Search
In the previous section we took note of the person who studies the Bible. Let us now turn our attention to the method of studying the Bible. In studying the Bible, we must not only be right persons, but we must also have the right methods. We will consider the subject of method under three categories. First, we will consider the keys to studying the Bible; second, we will consider the practice; and third, we will consider the plan.
John 5:39 says, “You search the Scriptures.” Acts 17:11 says, “Now these people were more noble than those in Thessalonica…examining the Scriptures daily…” The first thing in studying of the Bible is to examine it. The word examine means “to search” in the original language. In other words, if we want to find out anything from the Bible, we have to search for it in the Scriptures themselves. We have to look for it like rummaging through our closets for a lost article of clothing. We examine many things for the purpose of searching for one thing. Among the many words that God has spoken, there is one word which we need at the present moment. There is one word which will render us spiritual help at this particular time for this particular occasion. We may have received a revelation, and we need a word to explain and express it. Or we may need to find the Scriptures’ revelation concerning a certain subject. In order to find these things, we have to search through God’s Word. We should approach the Bible with a searching mind. To search means to read with deliberation and to devote time and care to our reading. We have to study every word until we understand it. While we are reading we have to ask, “When was this written? Who wrote it? Who was it written to? Under what circumstance was this written? What was the feeling behind this word? Why was it written? What was the purpose for writing it?” We should ask these questions one by one slowly, look for the answers carefully, and not stop until we have found what we are looking for.
Sometimes in answering a question, we have to search through the entire Old and New Testaments for things related to the subject. We have to examine the entire Bible carefully word by word, lest we miss something important through oversight. Sometimes we know what we are looking for in God’s Word. At other times we do not even know what we are looking for. Sometimes we only need one thing, but sometimes we need many things. In our search we have to exercise the utmost care and meticulousness. We cannot allow one word or phrase to slip past us. We must bear in mind that the Bible is God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16). This means that every word and phrase is God’s word and is full of life. We have to devote the utmost attention to our reading.
Patience is needed in reading the Bible. If we do not understand something, we should come back to it a second time. We should read until we understand what it says. If God enlightens us and opens our eyes the first time, we can thank the Lord for it. But if He does not enlighten us or open our eyes the first time, we should go back and study it carefully the second, third, and even hundredth time. If we come across anything in the Bible that we do not understand, we should not be anxious. There is no need to force ourselves to mentally apprehend or understand it, and there is no need to insist on receiving light from it. Things that come from the head will not produce an “amen” from the spirit. Doctrines that are formulated by the mind are rejected by the spirit. We must not study God’s Word according to the mind. Rather, we should be patient, and search slowly. When God’s time comes, He will show us something.
A great mistake that many people make is that they do not search the Scriptures themselves. Rather, they read what others have said. No matter how much help others can render us, we have to read and search the Scriptures ourselves. We must not seek help from others all the time while neglecting to read the Bible ourselves. On the one hand, we do not despise prophecy; we need the edification of the prophets as well as those of other ministries. Yet at the same time we have to study the Bible ourselves. We cannot simply receive help from others while neglecting to read it ourselves.
Paul told the Colossians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (Col. 3:16). In order to have the word of Christ dwelling in us richly, at least we have to memorize the Scriptures. Of course, memorization alone may not result in God’s word dwelling in us. But we can say that if one does not memorize God’s Word, he certainly cannot have it dwelling in him richly. If a man merely memorizes the Scriptures with his mind, but his heart is not receptive or open to God and he is not submissive or meek, his memorization will not result in God’s word dwelling in his heart. Yet if a man thinks that there is no need to memorize God’s word because he only needs to be meek and submissive and open and receptive to God, he also will not be able to have God’s word dwelling in his heart.
Paul told the Ephesians, “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). In order to remember the Lord’s word, we have to memorize it. If we do not memorize it, we cannot remember it. The Lord Jesus memorized the Scriptures while He was on earth. He was able to quote the words of Deuteronomy to deal with Satan’s temptations (Matt. 4:1-10). When He entered the synagogue in Nazareth, He was able to open up to the book of Isaiah and speak forth the commandment and commission He had received from God (Luke 4:16-21). This shows that our Lord was very familiar with the Scriptures. For this reason we should give all the more diligence to study and memorize the Word. If we do not memorize it, we will forget what we have read, and we will reap little benefit from it. The young people in particular should try to memorize and recite it as they read it with a searching mind. We should spend time during the first few years of our Christian life memorizing the Scriptures. Many portions of the Word need to be memorized. For example, Psalm 23, Psalm 91, Matthew 5—7, John 15, Luke 15, 1 Corinthians 13, Romans 2—3, and Revelation 2—3 all need to be memorized. Those with a strong memory can memorize over ten verses a day. Those with a poor memory can memorize at least one verse a day. All we need to do is spend five to ten minutes a day to study a verse thoroughly and to search and memorize it. In about six months we will finish a book like Galatians or Ephesians. A book like Philippians can be finished within four months, and a book like Hebrews can be finished within ten months. The Gospels may take a longer time. But even a book like the Gospel of John can be memorized in eighteen months. If the young brothers and sisters would study the Bible diligently from the beginning of their Christian life and memorize at least one verse a day, they would be able to recite most of the important verses in the New Testament in four years. The above discussion pertains to those with a poor memory. Those with a better memory can do better. But even those with a poor memory can memorize one verse a day during the first four years of their Christian life. If they would do this, they would build up a solid foundation for themselves in their understanding of the New Testament.
If our hearts are open to God and meek in attitude, it will be easy for us to memorize the Scriptures. If our minds are set on the Lord’s Word all the time, memorization will be an easy task. While we seize every available opportunity to memorize the Scriptures, the word of Christ will dwell in us richly. If we do not allow the Scriptures to dwell in our heart, it will be hard for the Holy Spirit to speak to us. Whenever God grants us a revelation, He does so through the words of the Bible. If we do not memorize the Scriptures, it will be hard for revelation to come to us. This is the reason we should have God’s Word in our mind all the time. Memorizing the Scriptures is not for memorization alone; it is to lay the groundwork for us to receive revelation. If we memorize the Scriptures often and well, it will be easy for us to receive revelation and enlightenment, and the Holy Spirit will find it easier to speak to our spirit. This is the reason we have to spend time to memorize the Word, not just outlines but the actual text. We have to memorize it accurately and carefully.
Besides the above-mentioned crucial passages, other critical portions should also be put together and memorized as a whole. For example, the journey of the Israelites is an important piece of information. The journey which Elisha took when he followed Elijah, the journeys related to Peter’s preaching, and the journeys related to Paul’s preaching are also important. It is best to memorize all these facts. If we can recall the number of places in Judea and Galilee where the Lord Jesus worked, we will have a clear idea of the Lord’s work as a whole in the Gospels. The Lord’s work is divided into two sections, the first being carried out in Judea and the second in Galilee. There is also the need to spend some time to memorize the seven feasts and the six offerings in Leviticus. These are basic truths. Once we memorize them, we will realize the riches in God’s word. It is not a bad idea to memorize the two prayers of Paul in Ephesians and the ten references to the Holy Spirit in the same book. Verses like these can be found throughout the Bible, and it would do us good to memorize them all. If it is a crucial passage, we should memorize the whole chapter. If it is some isolated verses, we should memorize the verses. We also have to memorize the sixty-six books of the Bible according to the proper order.
Searching and memorization alone are not enough. We have to put portions of the Word together and compare them.
In 1 Corinthians 2 Paul speaks of spiritual things and the spiritual man. If we compare the spiritual man with the spiritual things, we will see something.
Psalm 36:9 says, “In Your light we see light.” It is not enough to have one kind of light. We need two kinds of light. In fact, one light leads to the other light. Light complements light in the Bible.
Second Peter 1:20 says, “No prophecy of Scripture is of one’s own interpretation.” It is easy for us to understand this to mean that prophecies are not to be interpreted by man. But according to the grammar of Peter’s word, it means that no prophecy is of its own interpretation. It is its and not one’s. If this verse meant that no prophecy is to be interpreted by man, Peter would have been too simple, for every Christian knows that God’s prophecy cannot be interpreted according to man’s own ideas. It would be redundant for Peter to say this. But this was not Peter’s meaning. The words own interpretation refer to an interpretation of the text by the text itself. When Peter said that no prophecy should be interpreted by its own interpretation, he was saying that each prophecy has a meaning that pertains to that text alone. Yet God’s speaking is not completed through just one text. In the books of the prophets we are told that God’s word is “here a little, there a little” (Isa. 28:13). Therefore, no Bible student should interpret a passage according to that passage alone. This is to interpret according to its own interpretation. When we read Daniel 9, we should not interpret it merely according to Daniel 9. In reading Revelation 13, we should not interpret it merely according to Revelation 13. If we interpret these two chapters according to just these two chapters, we are interpreting according to their own interpretation, and we are violating the principle of prophetic interpretation.
Here God shows us a principle: We must compare our reading of one passage of the Scriptures with other passages. We cannot base our interpretation on just that text alone. In tackling a teaching found in the Bible, we have to look for explanations of this teaching from other passages of the Bible. This is very important. Many heresies in Christianity have resulted from men holding on to one or two verses of the Bible without consulting other related passages. Satan also quotes the Scriptures here and there, but he quotes them to tempt men. We must remember that the more we compare, the less we will be liable to private interpretation. It is much safer for us to compare one verse with ten other verses. If we can only find five verses, it is better, but not as good as ten verses. The more comparisons we make, the better it is. If there is only one verse that says something, we have to be careful; we cannot build something big upon one isolated instance. Otherwise, we will end up with trouble. It is not very trustworthy to base everything on one verse. In reading the Bible we have to compare. We cannot interpret anything by the text of one passage alone. We must have the confirmation of other passages.
For example, Revelation 19 says that when the Lord descends from heaven to fight, He will remove all His enemies by the sword of His mouth. If we interpret this text by itself, we may conclude that the Lord’s mouth contains a sword, and we may even say that this sword is quick, sharp, and shining. If we realize that no Scripture should be interpreted by its own interpretation, we immediately will look for the meaning of “sharp sword” when we come to this passage, and from Ephesians 6:17 we will find that the sharp sword refers to the word of God.
Who do the ten virgins in Matthew 25 refer to? In reading 2 Corinthians 11:2, we find that they refer to the church. (In 2 Corinthians, virgin is singular in number, referring to the one church. In Matthew there are ten virgins, which refer to the responsibility of individuals before the Lord. Ten is composed of two fives, and five is the number of human responsibility before God.) Such comparative reading can give us much light.
It is also important to compare the Old Testament with the New Testament. If we compare the scope of God’s speaking in the Old Testament with the scope of His speaking in the New Testament, we immediately will see that God’s Word is progressive, that the word of revelation is progressive. Some words are found both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. For example, without the book of Daniel, there cannot be the book of Revelation. Yet, in comparison, Revelation is more advanced than the book of Daniel. We can also compare Revelation 2 and 3 with Matthew 13, Revelation 4 and 5 with Philippians 2, and Revelation 6 with Matthew 24. We can also compare the later chapters of Revelation with Daniel. When we compare these passages one with another and interpret one according to the other, we will see many things which we previously have not seen.
We can compare the four Gospels as well. Some things are spoken of in all four Gospels, while other things are not mentioned in every one of them. Either case bears much significance. For example, Matthew does not speak of the ascension of the Lord Jesus; it only speaks of His resurrection. Mark speaks of the Lord’s ascension. Luke speaks of the Lord’s ascension as well as the coming of the Holy Spirit. John does not say anything about the Lord’s ascension, but it speaks of His coming back. The four Gospels all end differently. We have to ask why they are different. If we look for the answer we will see something. Matthew tells us that the Lord is always the King on earth. This is the reason it does not say anything about ascension. Mark speaks of the Lord as God’s appointed Servant returning to God. Hence it speaks of ascension. Luke is on the glorified man. Therefore, it speaks about ascension as well as the coming of the Holy Spirit. John says that the Lord is the Only Begotten who is still in heaven and in the Father’s bosom. This is the reason it does not speak of ascension. Every book has its own characteristics, and we can only find them by comparison.
Both Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 1:2 tell us that we have to meditate and dwell on the word of the Lord all the time. At ordinary times (i.e., other than the times when we are reading the Bible), we should meditate on the Lord’s Word. We should learn to mold our thoughts according to the thoughts of the Bible. We should be meditating whether or not we are reading the Word. Romans 8:6 speaks of “the mind set on the spirit.” This means that we should think of the spirit, set our mind on the spirit, and fix it upon the spirit. This verse does not mean that we should set our mind on the spirit only, but that we should have a mind of the spirit. We should not just concentrate on the spirit, but we should have a concentration that is of the spirit. In other words, whenever our mind turns, it should always turn to God’s Word. No matter what the circumstances may be, our mind should always be fixed on God’s Word. This is a matter not of artificial reminding but of spontaneous meditating. Ordinarily, our mind should be a mind that is set on the Word. Our mind should not be set on the Bible only when we are thinking about the Bible; it should be on the Bible even when we are not thinking about it. We should be inclined toward God’s Word in a spontaneous way.
There are two sides to our meditation. On the one hand, we meditate when we read the Bible. On the other hand, we meditate at all times. When we are reading the Bible, our mind should be meditating on God’s Word. But when we are not reading the Bible, we should also be actively exercising ourselves with our trained mind. It is not a matter of forcing ourselves to think about the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit will direct our thoughts in this direction, and it will become part of our habit. Once we develop such a habit, we will spontaneously become rich in the Lord.
