Why It's Important to Study the Bible Verse By Verse, Chapter by Chapter, Book by Book
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| You will only be effective in wielding the Sword of the Spirit by studying the Bible properly! |
In the Christian life, one must remember the long journey must start with small steps. Without the small foundation, the house cannot be built. A house needs its structural foundation first before it can stand still and likewise, that is how you study the Bible. You don't jump one after the other, ignore some verses and delete it, no you go after the Bible verse by verse. Then after verse by verse, it's chapter by chapter and they book by book! Every step must start as it is and not attempt to understand the Bible immediately without understanding its basics. This is called an expository study of the Bible.
So why study the Bible expositorily? Here are the good reasons:
1.) Studying the Bible verse by verse helps one understand the meaning of various verses in the Bible.
One of the greatest problems today in the world of theology is that many people just skip verses like the genealogy verses or the list of "begats" without finding out their importance. I was thinking of how Charles H. Spurgeon actually has been the record breaking preacher not even some of my favorite preachers of today could beat. I've tried looking through at Grace to You's website every now and then discovering that Pastor John F. Macarthur and associates like Pastor Phil Johnson of Pyromaniacs have listed their sermons according to verses! Wow, I would say that it was a mind blowing library to how these guys actually spend a lot of time in studying the Scriptures verse by verse. In fact, Spurgeon's 3,000 sermons are a result of verse by verse study.
A verse by verse study is what I'd dare call rigid and gets you on the right track. Bro. Gerry Soliman has used some of Pastor John F. Macarthur's books in his apologetic ministry. While reading through Dr. Vernon McGee's "Thru the Bible Commentary" it's amazing to see how he actually goes verse by verse in his expository. One of the reasons why I love expository preaching is because it actually explores on every verse which makes one see one verse is parallel to each other.
The problem with many Bible answer men today is that they don't really study verse by verse. I've heard somebody who misused Ephesians 2:10 to justify works salvation and conditional security. According to him, good works are necessary for salvation according to that verse ignoring Ephesians 2:8-9. The Antinomians on the other hand said that they can live according to their desires because they are saved but ignore verse 10. Conditional security proponents may quote 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 or misquote Matthew 24:13 to say, "See I told you that your salvation is conditional." but fail to see 1 John 2:19 which is clear that those deserters of the faith were never saved to start with or the closer example is that they misquote Hebrews 10:26 but fail to see Hebrews 10:29's true meaning.
2.) Studying the Bible chapter by chapter helps one understand the importance of each chapter in the Bible.
Now we are done with the Bible verse by verse. So why go chapter by chapter? Every chapter of the Bible is a result of verses of more or less the same topics. Studying the Bible chapter by chapter helps us to make a topic easier to find than it is. Understanding what goes per chapter in a book, makes it easier to understand what is needed.
One must understand why a thick book must be also written by chapters. Although today, we don't write verse by verse like the ancients but one thing is certain, chapters are dividers in a book. Since the Bible is 66 books written in the ancient world, these chapters made it easier to understand. Without chapters, I simply would suddenly lose interest or lose track of what I'm studying. For example, I remembered how a classmate of mine wrote an incredibly long story and it soon got hard to keep track of it. Although it was pretty interesting but not having chapters made it very hard to read. Science textbooks are divided by chapters as not to frustrate the reader so much. Like having a chapter all devoted to this topic and that topic makes it easier not only to study but to teach a lesson.
Just think about it for example, Genesis is all about beginnings. It's the book of beginnings. So what's about it with beginnings? We see Genesis 1 is the chapter that discusses on how God created the world. Genesis 2 is the chapter that discusses the creation of Adam and Eve in the sixth day. Genesis 3 describes the fall of man. That's just an example of chapter by chapter study. In doing a chapter by chapter study, we actually understand from the verse by verse study that these verses form chapters, and that these chapters are put together.
3.) Studying the Bible book by book helps one understand how each book is related to each other.
The Apocrypha is rejected not just because so and so says so but because those books not only don't lay divine inspiration but also can't agree with the canon Scriptures. For example, a good study on them may help us see that there is spurious doctrine like superstition and salvation by works or even historical inaccuracy. As said, nobody must accept anything blindly just because authorities say so, practical discernment is needed.
So what does it mean to study the Bible book by book? Now we see the chapters one after the other form one book and then we go to another book. Genesis has 50 chapters all about the beginnings of man and the Hebrew nation. Exodus has 40 chapters all about the Israelite race going from Egypt to the promised land. Leviticus has 27 chapters on the Law. Now that's just a few examples of the division of books in the Bible. Each book in the Bible actually represents the important topic and each book actually shows what the Bible is- a collection of 66 ancient books that actually becomes one!
We've done verse by verse and chapter by chapter so why go book by book? One must realize in studying an important lesson, it's important to summarize everything. Before taking a comprehensive exam, one must make a good rundown or summary of the important stuff while the teacher gives some broad pointers on which chapters to study since it's all the way from the beginning. That proves that our exams are just not here and there, you apply everything you learn! A synopsis of one's knowledge helps it to easily recall stuff even if they were not all written down.
Now we realize that the Bible has the Pentateuch or the first five books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), the historical books (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Esther, Nehemiah and Job) the poetry books (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon) and the prophetic books in the Old Testament (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habbakuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi). Each we learn one has a broad topic subdivided into smaller topics via chapters and sub-topics in chapters.
In the New Testament we have the category of the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all focused on the ministry of Jesus. Then we have the Book of Acts. Then we have the letters of Paul, Peter, James the half-brother of Jesus, Jude and John. We realize that Paul's 14 letters from Romans to Hebrews are actually grouped together as much as we see that Peter's two letters go together, John's three letters go together, the books of the life of Jesus are grouped together which makes it easier to study the Bible.
In fact, the Bible has been grouped accordingly by book, by chapter and by verse to make it actually easier to understand. Sadly, some people are just too lazy to search the Scriptures.