OBSERVATION: Read with a purpose
As you study the Bible text read with a purpose. As you read ask yourself who, what, when, where, why, and how.
WHO wrote it? Who said it? Who are the major characters? Who are the people mentioned? To whom is the author speaking? About whom is he speaking?
WHAT are the main events? What are the major ideas? What are the major teachings? What are these people like? What does he talk about the most? What is his purpose in saying that?
WHEN was it written? When did this event take place? When will it happen? When did he say it? When did he do it?
WHERE was this done? Where was this said? Where will it happen?
WHY was there a need for this to be written? Why was so much or so little space devoted to this particular event or teaching? Why was this mentioned? Why was this reference mentioned? Why should they do such and such?
HOW is it done? How did it happen? How is this truth illustrated?
When you ask the above referenced 5 W’s and an H of the text, and when you let the text provide the answers, you’ll be amazed at what you learn. These investigative questions are the foundation for accurate Bible interpretation.
Without laying this vital groundwork you could wind up distorting the Scriptures which we are warned against. You won’t always find answers to all your questions because sometimes the answers aren’t there. Your job is to find out what is there and use that information in your evaluation.
2 Peter 3:16 – As also in all his (Paul’s) epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
Witnessing for Christ