How to Study the Bible

By Tim LaHaye, D.Min., Litt.D.
President, Tim LaHaye Ministries/Founder, Pre-Trib Research Center, El Cajon, California

The foundation of Bible learning must come through Bible reading.

It has been my observation unless a person has a regular habit of reading the Bible, he will not benefit greatly from his studies. I have never met a person who enjoyed studying God’s Word who had not first developed the habit of regularly reading it.

When reading the Bible, do not get so bogged down in the complexities of verse or word analysis you lose the overall purpose and meaning of the writer. To gain the most value from your reading, carefully consider the following techniques:

Read Daily. Job 23.12 says, “I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” From that statement, we can deduce daily Bible reading is to your spiritual life what daily food eating is to your physical life. We are all familiar with the necessity of regular mealtimes; however, it is also important to set and keep a designated time for Bible reading.
Read Devotionally. Prayerfully ask God to send some message each day before you read His Word. Many times He will give you a thought to answer the hungers of your heart. Some times He will give you a blessing you will need later in the day. In either case, it will be helpful to write the message down. Devotional reading emphasizes the truths revealed in Scripture, which provides the spiritual instruction for daily living every Christian needs.
Do a Subject Analysis. Nothing will complete your understanding of Biblical truth like your own personal subject analysis. Doing such an analysis is easy by following these simple steps:
1. Look for more information on the subject you are studying by consulting a good Bible concordance.
2. Look up all cross-references to that subject, particularly those in the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs. Start with the New Testament references, for God has revealed to us many things necessary to the Christian life in the New Testament. Psalms and Proverbs are included because God gave them through a very wise man: Solomon.
3. Begin keeping a spiritual journal by jotting down the concepts or basic principles God is teaching on the subject of your study. Journal entries should be no more than a full page per each day’s Bible reading. See my article on “How to Keep a Spiritual Journal.”
4. Search a good Bible dictionary to examine the definition of the subject being studied. If your analysis is seriously different from that of the dictionary, then you should go back over your analysis to see if you missed something in your study.

The Bible is a literal treasure chest of the wisdom of God for daily living, but most Christians do not know the book sufficiently to provide that wisdom when they need it. Daily reading combined with the subject analysis method is the best way to learn the truths found in the Word of God.

Intensive Bible study, along with repetition and Scripture memorization will give you a thorough grasp of the Bible in a relatively short period of time.

Most importantly, it will make you “strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,” Ephesians 6.10.