How to "study" the Bible, looking for help

Hi Brother. If you don't mind me giving my opinion, I'd say that if you have a computer and you download www.e-sword.net and then download as many Dictionaries as you can - and get as many Bible versions that are numbered to the Strong's and a few in the Commentary Section - such as Robertson's Word Pictures, Vincents, JFB, K&D and any others that focus more on individual word studies rather than just opinionated commentary and Definitely - Torrey's Treasury of Scripture Knowledge that cross-references every verse with as many as he could fine [excellent] - then you'd have more than some Bible College students get in these days.

We know that GOD never wastes one word of His Word, so that's how we should read His Words - Word by Word.

Examples -

Rom 8:1 There is thereforeG686 nowG3568 noG3762 condemnationG2631 to themG3588 which are inG1722 ChristG5547 Jesus,G2424 who walkG4043 notG3361 afterG2596 the flesh,G4561 butG235 afterG2596 the Spirit.G4151

Torrey's TSK -

Rom 8:1
no: Rom_4:7-8, Rom_5:1, Rom_7:17, Rom_7:20; Isa_54:17; Joh_3:18-19, Joh_5:24; Gal_3:13

in: Rom_16:7; Joh_14:20, Joh_15:4; 1Co_1:30, 1Co_15:22; 2Co_5:17, 2Co_12:2; Gal_3:28; Phi_3:9

who: Rom_8:4, Rom_8:14; Gal_5:16, Gal_5:25; Tit_2:11-14

Word study on "condemnation" -

G2631
κατάκριμα
katakrima
Thayer Definition:
1) damnatory sentence, condemnation
Part of Speech: noun neuter
A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: from G2632

KJ Concordance - shows where else that particular Grk word is used ...

G2631
κατάκριμα
katakrima
Total KJV Occurrences: 3
condemnation, 3
Rom_5:16, Rom_5:18, Rom_8:1

Robertson's and others will give the grammar of the words - etc.

Before computers - one would have to spread all of these books all over a table.
Word-by-word study with cross-referencing related verses elsewhere in the Bible and finding where-else that particular word is used and how it's used, is the best form of "study" that I know of.
"Study" has to include knowing the meaning and context [and sometimes grammar] of each word from the original language and though that used to be difficult to do - anyone can now with the Bible Programs available.

Hope you get fired up with your studies. I've spent whole days doing just this process to one verse. I Love it - because as you cross-reference a verse - the cross-reference you go to will have more cross-references for that one and the next and the next. Easy to spend a whole day on just one verse :)

GOD Bless you!

A word of caution regarding commentaries. In your post you said that you didn't want to get into error or miss translate a word or what have you. Do what your doing now, read the bible and as you read it your going to see words lift off the page as if God is highlighting them and He wants to show you something. Mull them over in your mind and begin to speak out what you've just read and you'll be surprised as to what comes out of that. What you do get out of that write it down. What you write down doesn't mean it's set in stone, you have to compare scripture with scripture. As for commentaries, use them only as a guide to the thought that you have already garnered from your current study, don't let them replace the Holy Spirit leading. Remember, just because they are old and those men are dead doesn't mean they have cornered the market on truth, they too can fail.

Reading the bible is study in itself. All the New Testament saints had were the Old Testament writings and the testimonies of men who claimed that Jesus was alive. We have much much more but the whole idea of study is revolved around knowing Jesus Christ in the scriptures. If what we draw out of the scripture don't point to Him and the knowledge of Him, it's not a true study. Abandon all studies that lead away from Him. For example, the study of "Where did Cain get his wife" has absolutely no bearing on the Lordship of Christ. It only leads to frivolous knowledge and wives tales.

God Bless you in your studies man.

Brother Sree, I'm not trying to pick on you personally, but the method you describe is not the way to go and not because of the man that you mention. But "reading" The Word so that we KNOW it is wonderful - but "studying" The Word is something much more intensive and we should never depend on a man - any man - to 'teach' us what The Word is saying.
When we stand before Jesus [The WORD of GOD, Himself], we'll give an account for ourselves and will not be able to say to Him that we learned a faulty belief that He's questioning us on, from a man or woman.

He holds us to this - Joh 16:13,14 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

We need to draw from The Spirit of Truth, when just reading The Word to know it and when Studying as well.
I mentioned above that I don't depend on Commentaries - only those books that define the original languages when 'studying'.

I agree that prayer must go hand-in-hand with reading The Word - asking that GOD remove all or any preconceived notions that I may have and anything that I've believed that someone has 'taught' me and then ask that HE Alone lead through every verse.
I was saved in the mid-70's when there weren't as many "teachers/authors/preachers" out there teaching 'junk', so I was very open to be taught during the first 9 yrs that I was saved - but once I went to studying on my own - I did find that I had been taught things that weren't quite accurate. I was like a dry sponge wanting to be saturated but I thought that I HAD TO BE taught by men. I regret it now and am still finding a crumb here and there of things that I had picked up from some good man that I had allowed to 'teach' me. Very convicting when I find that no man is 100% innerant and that I hadn't known enough when young in Christ to trust those verses above and hadn't yet learned back then, how to actually 'study hard' on my own with HIM alone.

I don't listen to sermons to 'learn' - but am benefited now when I hear something that aligns itself with the truth that I first learned alone and that expounds on those same truths.

I don't want to be found "lazy" when I stand before Him and giving Him any excuses for whatever errors I've believed, saying, "Well LORD, _________ taught me that error."
He won't buy that excuse. He'll ask me, "What did you do with The Word that I left for you and MY Spirit of Truth that I gave to lead you?"
I don't want to be found lacking because I was too lazy to study and search out every Word He left for us and I see that depending on others to teach me is laziness on my part.
I went to Bible college - not to be taught "doctrine" or what the Bible says - but to learn how to 'study' the Bible for myself - because I know He holds me personally responsible for what I personally believe - with no one else to blame for what I believe.

Blessings to you!

Hi Pilgrim, I don't want to sound as if I think I'm super spiritual - I consider myself a helpless lamb before Him. I used to have 'brains' but I had to be shown in the last 10 years or so, that He doesn't need my former brain. My family are all very proud of being mensa types and I swore as a little kid that I never wanted to be like them - using language that the majority of people can't understand and talking over people's heads - so I vowed as a kid to speak street language and that will remain my native tongue.
I can read any level but I won't relate it back with the same choice of words that the author used.
What I'm trying to say is - 'before GOD', if I don't depend solely on John 16:13 - to have Him be 'the brain' and lead this helpless sheep into what to listen to or 'who' to listen to - I'm a sitting duck. What I'm trying to say is - HE is Faithful! He will guide our every move and direct us what to listen to and what not to listen to - so that - as it turns out - He protects our minds and spirits from junk-food. So, as it turns out - He uses sermons to confirm the Word of truth that He's already seeded into us - as we are walking the walk of the helpless totally dependent child that knows nothing of what to do and who to listen to and what to do from minute to minute and must of necessity and Biblically listen for His Voice, The Good Shepherd Who won't allow us to waste our minds and spirits on listening to error. "Nothing of ourselves", I believe is what He's after.
Yes, I do believe in the 5 ministerial gifts - in the teachers and pastors etc within - but if we become like a little child, as He commanded we do - He will direct us to which to listen to and which to avoid without us having to get burnt first. Some call it "that check in our spirit" to avoid or to go to one of these messengers. But we need to empty ourselves of self/autonomy as He did while He was here, being our perfect example of how to live in 100% dependency on The Father.
I've benefited much from certain men that are now in Heaven - yes - but whenever correction of doctrine was necessary - it was Him alone, driving me into His Word because of that check in the spirit that something was wrong and Him driving me to study it out, from His Word alone - so that HE gets all the Glory - confirming once again His Words from John 10, as well - "MY sheep hear my voice and will not follow another." I trust Him 100% to lead through His Own Spirit and Word.
There are some men that I listen to and enjoy very much - yet knowing that no man is 100% omniscient or innerant - we must always be Bereans first. I feel that I need to depend on Him as much as a blind person needs a guide through a crowded subway. I know that HE and His Word combined as One is 100% Faithful - not me or any other human being.
I reckon that's why I like the literature ministry that uses mostly just scripture to lead folks to Him and 'HIS' doctrine.
Less of our own words and more Scripture. Let The Word tell us what The Word is saying! The more of our own words spoken - the more we are raising ourselves above His Word and "adding or subtracting" from It somehow.
When I listen to a sermon - I either hear Scripture being quoted in the man's paraphrased delivery or I hear Scripture coming from the Spirit that contradicts what the man is saying. We deposit His Word into our spirit, read it in the spirit - so that when we hear the words of men - Scripture comes up out of our spirits to our mind that either confirms His Word being spoken in the person's message or Scriptures will come up from our spirit or even those Scriptures that we know in our mind will come up that debunk something in the person's message.
No glory to us at all in knowing that we know nothing unless The Word of GOD including His Spirit be our only Teacher - ESPECIALLY in these days when error comes disquised or covered within 99% truth.
Dependency on Him for dear life [literally] to lead us completely as only the Good Shepherd is capable of doing for those who know that they know nothing of themselves.
We don't even know the secrets of our own motives unless we candidly pray that He show us, moment by moment.
Laying ourselves prostrate before Him, to lead us into all truth, even about ourselves - HE is Faithful - not us.

GOD help us all. Amen?

Hi Pilgrim. I did say that I do believe in the 5 ministerial gifts. Yes, GOD does use humans to transmit truth - but the "dependency" was what I was trying to stress ... being on John 16:13,14 - John 10 - and being Bereans - always.

You're welcome :)

Pilgrim asked: "Don't you think God would still get the glory if He transmitted truth through a man? Of course, it is up to us who give the glory, who we give it to, right?"

I 'did' answer this question, Pilgrim.

The question you are now posing is not the same question but I'll answer it.

1Pe 4:11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to Whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

And again - the 5 ministerial gifts but adding their "purpose" ...

Eph 4:11-16 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
**that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;**
but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love."

When I was newly saved by The LORD, I was misled by some books that I had read on demonology and about three yrs later - men of GOD brought me to The WORD of GOD and showed me where that teaching was dead wrong ... so, Yes, to your question - but it was still The Word of GOD that corrected the teaching and erroneous thinking, not the words of these wonderful teachers of The Word.
That is the Only way that these 5 ministerial gifts should operate .... by leading His Sheep 'to' and giving His Sheep a hunger for and dependency upon The Word of GOD -- BOTH, The Word of GOD made flesh and the written Word and His Spirit of Truth and not to any dependency upon themselves or attention to their 'own' words.

{eta} Heb 13:13

As He was drawing me unto Himself,...His Spirit drawed me to NOT
get any material, ..just get the WORD,and He would teach me,...