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 3.
Study the Bible carefully. Paul told Timothy
to study the Bible as “a workman who does not need to be ashamed and
who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Don’t
just grab any stray text that seems to suit your opinions or inclinations
and hang on tight. Look as carefully and as objectively as possible at what
is being said in the passage. Reading the Bible is an encounter with the
mind of God.
4. Study the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and book by book. As you read it, let the Bible speak for itself. Since the Bible is a message from Jesus, it is not only true, but the test of all truth (Isaiah 8:20). So we should never let any “religious” belief or principle explain away any part of Scripture. Trying to make the Bible fit into a preconceived idea will only cause us to “distort” the Scriptures to our “own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16, KJV). Make sure you understand each statement of the Bible in the light of its context: who is being spoken to, what problem it refers to, what other statements surround it, etc. The key question is: What did the Bible writer intend to say? All of us must learn to distinguish what the Bible writer intended to say from our subjective impressions: what we think the writer should have said. After grasping what a text means we can apply it intelligently to our life today. 5. Study the Bible by subject. To really understand Bible truth, we must let the Bible be its own interpreter. How? By comparing scripture with scripture. Jesus used this method to demonstrate that He was the Messiah:
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