In What Grade are You?
| Overview | We get more secular education than spiritual in a lifetime. Follow these 10 steps to increase your Bible knowledge. |
Once you graduate from high school, you will have been in school for 15,120 hours—1,260 hours each year for 12 years. That is not including kindergarten or pre-school.
If you become a Christian at 15 years old and only study the Bible one hour each week during worship (no Bible study at home), you will have to live to be 306 years old to get the same amount of “education” in the Bible as you get in school.
If you become a Christian at 15 years old and only study the Bible at church—let us say you come to all four hours of worship and Bible study, you will have to live to be 88 years old to get the same amount of “education” in the Bible as you get in school (assuming you do not study at home).
Now, do you wonder why you might not know as much about the Bible as you wish? Do you now understand why you cannot recall certain Bible verses from memory that you wish you could? If you want to know God’s Word better, here is a plan (grab your Bible and a notebook):
- Step one: Learn the context of the passage. Read the whole book at one time.
- Step two: Choose 10 verses or so on which to focus.
- Step three: Read that passage thoroughly, from different translations, even in different languages if you can.
- Step four: Analyze the sentence structure and the flow of the passage. Diagram the sentences or thoughts.
- Step five: Analyze the grammar. Observe the verbs. Are they stating something, or commanding something? Are they in the past, present, or future?
- Step six: Analyze significant words. Do they need more study? How are they used elsewhere in the letter or book?
- Step seven: Research the historical and cultural background of any people, events, customs, etc. Online Bible encyclopedias would help.
- Step eight: What are the broad theological themes presented?
- Step nine: Consult commentaries from the church’s library on any questions.
- Step ten: Ask yourself, “What was the purpose of the paragraph for the first audience?” This way you will know how this paragraph may apply to you. Put it into practice.
Follow these 10 steps throughout a whole book or letter and you will see your Bible knowledge grow exponentially.
Copyright © 2018. Originally published in Droplets of Living Water, July 27, 2015; copyright © by Paul Holland.