The way I look at it, there are essentially two tasks involved in how to study the Bible properly. The first task is getting the facts and the second task is application of these facts.
First Task: Getting the Facts
Think like a crime investigator trying to solve a mystery in a crime scene. Not exactly hahaha! But try to find out everything about that part of Scripture that you are studying or are interested in. Read through the book several times.
Try to find out what exactly happened back then. Try to imagine the original situation when it happened. What was the occasion? What was the situation? Ask probing questions. Who wrote the book? Who? What? When? Where? Why? What’s the point? Who was the author of the letter or book? Why did he write? Who was he writing to? Try to find out the situation in the past.
Find out the historical background or context. Find out the cultural background. Find out the literary context. Is this passage you are studying part of a letter, a poem, a song, a parable or a narrative? It will have a great bearing on how you interpret Scripture. Check the grammatical context if need be. Check various Bible translations and other Bible helps. It’s not wrong to ask Bible scholars. They know their work. Was it originally written in Hebrew or Greek? You might need to do a word study as well and consult scholars since most of us are not Greek or Hebrew scholars. Get all the relevant facts available. Google check it. It’s so easy nowadays to get information through the internet.
For this first task on how to study the Bible, you are like a crime investigator trying to get the pieces of the puzzle together to “solve a mystery”—sort of haha! What happened back then during that particular situation described in the passage? Get all the relevant facts. Some call this first task as exegesis.
Second Task: Application of the Facts
The second task in how to study the Bible involves interpreting all the relevant facts that has been gathered and then applying all the lessons learned into our present situation at this time. We may call this as the application part.
In light of what we have discovered in the first task of exegesis and in light of who God really is as revealed in Jesus Christ, how do we then now interpret and understand all of these relevant information for application into our modern situation at this present time? Or is the passage even applicable to us now? It may not even be for us today. This is the second task.
Combining these two tasks together, some call this whole process as hermeneutics.
I believe these are good points to remember when we study the Bible for our edification and spiritual transformation to become like Christ.
Thank you so much for this guide to good bible study. Without this tools we are prone to follow all sort of wrong bible interpretations. Always pray Jesus to guide you in your reading and for wisdom for the correct understanding and interpretation. Also to be willing to abandon your sacred cows.