Study

In the newest installment of The Pirates of the Caribbean, there is a scene where two pirates are rowing their way across a vast expanse of the sea, having just escaped from prison. One is rowing the boat, the other sits in the stern reading a book, or at least attempting to read it with one eye. The rowing pirate asks what he thinks he’s doing, he can’t read. The second pirate replies, “It’s the Bible, you get credit for trying!” To which the first replies, “Pretending to read the Bible is a lie, and that’s a sin against…” and he points to the sky.

Sadly, those two represent a fairly accurate microcosm of our world. Adrift on the sea, trying to row our way to some distant terra firma, one part pretending to be seeking after God, believing they’re getting credit for their efforts – the other part not even trying to know God, but afraid even to mention His name.

Even in the church, I think there’s a predominant attitude that matches the words of the second pirate – “I may not be able to understand what I’m reading – but I get credit for trying!” For many, that initial attitude has further deteriorated to a point where they get frustrated, convince themselves that the Bible is beyond their comprehension, and they quit reading it all together. You may or may not be surprised by how many people I talk to who tell me that they don’t understand the Bible. Have you ever heard someone say that?

I’m not surprised; I hear it a lot, too. But when I ask those same people when they last tried to read it, they usually respond kind of blankly – it’s been a long time for most – some will admit after thinking about it for a while that they can’t remember the last time they actually tried to read the Bible. Many of those who do remember talk about how foreign the language is – all those “Thee”s and “Thou”s and wordeths that endeth with strangeth soundetheseses…

But, Oh, I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to stay that way! I’ve had the joy of watching some of those same people come practically running into my office – excited about how the Bible has come alive for them! They amazed! It makes sense to them! They are finding out all sorts of stuff that they thought was true about the Bible isn’t true at all, and that there’s a lot of stuff in here that they never knew! I’ve gotta tell you, I don’t know who is more excited when that happens – them or me! Because I get the greatest thrill out of seeing it happen – and it happens regularly – right here in Mayville, to people in this church, and people who don’t attend here that I talk to – and it can happen for you, too.

Well, despite all that, we are not going to talk today about reading the Bible! We are going to talk about the Discipline of Study – and there’s a huge difference between reading and studying!

Reading is what we do when we think we are earning points just for trying – study is when we invest ourselves in the material so that we understand it, and can apply it. If you were choosing a doctor, would you want a doctor who read his medical books, or a doctor who studied his books? There’s a huge difference between the two.

Psalm 119:9-11 says, “How can a young man keep his way pure, by living according to Your word. I will seek You with all my heart, do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart, so that I will not sin against you.” Careful study and attention to Scripture are the keys to living a life that pleases God – a life of victory over sin, joy and ultimate purpose.

We’re going to look very quickly at some very basic concepts today – but this is a topic that is so important that we are going to revisit it later this year. After this series, which we’ve called “training camp,” is complete, the next series is going to be entitled, “Study the Playbook.” We’re going to take 5 weeks of in depth focus on how to study the Bible. But for today, I just want to give you an overview of this important discipline, and some resources to help you dig further on your own.

Translation

The first and most important element to studying the Bible – is the Bible itself! The Bible was not originally written in English – not even King James English! The Old Testament was primarily written in Hebrew, and the New Testament primarily in Greek – an ancient Greek called koine – that is not a spoken language any more. What you have in your hands this morning, or on the seats around you, or on your shelves and tables at home is an English translation of the original languages. The Bible has been translated from its original languages for centuries – even the Latin Bible used in the ancient church was a translation from the original Hebrew and Greek.

When I was a freshman in college, the New International Version was, well, new. It had just been released, and there was a lot of discussion as to whether it was a reliable translation and how it stacked up to the others that were around at that time – the King James, The New American Standard, etc. I asked my professor which he preferred. He smiled, shyly, and said, “Well, Bob, I read it from the original Greek and Hebrew.” DUH! All the upper classmen snickered – this guy taught Greek! Like I said, I was a freshman!

Most of us don’t read the original ancient Greek or Hebrew languages, so we must have a good translation of the Scriptures. Not only do most of us not read Greek or Hebrew, most of us don’t read Elizabethan English either! The main purpose of study is understanding. You have to have the scriptures in a language that you can comprehend, or you’re just pretending like the pirate in the movie!

Ų Get a translation – NOT a paraphrase. A paraphrase is one person’s interpretation of the text. It’s one guy and his thoughts on the original documents. The Message, for example, is a paraphrase of the Bible. An individual reads the Bible, then writes it in his own language – that’s a paraphrase. This week I ran across an endorsement for a book by Eugene Peterson, and he was described as the “Author of The Message,” and he is – the Message is one man’s interpretation of the Bible. That doesn’t mean that it’s worthless – but it does mean that it is more likely to get off track – because it’s only one guys opinion. The Living Bible, which came out in the 1960’s was a paraphrase, while the New Living Translation, which was released in 2002, is a translation – and a pretty good one.

Ų A translation, on the other hand, is the result of a team of scholars who look over the original text, and work in tandem to come up with the most accurate translation into contemporary language. They may disagree, argue and struggle over the meaning of a word or phrase – but that is a good thing – because that struggle causes them to do more work, dig deeper into the historical setting and other ancient writings in order to defend their opinion – and as a result when they do agree the final document it is better and more accurate. That being said, not all translations are the same – some are, in fact, quite poor – and none is perfect. Any translation is a human endeavor, and none is perfect – but some are better than others. I believe the most accurate of the modern translations is the New American Standard Version – but it is not the most readable. The NIV is very good, and I use it a lot – but I disagree with some of the editorial decisions they made – leaving entire verses out of the text and putting it as a footnote, for example. The New King James is also very good.

The point is this – find a good translation – check around. Most of us have internet – use it for something other than spam emails! Do some research, read a variety of the texts online (there’s a website on your study sheet that has all the translations and paraphrases so you can compare them side by side), then get one so that you can study it – that’s the first step to studying – you need to be able to comprehend the language it’s written in!

You might remember I mentioned a guy who stopped by my office a couple of weeks ago – he’s been coming for an hour each week to just talk about stuff. I gave him a copy of the New Living Translation during his first visit – you should have seen and heard him when he came this week! He was so excited! He said, “I’m doing great! I can’t believe how much I can understand of this!”

For some of you, this step alone will be worth the effort to come to church this morning, but as I said before, “study” is more than just “reading.” Let’s quickly look at the next steps.

Time

Study requires an investment of time. For most of us, this is the most difficult sacrifice of all. For some, it would be easier for me to get money out of you this morning than to ask for more of your time – but if we are going to be students of the Bible, we need to invest time. There is no substitute for time – we simply cannot study without spending time. Before you tell me you don’t have any time to invest, listen to this:

In one year, the average American will read or complete 3,000 notices and forms, read 100 newspapers and 36 magazines, watch 2,463 hours of television, listen to 730 hours of radio, buy 20 CD’s, talk on the telephone almost 61 hours and read 3 books.

I look at those statistics and I can see how they are true. We do read magazines and newspapers. We all watch TV and listen to radio and talk on the phone. All of these things are normal parts of our lives. These are the ways we take in information and think about it. These are the ways we communicate. This is how we spend our time.

Every human being is given the commodity of time in precisely the same increments – we each get 52 weeks in a year, 7 days in a week, 24 hours each day and 60 minutes in each hour. Every person gets the same amount of this precious resource – but not every one uses it wisely. By the time he was 39 years old, Martin Luther King, Jr. had earned a doctorate, pastored a church, stood firmly against injustice, won a Nobel Peace Prize, influenced the entire world and laid down his life for the cause of freedom and equality. By the time he was my age, Teddy Roosevelt had been Police Commissioner of New York City, State Representative in New York, Colonel in the United States Army, Under Secretary of the Navy, Governor of New York, Vice President of the United States and President of the US for 6 years!

Here’s the point – we DO have the time – it’s a question of what we DO with that time! What are our priorities? What really matters to us? That which we spend our time on reflects our deepest values.

These are incredibly busy weeks for me. I’m getting ready for the men’s retreat next week, where I will be delivering 4 messages like this in less than 36 hours, so I’ve been doing one extra message each week for the last three weeks. I’ve spoken at UW Madison twice in the past two weeks. I’m involved in the praise team, along with Carol lead the High School group at AWANA, oversee the Gatekeepers men’s ministry, meet with the elders or ministry leaders weekly, individually with people who stop by the office either scheduled or not, try to get to the TAG Center to run 4 days a week, and be a husband and father. These have been some of the busiest weeks I have had in a long time!

I tell you that not to brag about my schedule but to make this point - I mentioned this last week but it bears repeating – last Monday we got a call that Carol’s aunt had passed away – a godly woman and an important part of Carol’s life. You know what – we found a way, in the midst of our busy schedules to drive to Minnesota and spend two days there with family. Why? Because it was a priority. We determined that it was worth the sacrifice of time, energy and money to go.

Ten thousand eighty (10,080) minutes have passed since I shared that observation with you last Sunday morning – how have we spent those minutes? How many of those minutes have been lost forever to the wasteland of television? How many have slipped away into eternity via the medium of the computer monitor? It all comes down to this: What are the priorities in our lives? That question governs everything in our lives – including Bible study. We do have the time – we do! We simply choose what we will spend it on – good or bad.

To develop the discipline of study we must be willing to invest time, because study is defined as a “engaging the mind and focusing attention on Scripture in an attempt to understand and apply truth to every part of my life.”[i] There are four components to this engaging of the mind.[ii] There are no shortcuts, the require the investment of our time.

Ų Repetition: One of the most fundamental ways to engage the mind and focus our attention is through repeated exposure. Ever met someone whose conversation is laced with lines from movies? That doesn’t happen by seeing those films once! They’ve seen those movies multiple times, and the lines - funny, insightful, sad, cutting – whatever, are part of their thought patterns now! When I talk to people about their Bible reading, quite often I get, “Yeah, I tried reading the Bible once, and it was hard…” When we study, we read, and re-read, and read it again.

Ų Concentration: Study requires a focusing of our attention on the subject matter. We need to free ourselves of the distractions of life to do serious study. There are times when I have to go in my office, close the door, turn off the phone, even turn off the lights in order to concentrate on the Scriptures. Trish could testify that a lot of the time in my office I have the radio on, or music playing. But I need those times of concentration regularly, when I have to set boundaries and have times of concentration. Most of us, me included, have a hard time doing that – we can’t imagine a room without the TV or radio in the background – try it, though, and you will find that you like it!

Ų Comprehension: This is a huge part of study – in fact, it is one of the primary goals of study – to understand what is being said. We read the Bible, most of the time, looking for application, right? “What does God have for me?” – That’s good! That is the ultimate goal, after all – but sometimes we want to find application before we have comprehension. We read a paragraph, verse, sentence or even a word and want to jump right away to application – but we haven’t even found out what the author meant when he said it! God Himself inspired the writers of this book, and it is His intent, and His meaning that we are seeking – not just a quick jolt of coincidental connection. How many of you have heard the words of Jesus, “The truth shall set you free”? Uh-huh. That’s not what He said. What He said was, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) The life-giving truth of the Bible comes with comprehension – knowing what it says!

Ų Reflection: Finally, we need to invest time to reflect. This is the final goal – as we said before – the idea here is to reflect and consider the results of our study and determine how the truth I have studied and now understand applies to my life. Comprehension defines what we have been studying, reflection reveals the significance of the verse, or passage. “How can I apply this truth to my life?” This requires additional time because it involves a quiet pondering of God’s holy Word and my ordinary life – and how those two intertwine. That is not something done while eating an Egg McMuffin, driving to work and listening to the radio! It requires time, concentration and reflection.

Some of you are looking at the study sheets in your programs, and your watch and are thinking, “Man, is he going to get us out of here before the Super Bowl starts at 5:25 tonight?” The answer is, “Yes.” You can see that there are still two major components to this message – but we are not going to get to them this morning – but you know what, that’s OK – as I said before, we are going to spend 5 weeks on “How to study your Bible” right after Easter. In the mean time, I’m giving you the rest of this morning’s message on your study guides.

After all, the point of this is to call each of us to develop these disciplines in our own lives – you don’t have to be spoon fed this stuff from me – get into it and do the work! Very quickly, let me just review for you what I’ve got on the sheet for you:

Tools

To do any decent work, you need decent tools. There’s a list of basic tools you need to do the kind of study we are talking about this morning.

Ų A Bible – we’ve already talked about finding a good translation – not paraphrase.

Ų Concordance – Here’s one – but you can find one online, or a small one in the back of your Bible – tells you where you can find every verse that contains any specific word you are looking for in the Bible.

Ų Dictionary – a Bible dictionary that will give you the meaning of the words in the original Greek or Hebrew.

Ų Commentary – These are good aids – but the commentaries, and the study notes in your study Bible will always be tainted by the writer’s point of view – always check their thoughts against others, and ultimately against what the original writers were saying.

Ų Other books – outside sources can give increased understanding – historic accounts of life in Biblical times can help us contextualize the setting for example – but again, these must never replace the Scriptures themselves as authoritative.

Try…

Lastly, try. Don’t dismiss the discipline of study because it sounds boring or difficult – it is exciting and life-changing! But even the most pleasurable experience requires some variety, and no study method is going to be universally acceptable – so try some of these ideas to keep your interest:

Ų Deep Impact: Read out loud, listen to the Bile on CD or tape, write verses on 3x5 cards or post-it notes and keep it always around you.

Ų C.S.I.: Play detective – ask questions about the passage: “Who, what, when, where, why, how?” Try to visualize the setting and the circumstances as the facts present. Then interpret the evidence – “What does it mean – what are the conclusions?”

Ų Indiana Jones: Look for treasures: “Is there a promise to claim, a command to obey, a prayer I can pray or a warning of danger?”

Ų Friends: While Bible Study is something we do individually, a group study is a great way to help – it helps me see other points of view, compare results of my personal work, and gives me accountability.

Conclusion:
Paul encouraged Timothy to “Study, to show yourself approved to God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.” (2 Tim 2:15) As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are expected to be diligent in our efforts to understand God’s word. But study alone is not the answer. Mark Twain once said, “It’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that bother me – it’s the parts that I do understand!” We must study more, and learn more, but as we learn we are expected to act – to apply and obey the stuff we already know. Start where you are – but never be satisfied there. It will be difficult at the beginning to develop this discipline, but it is worth the investment – it will pay a great return!