When my application to Dallas Theological Seminary was first accepted, they sent me a book along with my acceptance letter. That book was written by a professor named Howard Hendricks (who went to be with the Lord in 2013) and is titled “Living By the Book.” I think of all the books that I read throughout the next four years, this was one of the most foundational because it taught me how to actually study and understand – and increasingly how to live by – God’s Word.
There are a number of ways to study the Bible, and over the years my goal has been to introduce several of the ones that I’ve found most helpful during our Sunday morning adult classes. For those who would like a refresher, a printout, or to go deeper, I’ve collected two of the best explanations below…
Observe, Interpret, and Apply
This is the method that I was introduced to by Hendricks’ book (as well as in class with him). Dr. Hendricks wasn’t, to my knowledge, the first one to come up with it, but it was his presentation of it that really cemented the ideas in my mind.
- A summary of the Observe, Interpret, and Apply method is on this website.
- An interview with Dr. Hendricks (explaining the method and including a fourth step: correlation) can be found here.
The beauty of OIA is that it is simple (note: that doesn’t always mean easy!). While there are other good Bible study methods, none of them will be very helpful unless you can remember them. And certainly none will be helpful at all unless you actually put them into practice. If the tool you are using is too hard to remember or so detailed that just figuring out the process takes all your time, then it might make studying the Bible into something you dread rather than something you enjoy. OIA may be simple, but what it delivers is a faithful understanding of what the Scriptures say, mean, and call us to respond with.
Principles of Exposition
Don’t let the fancy sounding title throw you off here – if you’ve ever been in a class where I’ve drawn the “path” on the whiteboard or spoken about “staying on the line,” then you know what this is. I know of no group who has done a better job of spelling out what in-depth understanding and application of the Scriptures look like than The Charles Simeon Trust.
- Here is a PDF from the Simeon Trust website (original source) that explains and gives examples for each of the principles of exposition. This may seem long or hard to remember at first, but if you use the tools enough, they will start to stick in your mind and become more natural.
- For those wanting a bit more, I highly recommend taking their “First Principles” course online. It is self paced, cheap ($19), and amazingly helpful. The webpage for the course is here.
- Lastly, for those of you who like podcasts, the CST has a number of really good ones on their resource page here.
Overall, what you’ll see from both of these methods is that the tools may be more or less complicated, but they all get you looking at, thinking on, and praying over the text. There is no magic shortcut here: it takes time to study the Scriptures. It takes effort to understand what is being said. It might be tempting to think that “the answer” is what is most important and therefore that it doesn’t matter how you get it (study Bible notes, a commentary, Google, etc.), but one thing I’ve learned over the years is that the process itself is every bit as important, because the process is part of how God grows you. Notes and commentaries are great – but they aren’t inspired. Let me both encourage you and challenge you to spend your best time with what the Lord has actually preserved for His people: the Word.
