Bible Literacy: Learners First

We’re a community that gets fired up about our purpose and calling, but before we head down that path together, we want to focus on bible literacy. Over the next two months, we will consider this topic together. We can’t wait to see what God has for us!

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Return to the Love You had at First

God drawing me back to Him was accomplished through other women being committed to the scriptures. It was before She Reads Truth is what it is today, and instead was a fresh God dream and hashtag on social media. Pictures of women daily reading, writing, and meditating on scriptures. After a few weeks of observing them, I joined them. Reading, writing, meditating. I kept at it, imperfectly but consistently. Quickly, I gained a new hunger for God’s word. 

I started reading and listening to women teach the word. The teaching of Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer, Jen Wilkin, Jennie Allen, and Marian Jordan Ellis cycled through my AirPods as I worked each day.  Riding with me on the morning commute.  Folding endless loads of laundry.  Carrying me deeper into spiritual understanding with an incredible nearness to the scriptures. 

These women, these teachers, had something I didn’t.  They’d read the same passage but had mined extravagantly more treasure from it than I’d found.  I wanted that depth.  I desired to know God the way they did, and I knew that meant I needed to know how study like they do. 

These theologians are women just like me opening the word of God seeking nearness to Him.  How did they place so much context around the text?  Where did they find these translations and definitions?  What did it look like to bring together this kind of observation, interpretation, application method for myself? 

We don’t want anyone stuck in this wondering. A joy of ours at Selah Disciple is equipping women to study the word for themselves.  We’ll spend the next two months on this topic here and around our Selah Tables.

Why Bible Literacy

Early on, I wondered how others knew God was speaking to them.  Other women seemed to know what God was speaking over their lives from the meaningful mundane to the big life decisions.  I found the answer tucked in the gospel of John: 

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:27-28 

They knew Him well enough to hear His voice and follow Him.  The scriptures answer, who is God?  And that understanding will cause us to be completely transformed.  We walk the fine line of not just building knowledge but building relationship with God our Father, Jesus our Lord, and Holy Spirit our Counselor.  All of these titles infer relationship.  First-hand knowledge and personal relationship will be necessary in order that we can live holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16).  The scriptures are our roadmap to salvation and sanctification. Knowing God’s word allows the Holy Spirit to gift us with a divine discernment for life (John 14:26).  

C.S. Lewis wisely said,”Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.”

The key to discernment is yielding to the Spirit and mining the scriptures to find for ourselves what God, rather than man, says.  The scriptures are clear that there will be a falling away and an abundance of false teachers as Christ’s return nears. We must know the Faithful and True One we’re staking our lives on and be able to point others toward finding that knowledge and personal relationship with God for themselves.

The heart cannot love what the mind does not know. Jen Wilkin

Bible literacy lays a strong foundation that God builds on to fulfill the Great Commission and Great Commandment.  If we’ve been commissioned and commanded to love God, love our neighbor, and make disciples teaching them everything that we have learned that means we must first be learners. 

We’re convinced we won’t steward this community well in discipleship if we jump to purpose and calling without laying beneath us the foundation of bible literacy. 

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

The word is active and living (Heb. 4:12). Our God will literally speak to us from his scriptures so that we can know who He is and how we can glorify Him with our lives!  This is it, friends! The word is given to us so that we may be equipped to complete every good work for the glory of God. We cannot do what we’ve been placed here to do without God’s word.

From Passive to Active  

After a couple years of studying for myself, I began leading a women’s bible study at my local church. That was it for me. I couldn’t not be apart of a local bible study from then on. I was hooked. Studying the word and gathering around the table to unpack it every week fanned into flame the gift of God to me, the gift of steady and sure faith.  

I was a spiritually young, zealous believer who had come to learn the value of actually reading her bible. I had been missing so much goodness and depth of God by being a passive learner. The pastor would give his sermon on Sunday and I would move on. It was when I shifted to active learning that my relationship with God began to move toward abundance. 

As much as we yearn for community in today’s generation, I believe that we even more desire community with the Trinity. All good things flow from that vertical relationship. Want to mine the depths of the scriptures like your favorite Bible teacher? Want a bible study that’s not surface level chatter? Then start studying for yourself in a deeper way and see what God will do with the depths of your connection to Him and to one another in your local bible study.  

Make a Move

So, where do we go from here? If you’re getting started with active learning and building biblical community, here are four ways to move toward biblical literacy: 

Ask for faith and receive it.  Have faith you’re able to comprehend, interpret and apply the word.  Our God is not a God of confusion.  He desires that we understand who He is and Whose we are.  In Christ, with the help of the Spirit, you are able!  Open Psalm 119 for scriptures to pray. 

Move toward inductive study.  It’s time to set aside topical studies.  These will have their time and place in your life rhythms, but for the majority of our active learning we encourage inductive study.  Inductive bible study is simply the practice of observing, interpreting, and applying God’s word. You take the bible verse by verse, book by book. Studying full books of the bible rather than picking and choosing passages will increase your understanding of the text.  If you’re new to bible study, I’d recommend starting with one of the four gospels.

Count the cost and find it worthy. The way I now study and encourage the women around me to study takes commitment and intention. I recently heard Jen Wilkin say, “Your justification costs you nothing; sanctification costs you everything.” To pursue bible literacy for ourselves and those around us, it will cost us time; it requires us to sacrifice other items (often idols) in our lives to prioritize the thing that actually puts us on the path of life.  

Find avenues of accountability.  There are various ways of seeking accountability.  Join a local bible study.  Ask friend to checkin weekly on what you’re learning in the scriptures.  Schedule a monthly study time with a friend, woman from your church, or coworker.  Find what works for you and be committed to that accountability, and know it’s okay if accountability will change depending on your life season.

Bible Study Tips

Read the full text repetitively.  Repetitive reading gives expands the lens of observation equipping you to rightly comprehend, interpret, and apply the Word.  Themes, context, and keywords are more easily drawn out using this technique.  Even if you’re reading a longer book, commit to reading through the entire text at least once and then larger chunks of the book as you move through your study.

Use a copy of double-spaced printed text.  This allows space for writing and marking up the text as you study.  You can create your own, or use the Crossway ESV Scripture Journals. 

Markings (highlighter or colored pencils) are your friend.  This technique can be overwhelming because there are many options.  Choose a method, stick to it for an entire study, and then tailor it to fit your study habits.  Things to mark are repeated words, contrasts and comparisons, transition and time phrases. Slowing your study time to mark keywords will bring you into a deeper ability to comprehend and interpret the text.

Word studies are key to interpretation.   The scriptures are an ancient text written to generations before us and yet are meant to be instruction for our lives. By taking time to find the original definition of a word we can understand more fully what the message to the original reader.  You can find definitions using Strong’s Lexicon or STEP Bible App (a favorite of mine!).  Reading multiple translations and cross references during your word studies will also give you definitions and context of the original word.