How To Prepare For A Bible Study?

How can we prepare ahead of time for Bible study?

Read the Bible Verses or Chapters

When we have a particular subject that we are covering in our Bible studies, we will often take a look ahead of time at the next week’s study material so that we can read it over ahead of time and write down any questions we might have that we’re not sure about and then research the Bible for answers to those questions. You might even want to access a Bible dictionary, concordance, or a study Bible to see what is said about particular Bible verses or subjects you’re studying. For example, if you’re studying about baptism, perhaps you didn’t know that the Mishnah, which is a collection of rabbinic traditions, attributes Jewish baptism to Ezra in a decree that each Jewish male should immerse himself before praying or studying as in that time there were several Jewish groups that observed ritual immersion every day, simply to assure their readiness for the coming of the Messiah. That ties in nicely with the symbolism of baptism in the New Testament and that it’s commanded for believers as does the ritual washings of the priests in the Old Testament.

Search and Read Verse Cross-references

When we were recently studying the Gospel of John, we found ourselves with more questions than answers and so we looked at the Scriptural references to try and explain difficult passages. We tried this on John 4:24 to find out what Jesus meant that we must worship God in spirit and in truth and we found the Apostle Paul’s reference to Philippians 3:3 which says “we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh” but also the verse prior to Jesus statement about worshiping God is spirit and in truth, where He said “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him” (John 4:23) and He specifically said that “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem” (John 4:21). It appears that day has come. We can make more sense on a difficult passage by reading and reviewing the Bible passages that have references to them but also reading the context of the passage or even having to read the entire chapter to see how a certain verse is placed within Scripture.

Pray for God’s Spirit to Help

The Apostle Paul tells us that “the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Rom 8:9) for “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom 8:14), so until a person is born again (John 3:3-7), they cannot understand the things of God just as Paul writes in Romans 8:27 of the Holy Spirit, that “he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” and in fact, we don’t always know what to pray for so the Spirit of God helps us (Rom 8:26). In a rhetorical statement, Paul writes “who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1st Cor 2:11) and “these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God” (1st Cor 2:10). The point being, since unbelievers can’t know the things of God because “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1st Cor 2:14), we must pray before we study our lesson or read the Word of God as the Holly Spirit can enlighten us in the things that we can’t understand.

Study with a Friend

If you want to learn more of the Bible, find a study buddy to help study with on the Bible study that you’ve just been through or one that’s coming up. It’s true that iron sharpens iron (Prov 27:17) and that two are better than one alone (Eccl 4:9) because they can help one another because we all have spiritual blind spots. Someone else might be able to see something in the study that you don’t understand and the same is true for you in helping them. When we study together and pray together the Spirit of God can work together in us and between us, and that’s a great way to prepare for a Bible study.

Conclusion

The Apostle Peter writes that “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1st Pet 3:15) and being prepared means we are studied up on a certain subjects, Bible study’s or Sunday school class lessons. Bible studies are not intended to reveal who knows the most or who gets the most answers correct but to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord (2nd Pet 3:18), and learning together in a Bible study group or a Sunday school class can help us all learn more together than we could ever learn separately since we know iron sharpens iron (Prov 27:17). That’s especially important since rust never sleeps.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.