scrolled through a comic book’s individual panels instead of seeing them all at once.” When we read, our brains create a “map” of the text. For example, remembering that a certain verse was at the top, left-hand corner of a page. Now try to imagine drawing a map of something with elements that are always moving, like a web page. It’s harder for us to map words that aren’t in a fixed location because we lose important “visual placeholders”. I can easily navigate my own physical Bible because I can remember where things are in it. I can also see where a certain story lies in the Bible's timeline because I can physically see where it is in the Bible. So, reading a physical copy of your Bible will help you to comprehend more! Click here to read more.

3. A physical copy is so personal. Because this is my Bible, I’m very familiar with where things are. It’s much harder for me to navigate Noah’s Bible because I just don’t know it so well. I can flip between passages much more efficiently in my own Bible, which I’ve been using for over two years! In Bible apps, you can often highlight, maybe even write a note… But, in your physical copy, you can write notes, underline, circle, leave sticky notes, highlight, use symbols, and so much more! Just have a look at mine! We will talk about how to do all that later. Our Bibles are so unique to us that it's almost like a diary. One time I was out with a friend and had nothing to do so she offered me her Bible to read for a little while. It felt like I was reading her diary because it had her notes and highlights. I could see what was special and important to her. I could see what spoke to her soul at certain times in her life. It was beautiful!

I didn't study the Bible when I was younger because I didn't know how to. Not knowing how, it wasn't very interesting for me to just sit down and read it for half an hour. There are so many reasons to not study the Bible! What are a few reasons why you think some people don’t read their Bibles as much as they probably should?

1. Maybe they also don't find it interesting. 

2. Maybe they find it too confusing. 

3. Maybe they find it too boring.

4. Maybe they don't know how to. 

5. Maybe they think they don't have the time. 

6. Maybe they don't think that it's relevant to their life. 

7. Maybe they don't own a Bible! 

8. Maybe they just don't like reading. 

9. Maybe they think they know everything.

10. Maybe they think they get enough teaching at church.

We all have our reasons. What is yours?

Now that we've looked at why we don’t study the Bible let's look at why we need to study the Bible. Why do you think we need to study the Bible?

Let’s look at a few verses!

Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

1 Peter 2:2-3

We see in this verse that we’re supposed to long for God’s Word! Sometimes it takes time to develop that hunger and craving, and that’s okay at the beginning. We develop this hunger by feasting on God’s Word. Just like our stomachs adapt to our diets, so our soul adapts to our habits. For example, When I lived in Asia for four years we ate certain kids of foods. We ate a lot of rice and vegetable. So, when I came to America I wasn’t used to the food here. My stomach couldn’t handle it. Noah can attest to this! When I first got here I barely ate because my stomach felt full and heavy after just a few bites. However, over time my stomach has adapted. It’s the same with God’s word. It may be hard for you to process and stomach large chunks at the beginning, but as you continue to feast, your soul will begin to crave it.

In these verses, we can also see why we’re supposed to long for God's Word. It’s “So that you may grow in respect to salvation”. The analogy used here is a newborn baby and milk, right? Newborn babies feed exclusively on milk. It’s how they’re nourished, and it’s how they get all that they need to grow. So it is with you and me. God’s Word is milk to the newborn Christian. We need it to grow in maturity, so we study the Bible for growth. It’s God’s primary tool to develop us!

If you don’t feast on God’s Word, your growth will be stunted, and you will remain a baby Christian for as long as you refuse to consume it. However, we see in Hebrews 5 that a mature Christian moves on from milk to meat.

For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But, solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

Hebrews 5:13-14

In this verse, we see that practice is what makes us mature—not how much you understand. You don’t have to go to seminary or Bible school to become a mature Christian. Maturity doesn’t have to do with age, profession, gender, or whether or not you grew up in a Christian home. All you have to do is practice and use Bible study techniques. My older sister was a mature Christian in my eyes at the age of 10 because she read, and she read often. She practiced and developed a hunger. She obeyed, and she applied what she read. She grew so much faster than I did. So, we study the Bible to develop spiritual maturity.

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

1 Timothy 3:16-17

This verse says that God’s Word is profitable, which means beneficial or useful.  Paul says that Scripture is useful, first of all, for teaching. We have already seen that it’s vital for our growth and maturity. What you believe will dictate how you behave. God’s Word will teach us and from that, we will grow and mature. Secondly, Paul says that Scripture is useful for reproof which means rebuke, blame, or disapproval. God’s Word is useful for telling us when we’re out of bounds. It tells us what sin is. Next, Paul says that Scripture is useful for correction. 

Who has a junk drawer or a closet where you cram all the things you don’t want to deal with or don’t have a place for? God’s Word helps us to bring all those things in our lives into the light. It helps us to clean out our life of all the mess and sin. Lastly, Paul says that Scripture is useful for training in righteousness. God speaks to us through the Bible to show us how to live. He has corrected the negatives, and now he gives us positive guidelines.

Verse 17 gives us the overall purpose: So that we may be equipped for every good work. In the Bible, we find the tools we need to be good servants of Christ! Putting it all together, we study the Bible so that God may cleanse us of all the bad in our lives and give us guidelines for the future, all so that we may become effective servants of Jesus Christ.

So, we study God’s Word so that we grow, so that we mature, so He can clean us, so He can guide us, so we can be equipped to serve Him.

At sixteen years old, I had barely grown as a Christian. I wasn’t mature. I wasn’t clean. I had no idea where I was going, and I would have made a horrible servant. All this because I didn’t study God’s Word. And I didn’t study God’s Word because I didn't know how and I thought it was boring.

In the next post, I'm going to give you the very simple method of studying the Bible I was taught at His Hill Bible School. I'll also give you a few resources and tools that may help. I'm so grateful to be able to share all of this with you and I'll talk to you in the next post!

Darcy-Rea Rogers