This is an expanded version of the notes I use to teach Systematic Theology to my church’s youth group. The goal isn’t to make it “kid-friendly,” but rather to create something valuable for those not exposed to decades of theology. Use this in your own Christian walk or as a guide as you disciple a child or new believer.
You can get the shorter notes used in my class here, or access a printer-friendly version of this article here. The entire PDF series is available here on my Google Drive.
1. How Do We Read and Study the Bible?
Many people, even Christians, don’t enjoy reading the Bible for one simple reason: it’s really hard. It talks about people, places, and events that seem important, but we may not know why. God or humans sometimes do or say things that seem odd or even wrong to us. We may even spend several minutes reading, only to realize we don’t understand (or even remember) a single thing the Bible said.
If it’s any comfort, we aren’t alone:
There are some things in [the Apostle Paul’s letters] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. (2 Peter 3:16b)
Peter acknowledged that Paul, a special representative of Jesus Christ like himself, wrote some difficult things. They could be so confusing or difficult to accept that people with evil agendas could take advantage of people’s confusion and lead them astray. Peter then went on to say this:
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 3:17-18)
Peter’s solution was simple. He told his audience that truly knowing Jesus Christ would help them recognize when someone was distorting God’s words. That means that even if the Bible seems difficult to understand now, that’s not an excuse to ignore it. If we don’t want to live according to the deceit of others, or even our own hearts, then we must understand what God wants us to know.
This is especially important as we discuss systematic theology. If we want all the puzzle pieces of our belief system to fit together, and if we want those pieces to come from the Bible, we must know how to understand it. To do that, we can’t just read the Bible. We must study it.
What’s the difference between reading and studying, and why should we care?
We’re often told to read our Bibles, and we may even know people who talk about how refreshing or exciting it is to read their Bible daily. If we’re honest, sometimes that makes us feel even worse when we try to read it ourselves and get bored or overwhelmed. Are we missing something? Are we bad Christians? Are we not Christians at all if reading the Bible is this hard?
Perhaps our biggest problem is that we just aren’t used to what the Bible actually is.
God’s word is unlike anything most people have ever read. Books, magazines, textbooks, and text messages tend to have a much different experience than reading the Bible. That’s not because the Bible is harder to read but because it’s different from what we’re used to.
For Christians, the real difficulty of the Bible often comes from our desire to read it like everything else we’ve read throughout our entire lives. Without realizing it, we often assume we’ll understand anything we read after one or two attempts. And it’s no wonder, since most things we read today are written by modern people to modern people. In a way, the Bible was also written by modern modern people to modern people. However, “modern” people at that time were very different from us today.
The first books of the Bible were written about 3,400 years ago, while the last books were written around 1,900 years ago. That’s a lot of time for cultures to change. Just think about how hard it is to read a book written 100 years ago, or even how difficult it would be for people in 2,000 years to understand things we write about today. So when we approach the Bible, we must start by remembering that it wasn’t written to us – we’re reading conversations and information from thousands of years ago. Because we are very different from the original audience, we have several obstacles we must recognize and overcome if we want to understand what the Bible says.
What are some things that can make it difficult to read things written so long ago?
Words have different meanings
Words and phrases change along with the culture that uses them, which can create problems when words mean something different than we understand today. Imagine I told you, “The view from the top of the mountain was awful.” You’d know something made that view unpleasant because of how we define “awful” today. Yet a few centuries ago, you’d wish you could have seen it with me because the view being “awful” would have meant it “filled me with awe.” In the Bible, we see words like “fear (of the Lord)” or “slave” and get confused when we interpret them through modern definitions.
They mention places we either don’t know or understand why they matter
Picture someone in a thousand years reading about how important Disney World is to children today. They’d know it must be an enjoyable place because it’s a universal experience that kids get excited about fun things. Yet, much of its significance would be lost on people who don’t know about the characters, movies, attractions, and rides, not to mention how it’s so well advertised that many kids want to visit Disney World without knowing much about it. Today, we don’t need to explain Disney World or why kids want to go there because it’s an ingrained part of our culture. Likewise, we might read about Jerusalem or Babylon in the Bible, but its importance to the original audience can be lost on us. Just as we don’t need to explain Disney World to people today, many important places in the Bible are mentioned because people back then understood it was more than just a location without the author explaining it.
Authors talk about events that don’t mean much to us today
Just like the name of a location has a great deal of meaning attached to it, events do as well. If we talk about 9-11 or Pearl Harbor today, we understand these were frightening attacks on American soil. Yet future readers would need to pause and figure out why those events were so significant, including understanding America’s strength at the time or how those attacks shaped the future of America and the world around it. Biblical examples of this include how the plagues of Egypt were likely a direct attack on the powers of the Egyptian gods or how the sun darkening while Jesus was on the cross calls back to how darkness is a sign of God’s judgment on sin (see Joel 2:10, Amos 8:9, or Revelation 16:10). Without that background to these events, we may think the plagues were just a random series of events or that the darkness meant the all-knowing and ever-present God of the universe turned His face so He couldn’t physically see Jesus.
Writing styles change
Anyone who first reads classic literature like Moby Dick or Crime and Punishment is in for a shockingly slow journey that focuses more on a character’s thoughts than their actions in the story. Reading Pride and Prejudice includes far more formal language and mundane action than anyone thought possible. By modern standards, these books would likely flop as soon as they were released. Yet they remain classics because they highlight the thoughts and writing style from the time the authors wrote them. Similarly, the Bible’s authors have various unique writing styles that modern readers may not be aware of. Moses condenses major historical events into brief descriptions, while Daniel and other prophets combine unique imagery with actual descriptions of what God revealed will take place.
Overall, we read things written for a knowledgeable audience
Think of the words or phrases we use today that sound entirely normal to us but would be utterly confusing to someone from a different culture or time:
- Youtube
- Taking a selfie
- Googling a question
- Social media influencer
- Smart cars
- Black Friday shopping
We could spend pages discussing various trends (planking), slang (cool beans), and corporate buzzwords (ideation) that adults can use without context yet may seem like nonsense to kids today.
The difficulty of the Bible is often very similar. But unlike reading other historical texts like Macbeth or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, our lives depend on understanding what the Bible says and means. That means we can’t always read the Bible like a regular book because we won’t immediately understand things like the original audience would have. We have to slow down and intentionally learn what all these historical words and ideas meant back then. If we start by understanding the Bible as the original audience did, we will understand what it means for us today.
Since many people don’t immediately think about the Bible like this, it may explain why “reading” the Bible often frustrates us. We’re modern readers trying to understand things written to and by ancient people. Because we don’t understand them, we also struggle to understand what they’re saying. So, if we want to know the Bible better so it can shape our beliefs, we need to change how we approach it.
The approach is simple: we must study the Bible, not just read it. The key difference is that studying requires us to ask questions and find answers rather than just reading the Bible at a surface level. We won’t be able to quickly read through a chapter and immediately understand what God is teaching or how we apply it to our lives. Instead, we’ll first need to learn more about the author and their audience to understand what these words meant when they were written.
This requires time, effort, and intentionality. And if we’re honest, it’s much more appealing to spend a few minutes of low-effort reading while scarfing down our breakfast or waiting in traffic. But if we want to let this divinely inspired historical document impact our lives, we must devote ourselves to understanding the Bible. Can we really do less if we’ve also devoted ourselves to the God who gave it to us?
If studying the Bible is essential for Christians, let’s see what that looks like.
What should we look for when studying the Bible?
Reading and studying the Bible well will answer 3 questions in order:
1. What did this mean to the original audience? If we lived when this was written, how would our understanding of the world affect how we understood the specific things we heard or read?
2. What does this mean to all people? What are some things in the text that are true for someone in the years 1,200 BC, 1500 AD, and today? This will most often involve the text revealing something about God or people.
3. What does this mean to me? Now that we understand what is true for all time, how should this impact what I do or don’t do?
Why do all three matter? Read this:
You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material. (Leviticus 19:19)
Consider what happens if we read this using…
Only #1? It’s just history. God said it to these people, and we’ll read it like any other historical quote.
Only #3? It can mean whatever we want because the meaning depends on how each person feels when they read it. Perhaps God hates Golden Doodles because they’re a mix of different dog breeds. Maybe I should only buy items from stores specializing in one type of item instead of larger stores like Walmart that sell various items. Someone could even read this while considering marriage and believe God is telling them that the other person is just too different for them to marry.
#1 and #3 without #2? It’s a law without purpose. God said don’t mix cattle breeds, field seeds, or silk and tweed. Therefore, I will rigidly adhere to the specifics of this law that God gave, regardless of why He gave it in the first place. I will only breed pure cattle, have separate plots in my garden for different plants, and never wear blended fabric.
All 3 in order? We know what it means and how we should respond.
- #1 God set Israel apart from other nations as His chosen people. He would often give them laws that either directly protected them from following the evil practices of other nations, or He’d provide laws that would remind them of their separation from the world and devotion to their God. This is one such law that gave a daily reminder that they may live near nations who worshipped false gods, but they weren’t meant to mix and become one with them. Getting dressed or performing agricultural duties reminded them of who they were and how God wanted them to live.
- #2 While God’s people throughout history have lived amongst God’s enemies, He has always desired that they be holy, or set apart, from their beliefs and practices. This shows us God’s desire for His people’s holiness and reminds us of how easy it is for us to be led astray by the beliefs of those around us.
- #3 This is where individuals can identify a belief or practice in their own lives that is only there because unbiblical worldviews have influenced how that person thinks or acts. If not, they may pause to worship the God who set them apart, or perhaps they’re reminded to be on guard against inviting worldliness into their lives.
Notice how answering all 3 questions in order gave us a puzzle piece that fits the rest of the Bible. There are no New Testament commands that match the specifics of this law (#1), but it’s filled with commands that are consistent with why God gave this law (#2):
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. (John 17:15-18)
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? (2 Corinthians 6:14-15)
Even if the Old Testament laws aren’t mandated for Christians, they’re valuable because they reveal something about God or people. He may not mind if we wear polyester and cotton together, but God does care if we blend our light with the world’s darkness. And by carefully reading and understanding God’s word, we can add this to our own worldview and let it shape our the rest of our lives (#3).
So, how do we answer these 3 Bible-reading questions? Most importantly, how can we be confident we’re answering them correctly? By using the “Inductive Bible Study Method.”
Inductive Bible Study Method (aka O.I.A. Method)
Don’t let the name fool you. It sounds academic or complicated, but it’s just a technical name for what we’ve already been discussing. It’s also the best way to read the Bible for what it is – a divinely inspired historical document. That means that we read and study each part of it to understand what it meant when it was written (historical) and what it means for God’s people today (divinely inspired).
Let’s talk about where it gets its name, then see how we actually do it.
Inductive?
Lawyers, detectives, archaeologists, and doctors use inductive reasoning. They gather all the available information, figure out why that information is there, and then use what they’ve discovered to reach a conclusion.
- Lawyers gather evidence to prove their case.
- Detectives find clues to solve a crime scene.
- Archaeologists look at items from history to understand what the past was like.
- Doctors examine symptoms to diagnose a patient.
Theologians like you use inductive reasoning to study the Bible to understand what something meant to the original audience, what that means for all people, and how we should respond today. In fact, it’s exactly what we did above when talking about farm animals and clothing.
A more common term for this is the “O.I.A. Method,” which means “observation, interpretation, and application.”
How to study using the O.I.A. Method
Like we did above, this method involves 3 steps that give us confidence that we’ve studied the Bible for what it is while trying to understand what it means for us today.
Observation
Start by gathering all the information in the text, even if we won’t use it all. Like a detective at a crime scene, we won’t know what’s important until we have everything in front of us. One of the easiest things to do is grab a blank piece of paper and start writing things you see or questions you have while reading. This can include:
- Major words
- Repeated words or phrases
- People, places, things, dates, numbers
- Transition words (therefore, for, but, so…)
- Commands (do this, don’t do that)
- Warnings
- References to other parts of the Bible
- Comparing two things (as similar or different, good or bad)
- Questions asked or answered
- Things you don’t understand
- Other questions you have after reading the text
Basically, just ask “What do I see?”
Interpretation.
We have our information, and now it’s time to figure out why it’s there. This is where we confront the hardest parts about reading the Bible that we discussed above, namely that we don’t think and live like the original audience. Thus, this stage involves interpreting the original meaning of the text. This is the most challenging part of studying the Bible, but it’s rewarding because it pushes us to understand more about God’s word.
Here are a few questions we can ask ourselves about our observations:
- Why are these words or phrases important to the author?
- What did my observations mean to the original audience?
- How does the context help me understand what I’m reading or answer my questions?
“Context” is an important word for Christians. Think of the challenge of talking to a four-year-old who is sitting quietly at the dinner table until they start crying, “Mommy, I don’t like the green ones!” even though there is nothing green on their plate. We’re missing important information that caused the child to make that statement. Did the dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets remind them of something they saw in a show? Were they just thinking about the radioactive-green peas they ate for lunch 4 days ago? We need more context – information that helps us better understand what was said.
When trying to understand something in the Bible, context can likewise clear up confusing statements and protect us from coming to wrong conclusions. When trying to interpret why our observations are there, consider these important pieces of context:
- What was said before and after the text
- Who wrote the book
- Who it was written to
- Why it was written to them (in other words, what’s the book’s purpose?)
- When the book was written in biblical history
- What was happening in the area or world at the time it was written
Despite how it can sometimes seem, the Bible never says things randomly and without reason or explanation. No matter what we’re reading, it meant something to both the author and the audience they wrote to. Context will often clear up any significant confusion, but we’ll still struggle to put ourselves in the shoes of people from thousands of years ago. So what can we do?
Today, we are blessed with many tools that assist our interpretations. These include:
- Dictionaries: Bible dictionaries look at how words were used at that time, helping us overcome how language changes over time
- Commentaries: These books interpret verses or passages of the Bible, explaining what things mean or giving more context. It’s tempting to run to these instead of doing the work ourselves, but it’s better to treat these like a sports coach: after we’ve struggled through a passage on our own, we can use a commentary to help correct where we’ve gone wrong so that we can improve for next time.
- Study Bibles: These are an entire Bible and miniature commentary in a single book. A study Bible will have each page divided into two parts, with the top half featuring the Bible and the bottom half having a condensed commentary on some of the more critical or confusing passages.
- Other Christians you trust: God designed us to be part of a community (which we’ll discuss in later chapters), which includes understanding His word. Ephesians 4:11-13 reminds us that God gives us people in our lives, and especially our local church, to help build us up so we can live for Christ. Reaching out to Christians at church, at home, or even reading things written by Christians from the past lets God use His people to help us understand His word.
The interpretation step is necessary but can seem overwhelming. It’s okay to practice with a few major observations, like defining important words and looking at what happened before and after the passage you’re currently studying. Like any skill, it’s important to start slow and keep building it up. And although there was a lot said about how to interpret the Bible, don’t overcomplicate this step.
Basically, just ask “Why did the author put my observations there?”
Application
The final step is the shortest, simplest, and most life-changing. However, we can’t get here without first observing and interpreting. Trying to take a shortcut and jumping straight to this step doesn’t respect the Bible as a historical document. It completely ignores God’s purpose in inspiring the original author to write the words we’re reading. But once we understand why certain things were written, we can start asking how it impacts our life.
This often produces diverse applications because what it means for my life will often be very different than what it means for yours. However, our application will usually answer one or more of these questions:
- What does it teach you about God?
- What does it teach you about people?
- What does God want you to do or stop doing?
Basically, just ask “What does the interpretation mean for me today?”
A final note on O.I.A.
Nowhere in the Bible does God say “Thou shalt use the Inductive Bible Study Method.” However, the Bible does treat itself as something that is both truly historical and divinely inspired. This method helps us do the same.
However, note that everything in the Bible will have one interpretation with many valuable applications. There is never a hidden or secret interpretation for a text unless it tells the reader there’s more going on (for example, the statue in Daniel 2 or how Jesus explains the deeper meaning of parables). If we’ve been careful with our Bible study, we should expect different people to find different applications in the same text. If we find ourselves coming to different interpretations than someone else, it’s a great opportunity to sit down together and understand why.
Put it into practice
Look up 2 Timothy 3:14-17 and use the O.I.A. Method. If you’re nervous about doing something so new, share this chapter with another Christian and invite them to do it with you!
Bible reading styles to avoid
Most Christians agree that Bible reading is vital. However, just looking at words on a page isn’t what most Christians mean when discussing how valuable it is. The O.I.A. Method helps us understand what the original author meant when he wrote these words, ensuring we understand what God wants us to know today. However, some ways we can read the Bible aren’t helpful, and may even lead us into dangerously false beliefs. Consider a few ways to read (or not read) the Bible today and why they’re worth avoiding.
Reader Response: As we discussed above, this type of reading jumps right to “application.” This may be the most common style of reading the Bible today, but it doesn’t help us understand what we’re reading. By not taking time to consider what it meant to the original audience and what that means for Christians at any time, we cannot possibly understand what it means for us today. Reader Response is easy, but it makes us the ones who decide what the Bible means instead of God.
Rolling the Dice: It feels very spiritual to close our eyes, open the Bible, point, and trust that our finger landed on what God has for us today. Sadly, this is just “Reader Response” in disguise. Not only do we never see anyone do this in the Bible or the early church, but it forces us to ignore context. If I open my Bible and point to 2 Kings 3:6, I’ll see, “So King Jehoram marched out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel,” which makes just as much sense as a child at the dinner table crying about the green ones. Without context, I’d have no choice but to either a) add a lot of extra work for myself by going back to the beginning of the book so that I can do O.I.A. properly, or b) try to apply it to myself and my life situation without any idea why this is in the Bible in the first place.
Verse-of-the-Day: This is a habit that most young Christians start with. As the name suggests, it involves reading a single verse daily, usually from Bible app or email list. A major concern with this style is that it doesn’t let us see the context of what we’re reading – it would be like watching a movie one minute at a time instead of watching from start to finish.
All Study, Zero Reading: At the risk of contradicting myself, sometimes all study can be unhelpful if we lose sight of the bigger picture of the Bible. Imagine starting at Matthew 1:1 and slowly going through the entire book. How long would it take to get through over 1,000 verses? How much would we remember about chapter 1 by the time we reached chapter 28? There’s no right answer on how to balance meaningful study while also regularly exposing ourselves to what God’s word says, but here are two suggestions:
1. Pick one book of the Bible to read through, but always be ready to pause and study if you aren’t confident you understand something like the original audience.
2. Study one book, but read the rest of the Bible. This lets you take your time and study one book really well, perhaps in the morning, but still lets you experience the rest of the Bible as you read it during other parts of the day.
Irregular: God doesn’t command us to read our Bibles daily. However, passages like Deuteronomy 6:6-8, Psalm 1:2, and 2 Timothy 3:14-17 are clear that God wants His word to be a regular part of our lives. What better way to apply those verses to our lives than do regularly read the Bible that He gave us? Reading it daily develops a habit that protects us from letting the rest of life become more important than our time in God’s word, as well as letting us immerse ourselves in His truth instead of other things that will negatively affect our worldview
Be careful! A Christian who gets excited that they aren’t required to read their Bible every day due to a technicality usually has a heart issue they need to deal with. Bible reading isn’t supposed to be something we dread – it partners with prayer to connect us to our God. Let us live like people who are thankful that we live in a place and time where we get to read it every day!
Hermit: As discussed in “interpretation,” God doesn’t want us live the Christian life alone. He’s given us a local church to be a part of and Christians from history who have studied His word. Sometimes, imperfect people use the O.I.A. Method and get a faulty interpretation, leading to a wrong application. But when we talk to other Christians in our lives or use things written by other Christians throughout history, we let God use His people to help us understand our Bible better.
Why this topic matters
If the Bible is important to our lives, we must know how to use it properly. That means we don’t use the Bible how we want, but instead, we must understand it how God wants us to. By using the O.I.A. method, we can study our Bibles to learn more about God, what He’s done, and what He wants us to do today.
