Honoring Scripture in Your Writing
“Please stand for the reading of God’s Word.”
The members of the congregation open their Bibles while rising to their feet in a sweeping gesture of honor for Scripture.
After the passage is heard, a proclamation comes from the pulpit: “May God bless the reading of his Word.”
This symbol of standing for Scripture during a Sunday morning service is worshipful for me. I seek to carry the same reverential attitude when considering how to write about Scripture.
To organize and guide my approach to writing, I have compiled a series of self-reflection questions that help me focus on honoring God’s Word—a “Please stand for the reading of God’s Word,” if you will, for the writer.
MY DISPOSITION
The first question of self-reflection in writing Bible study material is directed at my heart. According to Matthew 23:13–36, the Pharisees failed to view themselves accurately when reading the trajectory of Scripture. Faithful prophets of earlier times had been stoned, imprisoned, mocked, and killed for their truthful words, and the Pharisees asserted of themselves that they surely would not have supported any harm to those faithful to the truth.
Yet, the Pharisees woefully did not see the Truth standing before them. They sought to approach God apart from the humble, needy faith that is necessary for truly hearing his Word (Heb. 4:2). Although they knew Scripture, it did not have effect in them—a chilling reality.
So, as I approach the Bible, I ask myself, What disposition do I have before Scripture? I pray my answer would be a disposition that no one else needs the truth, warnings, conviction, mercy, grace, hope, and instruction of the Bible more than I do.
SOMEONE ELSE’S MESSAGE
When writing Bible study material, I carry a responsibility not only for my personal disposition before the Word, but also for what I convey.
Relaying to others a given passage’s core message is what the Levites did in Old Testament times, “They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading” (Neh. 8:8). Paul’s ministry example is also poignant, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). Paul was consumed with the message of One beyond himself.
When I reflect, Whose message am I propounding as a Bible study writer?, two of the questions I employ to test the direction of my writing are based on the above verses. I ask myself, Does what I am writing clarify the sense of the God-breathed passage? And then, concerning a Bible study unit as a whole, Is this study consumed with Christ?
MAKING MY JOY COMPLETE
As a writer, I am under the authority of Scripture and I am presenting a message beyond myself—the message of Christ. To understand how these two realities intertwine when writing, I look to John. A reason for his writing, he indicates, was to make his own joy complete (1 John 1:4). His joy in the message of God would only be sealed completely if that same feeling was shared by his recipients.
John’s words guide me as I consider how and for what purpose might I incorporate personal story when writing a Bible study?
If utilized, personal story can illustrate and honor the truth John insinuated—that Scripture is writer’s and reader’s shared source of blessing. Story can extend a warm hand of writer-reader relationship in a manner that points beyond self to the knowledge of a God who is able to transform the people of his creation.
WELCOMING OTHERS’ MATERIAL
Over and over, the Bible reveals the joy of the knowledge of the Lord. Proverbs 2:1–5 considers knowledge of God as the prize of pursuing wisdom. Hosea encourages us to press on to know the Lord (Hos. 6:3). John’s gospel indicates that knowing Jesus is eternal life (John 17:3). Psalm 111:2 proclaims that God’s great works are studied by those who delight in them.
The question for me then is, prizing knowledge as Scripture does, how do I engage biblical expertise and scholarship in my studies? My aim is to do so deliberately and frequently, in honor of God’s Word as an endless source of wisdom and insight—far beyond what any one person, any one lifetime, or any one generation can possibly exhaust. Tomes of theological investigation and insight from prior generations abound, serving me today.
This practice of welcoming scholarly work is part of a broader principle: that writing on Scripture is a community project—sources’ direction, peers’ input, editors’ eyes, leaders’ wisdom, and an audience’s feedback are all, in their own ways, dear partners for a writer.
POINTING TO OTHERS’ MATERIAL
Beyond engaging others’ knowledge and writings, I want to overtly direct readers to it. One of my aims as a writer is to think about what materials may serve the reader. Reading others’ words on Scripture does not replace my desire and ability to grapple with God’s Word before him. Rather, it provides me a richer, better-guided, and more informed pondering of what I read, spurring me to application and obedience.
If my home church can serve as any indication, I am far from alone in yearning to pursue greater theological understanding through available scholarship. So, how can I help lift any veils that might exist between the layperson and the scholar as I write?
In composing a Bible study, I make use of and direct people to theological quotes and academic sources so I can serve readers with avenues for additional reading and investigation.
TOOLS FOR A DIFFICULT TASK
The apostle Peter indicates of the apostle Paul’s writing: “There are some things in them [Paul’s letters] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures” (2 Pet. 3:16). God mercifully identifies that scriptural interpretation can be difficult, and he also indicates what kind of attitude leads away from being ignorant and unstable.
One example to avoid comes from Hosea 8:12: “Were I [the Lord] to write for him my laws by the ten thousands, they would be regarded as a strange thing.” The ungodly—not the godly—see God’s commandments as strange, dismissing his words for that reason. Further, Jesus teaches that lacking knowledge of the Scriptures leads to error: “But Jesus answered them, ‘You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God’” (Matt. 22:29). Yet, we can grow up into what is right.
To undertake the project of biblical interpretation, I assess, what technical study tools am I employing?
I revisit and rehearse the foundations of a literal, grammatico-historical hermeneutic, which identifies the author’s intention as the location of a text’s meaning—and I seek to read with an awareness of biblical, historical, and systematic theology, knowing that I gratefully depend upon the work of others.
SUBMISSION TO THE HOLY SPIRIT
To learn of God and of his work and plans, God’s people have our Helper. Jesus taught, “And when he [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8).
I see my sin and errors when I study the Word, and I see Christ, my righteousness—ever grateful that he is mine. I want to judge my shortcomings now so that I might be purified here and now and grow up into Christ, my holy Head.
Am I keenly aware of the Holy Spirit’s role in Bible study? I pray so, for the Bible study writer is not the teacher. To the Holy Spirit belongs the power to convict and convince, bringing purity and growth to the inner person. He does so through the truth.
So, in my material, I seek to prompt reader reflection and consideration in congruence with Scriptural truth—without limiting or going beyond it.
WORSHIP AS THE AIM
God is looking for people who will worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23). Our worship is enabled by the Spirit as we lean into spiritual realities through him according to truths of the Word. So, I reflect, Am I aiming my Bible study material at the worship of God?
I learn in the Bible much about who I am, God’s plans for his people, and God’s work that eternally benefits his own. Learning these areas, while not being the end aim of Bible study, can yet serve the glory of God. In exchange for his gifts, we give him our worship. And through our studies, most of all, we can come to agree with Scripture that knowing him is far superior to knowing ourselves—our highest interest becoming that we offer him the worship he deserves.
God has revealed himself. He is worthy to be heard and, through his abundant treasure of divine disclosure, to be increasingly known and honored. For “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable” (Ps. 145:3).
So, may God bless the reading—and the study—of his Word.
Lianna Davis (@liannadavis) is author of Keeping the Faith: A Study in Jude. She and her husband, Tyler, live outside of Dallas, Texas and have two dear daughters.