Friday: Further Thought – How to Study the Bible
Daily Lesson for Friday 1st of May 2026
Further Thought:
The purpose of Bible study is to know God and to grow in your relationship with Him, for this is what life eternal is—to be forever with the God we love (John 5:39, John 17:3).
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
Part of any relationship is mutual engagement. We read in Revelation 3:20 that Jesus seeks to have this with us, yet we must realize that, as created beings, we can always learn more about our Creator. Like a miner digging for precious jewels, we should be constantly searching in the Bible. There is always more to glean, no matter how many times we’ve read certain stories or Bible passages. “Whatever may be man’s intellectual advancement, let him not for a moment think that there is no need of thorough and continuous searching of the Scriptures for greater light. As a people, we are called individually to be students of prophecy.”—Ellen G. White, Counsels to Writers and Editors, p. 41.
We also should not try to make the Bible fit into our own human opinions or thoughts. “How shall we search the Scriptures? Shall we drive our stakes of doctrine one after another, and then try to make all Scripture meet our established opinions? or shall we take our ideas and views to the Scriptures, and measure our theories on every side by the Scriptures of truth? Many who read and even teach the Bible, do not comprehend the precious truth they are teaching or studying. . . . Many give the words of Scripture a meaning that suits their own opinions.”—Ellen G. White, Counsels to Writers and Editors, p. 36.
Discussion Questions
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Summary: Personal Bible study is at the heart of having a vibrant and enduring relationship with God. God’s Word speaks into our twenty-first-century lives in meaningful ways, just as it has during past centuries. In a similar way to keeping any friendship alive, we should look for ways to keep our devotional lives vivid as we abide in Jesus, trusting His promise that His Word “ ‘shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it’ ” (Isaiah 55:11, NKJV).
Those of you who who read my comments regularly will know that when Carmel and I were engaged we lived in different countries for 12 months. And in the 1960s, communication was by letter. Phone calls meant you had to save up for them. There was no email, Facebook, Messages, Chat, etc. So, if you wanted to tell someone you loved them you had to write it longhand on paper and put it in an envelope and post it. Although I was studying for my BSc finals, I spent some time writing to Carmel each week. And, of course, when one of Carmel’s letters arrived in the post, my studies were put aside, and the letter took precedence over everything else.
We learned a lot about one another through correspondence, both reading and writing. It wasn’t just soppy lovey-dovey stuff either. OK, there was a bit. But it was also the practical stuff, preparing for a wedding, working out how we would live together, sounding out our likes and dislikes. There was a bit of drama too. Carmel was proposed to by a mutual friend. That was a bit of a test. And the other big issue was just before Carmel came back to Australia to marry me, I was offered a job in Western Australia, 4000km away. Somehow, we worked it all out by correspondence; reading and writing.
In many respects our relationship with Jesus is by correspondence. His letters to us are found in the Bible. And it is not always plain sailing. There are issues to be discussed, and some are not resolved and we have to learn to live with them. The Bible is love correspondence. When we read it to grow a relationship it makes a lot of sense. We should remind ourselves of that when we are going for broke, quoting texts to prove a doctrinal or prophetic point, or bashing someone over the head with it when you perceive they have the wrong doctrine.
I like the idea that I mentioned earlier this week about Ellen White writing to Prescott telling him to lay off the dry doctrinal arguments and refocus on the centrality of Jesus. The Bible really is love literature between God and us.
Listen to this:
… that sounds like real love to me. Not the soppy stuff but the strong everlasting love that saves. What are we going to write back to Jesus?
The Bible is more than a collection of principles and doctrines; it is God’s living Word that leads us into a life of knowing and imitating Christ in every aspect of our lives. Spending time in Bible study and prayer is an invitation for God to work in and through us. As we study, we depend on the Lord’s wisdom to rightly understand and apply the text, and on His strength to live it out. As it is written, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22).
Through this process, our faith becomes active, shaping not only what we believe but how we live.
Bible study is also an act of embracing our identity as citizens of heaven, reorienting our thinking and transforming how we view the world around us. We begin to see our culture through a Christ-centered lens, and as we grow in faith, we become more aware of our blind spots and need for grace. It is through God’s Word that the Spirit renews our minds and makes us more like Christ, even as we wrestle with our imperfections. This calls for continual surrender, trusting God to refine us daily. As Scripture reminds us, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
One thing that is striking about Judaism is the emphasis on the ear and word, rather than the eye and image. It is a “hearing culture”, rather than a “seeing culture”. Most of us would be familiar with the term “eye candy”, but likely never heard the term “ear candy”! This suggests that the eye may be more involved with deception than the ear.
“Life’s dim windows of the soul
Distorts the heavens from pole to pole
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not through, the eye.”
(William Blake)
As Christians, we would understand this to be related to our emphasis on the Logos/Word which means we would naturally align with the concept of a “hearing culture”.
It seems to me that Bible Study is conversational. Personal Bible Study is a conversation with yourself and God, and group Bible Study is a conversation within a group and God. Each is as important as the other. Each is dependent on the other. Each involves conversation with God. Each is a mechanism to develop and mature individuals to reflect the Character and Government of God – wherever we go!
May we all have great conversations this weekend!
Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your very first work. Let your prayer be, “Take me oh Lord as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me and let all my work be wrought in Thee.” This is a daily matter. Each morning consecrate yourself to God for that day. Surrender all your plans to Him, to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate. Thus day by day you may be giving your plans into the hand of God, and thus your life will be molded more and more after the life of Christ.
Amen brother. These personal testimonies are very encouraging. I wish we could get more of these.
There could be more to how we come to study the Bible. Experiences and moments in life call us to and lead us to the Bible for answers,direction,counsel,
guidance,comfort, and the strength to endure in times of crises.
Considering the Bible to be the book leading us to learn about the nature of our God – how to love Him in Spirit and Truth – one would think that we are on safe ground. But finding the right Way to show our love of God to others seems to remain elusive – Matt.7:12-14.
When studying Scripture – what can lead to unity and peace among the Ecclesia? With over 2000 years of searching the old and new Testament, should it not have been possible to declare God’s Goodness with a single voice by now? A ‘safe’ focus when studying would be to learn how to love God in a personal, intimate Way. Jesus’ life shows us the Way He loved the Father intimately. His aim was to highlight the Goodness of our heavenly Father in all He did.
We entered the Father’s Presence when we first believed. Our purpose for remaining in Christ needs to focus on promoting God’s Glory by loving our fellow man. Is it not save to say that, no matter the theological differences, the Ecclesia’s ‘right Way’ to love God is to exalt His Goodness by doing right by each other? John 13:34-35.
At this point in the long journey of the organized Ecclesia to know/understand/believe the true God, the focus and purpose for continuing to study ought to be to learn how to increase our faith and love for Him, our Savior Jesus Christ, and our fellow man – Matt.22:37-40.
I have to say “thank you, Lord, for your Word” all the time! For the Truth is the most precious treasure I have freely received! God is amazing, and to Him all glory, might, and power must be!
I find the third question in today’s lesson strange. I wasn’t sure what it was asking and I think questions like that should not be given without some context. But I will take a stab at it and guess that it’s talking about finding new truths in the Bible and focusing on that (or is it talking about new methods? Or maybe both).
Whatever it is, I agree that people can seek novel things for their own glory or other selfish purposes. We have seen people like that. But people seeking the “old standards” or traditional ways can do the same for selfish reasons. People can be selfish and novelty and tradition are no more or less selfish. We shouldn’t preference one over the other.
Christina, I agree with your observation of Q3. “Present truth” is progressive and obviously if the motive is selfish, discovery can go wrong. It’s well documented that our church forefathers discovered Present Truth progressively as they studied intently and together. For example, Adventists didn’t start out believing in the Trinity. And, my belief is that there are more Present Truths to be discovered. It’s just best to do it prayfully and in fellowship with other also studying.