Introduction

I love studying the Bible.

I have studied the Bible both personally and academically, and I can honestly say I have not grown tired of it yet. In fact, I feel like I have barely scratched the surface, and the process of Bible study feels more like a pastime than a job.

Studying the Bible deeper is something people want to do. Unfortunately, so many people feel like it is dream that will never fully come true.

I don’t want that for you. I want you to study the Bible to the fullest extent you can. You may not go to seminary, become a scholar, or write the next landmark work on the Gospel of John, but you can study the Bible at home, on your own, and in a way that grows you closer to God.

This series will help you take the next step in your Bible study. Our goal here is build a foundation we can stand on and take incremental steps forward, which results in maturity in Christ.

The Mindset of Bible Study

You may think Bible study begins with a good study Bible, or the right commentaries, or a web browser loaded with blueletterbible.org.

But Bible study doesn’t begin there. Those are all tools you use to aid your study.

Instead, we begin at the very beginning: our mindset.

Everyone approaches Bible study with a mindset. You may not know what yours is off the top of your head, but you definitely have one. Our mindsets behind the activities we do fluctuate depending on how passionate we are for the activity. My mindset for reading is different than cooking. I approach reading with more intentionality and emotional patience than I do cooking because I am passionate about reading– the journey of reading, the result of reading, the discovery of new concepts and teasing them out in my mind. I’ve never been passionate about cooking. I’m not horrible at it, but I need a recipe; I’m slow; my back hurts while I cook. I read because I enjoy it. I cook because I need to eat, and I can’t afford to pay someone else to do it for me. Thus, I have to intentionally be intentional about cooking. I have to find ways to enjoy the process. I recently made gyros with homemade pita bread and a homemade tomato-cucumber salad mix… they were REALLY good! The satisfaction of that meal helped me enjoy cooking just a little bit more.

The same might be true for you and Bible study. You may not be a great reader, or student. You may not be patient. You may not enjoy the journey of discovery. Or maybe you don’t know if you like those things because you haven’t been able to gain steady momentum in your Bible study. Either way, your mindset is where you begin.

Our mindset for studying the Bible should be to know God and what He’s revealed to us through His Word.

We study the Bible because we want to know God. We want to know who He is, what He’s like, what He’s done, what He’s doing, what He will do, how He will do it, and why He will do it. All of those things are revealed in Scripture. Moreover, we want to better understand ourselves. What/who is humanity? Why are we here? How do we determine morals and ethics? Where do we “draw the line?” These are things we become more aware of over time as we study. Bible study is a process that flows out of a mindset, and that mindset is to better understand the one true God.

The Significance of Knowing God

I want to address potential questions that might arise.

First, you may be asking why our mindset for Bible study should be to know God as opposed to determining the meaning of the text. Determining meaning is important, and our Bible study becomes incomplete if we don’t eventually seek it. However, our Bible study will be stunted if we seek meaning without already being in the mindset of knowing God.

Knowing God means we want to seek truth above all else. Truth doesn’t exist outside of God. Truth will point us back to Him. A mindset of knowing God prepares our minds to be confronted with truth that we were previously not aware of. This encounter confronts our hearts because our new realization will interact with the things we previously believed to be true– which we call our “preunderstanding.” Our preunderstanding is either correct, incomplete, or wrong. Having our preunderstanding confronted is uncomfortable. It is this process that turns people away from genuinely studying the Bible.

Second, why do I need to study the Bible to know God if I’m already saved? Isn’t everything we do for the purpose of realizing we need Jesus as our savior and having a personal relationship with Him? I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but this is a prominent line of thinking in American Protestantism (which speaks to Protestantism’s cultural preunderstanding). I would argue this is an incomplete understanding of salvation.

The Bible speaks of relationship with God in terms of knowing God. There are many passages that point in the direction of knowing God, and I have included some of them at the end of this post for you to consider at your convenience. For now, I want to discuss two of them.

Hosea and Failing to Know God

“Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land… My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”

Hosea 4:1, 6, ESV

Hosea 4 is God’s indictment against Israel. He explains why His people will be judged, and look what He says. God’s people have no faithfulness, steadfast love, or knowledge of Him. Therefore, they will be conquered and go into exile because of their lack of knowledge. Remember, Israel was supposed to be a kingdom of priests and holy nation before God. They were supposed to broadcast knowledge of God to the nations (cf. Exodus 19:3–6; Deuteronomy 4).

The Profoundness of Knowing God

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

John 17:3, ESV

John 17 is known as Jesus’ “high priestly prayer.” It is the prayer He prays to the Father after finishing His “upper room discourse” to His disciples– His final teaching to them before He is betrayed and crucified. Jesus asks for His moment of glory (His crucifixion) because this event will provide eternal life for the world, which in turn glorifies the Father. Then, Jesus expands on the essence of eternal life: “And this is eternal life, that they know you” (John 17:3 ESV, emphasis added). Eternal life is knowing God. We cannot separate eternal life from knowing God. In John’s writings, “knowing God” is both intellectual and experiential. It is robust. Knowledge without experience is not what John’s talking about. Experience without knowledge is not what John’s talking about. The two go together.

Knowing God is at the heart of being in relationship with Him. There is no relationship without knowing Him. Knowing Him is both intellectual and experiential. The process of studying Scripture feeds our intellect the information we need in order to generate the appropriate action to live out and reinforce the knowledge.

Conclusion

The first step of Bible study is having the right mindset. We want to know truth, to know God. We want to know Him both intellectually and experientially. This mindset requires a committment to the truth of what Scripture says, which will confront what you currently believe / assume it says. When that happens, you’ll be at a crossroads. You can stick with what you prefer, or you can embrace a more complete truth. Choosing the truth requires you to be comfortably uncomfortable, but it also allows you to know God and have eternal life.

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Additional Passages that Point Towards Knowing God

I am your shield

Gen. 15:1, ESV

God reveals Himself in a way to Abram in a way that he might better know who God is.

So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.

Gen. 16:13, ESV

Hagar, Sarai’s servant encountered the LORD in a way that resulted in her knowing Him in a profound way.

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’

Exodus 3:13–14, ESV

There is a reason the first thing you do when meeting a new person is ask for their name. Knowing someone’s name is the first step in getting to know that person. God revealed His name to Moses, and by extension to His chosen people.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

Deuteronomy 6:4–5, ESV

In the Shema, God revealed that He is one. Israel was commanded to love God with their whole being, including their mind.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”

Proverbs 9:10, ESV

Proverbs says the knowledge of “the Holy One is insight.” Knowing God is itself insight and akin to wisdom.

“Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

Jeremiah 9:23–24, ESV

We are to be abundantly confident in our understanding of God and the fact that we know Him.

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,

1 John 2:3–4

John explains how we can know that we know God. This implies an importance to knowing God.

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

1 John 5:20

This verse is remarkable. Christ has come to give us understanding, and this was to enable us to know God.