Introduction to the Inductive Bible Study Method

When studying the Bible, I recommend putting away (or ignoring) the notes in a study Bible and not looking at the internet or other sources for the answers in each section you’re studying until you have done all you can to see what God is teaching you in it. This is why I encourage and teach with inductive Bible studies. This type of study encourages you to find your own answers through observation, interpretation, and application rather than the author of the study telling you at the outset, “this is what the text means.” This allows God to speak to you personally and you may see things you would never have seen. Much of God’s word has such depth of meaning that you could study the same set of verses many times and each time God may show you something different that He wants you to see and apply.

When we study God’s word, we always want to study it to know Him better. Our secondary purpose is to learn how He wants us to apply what we learn by living it out.

My preferred way to study is to study a whole book of the Bible. When doing this, or studying a large chunk of a book, you will want to get the big picture. Ideally, you will read through the whole book at least once. Another option is listening to the audio. Many Bible apps have this feature.

The books of the Bible represent a variety of types of literature: historical narrative, poetry, wisdom literature, prophecy, gospel, epistles (letters), and apocolyptic. It is helpful to know what type of book you are studying.

Grab a notebook and a Bible and get ready to dig into God’s word.

Preperation:

Step 1: Pray- Begin your study time with prayer. Throughout your study continue to pray: as you are moved by God’s word and drawn to worship Him, as you are reminded of areas you that your life and heart needs work, as you are prompted to pray for others, and as you are stumped and recognize you need His help to understand.

Step 2: Read through the context questions below, then read the entire book of the Bible you are studying. This should be a quick read through, but with the search for context in mind. If you are doing a large book you’ll likely need to do it in chunks.

If anything stands out to you that doesn’t fit into context, you can still make notes for yourself to come back to.

Context: 

Whenever you begin to study a book of the Bible, you will want a sense of context—the who, what, when, where, and why. First, find out this information about the book as a whole. Who—Who is the book's author and who was it originally written to? What—What type of literature is it: historical narrative, poetry, wisdom literature (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes), epistles (letters), or prophecy? When—Approximately when was it written? Where—Where was the author when he wrote it and where were the people to whom it was written? In a narrative we can also ask where the setting of most of the story is. Why—Why did the author write it; what was his purpose? 

Step 3: Answer as many context questions as you can from your read through. If you are still unsure about any of these key things, you can look up them up before going further in your study. A good study Bible or online resource like Blue Letter Bible can help you with that. 

After this preperation, you can study the book section by section. I will provide pointers for that in another post.