Elizabeth Inrig
I. Spiritual first steps start with observing God’s word.
In a similar way parents teach their children first steps in many areas of life, God has done the same for us, His children. Our parents’ goal for us was to teach us to walk and talk and learn good habits one step and one word at a time. They began with ‘first steps’, and as we gained new skills, continued to help us learn harder steps one step at a time.
God’s inspired Word offers us who are born-again Christ followers, first steps or, as Peter writes in 2 Peter 1:2-4, skills for spiritual walking, talking, and living. One step at a time!
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, for His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. Through these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world on account of lust. (NET Bible)
II. Peter: A model and teacher of ‘first steps’.
Peter himself had been restored by the Lord Jesus and commissioned by Him on the Galilean Shore (John 21:15-19) to feed His lambs (babies in Christ), shepherd His sheep and feel His sheep (those older in Christ—John 21:15-19). For the rest of his life, Peter never forgot what the Lord Jesus taught him about first steps for believers of all ages. Peter’s love for Christ motivated him to nourish young lambs and aging sheep with the Word of God, all the time shepherding (nurturing) them, teaching them that ‘…the grass withers and the flower falls off, but the Word of the Lord endures forever’. He urged each believer to
“…yearn like newborn infants for the pure spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up to salvation if you have experienced the Lord’s kindness” (2 Peter 1:24-23—NET Bible).
III. First steps
Before I introduce the first step of the three primary steps in Inductive Bible Study, some foundational comments are in order. Each of these statements is built on the strong foundation of God’s Word as that which is inspired, inerrant, infallible Scripture, the understanding of which rests on the Central Guideline: context matters (2 Tim. 3:14-16).
I include a fourth step that helps the student to identify ways to pass on what he or she has learned from Scripture.However, only Observation, the first step, is our task at hand.
A. Foundational comments
- The Bible is a Divine Book authored by the Holy Spirit through individuals chosen by God to reveal God’s character, personhood, purposes, promises, and plan. The Bible is a theological book because its primary focus is GOD.
- The Bible is a storybook set in 6,000 (perhaps) years of History. Biographies and genealogies are the context in which all truths and lessons from Scripture are set.
- The Bible is a geography book based on the opening statements of creation in the beginning in Genesis. This theme continues in John 1 and ends in the closing comments in The Revelation with the three unconditional, eternal covenants in between (Abrahamic, Davidic, and New Covenants). Moreover, the Bible tells us about the Nations, They are repeatedly mentioned throughout.
- The Bible is a life manual, not an encyclopedia or handbook alphabetically arranged! Real lives of saints and sinners are written in paragraphs, like normal literature. God tells us everything we need to know but not everything we want to know (Dt. 29:29; 2 Tim. 3:14-16; 2 Pet. 1:3).
B. The first step and meaning follows. The other steps will be included in later articles.
- Observation—This most important step asks: what do I see?
- Observing includes:
- Start small. Pick a small book (Philemon) or a part of a story (John 21:15-19) and stick just to observation. This is the first step.)
- Read it more than once so you get the flavor, tone, repeated words. Learn the reason for the book.
- Bibles separate passages into paragraphs: do one verse or one paragraph at a time.
- Use this list to help you write down what you “see”. (Do not explain meanings in the observation step; you are noting what you see.)
- Who is the person or the people?
- What is going on? Observe what is happening regarding the people, places, and events.
- Why is this happening? Do not make up reasons; you may not know.
- Where is everything happening? Where are the people, the activity, the places?
- When did the events occur in relation to other events (if stated)?
- How did these things occur here at this time?
- Do your first list of observations. When you finish, do another list. Send them to me at mei104@icloud.com and I will be thrilled to check them out!
- In Hermeneutics, Even Little Words Matter - August 11, 2022
- Reviewing Bible Knowledge: A Schematic Map for Words - April 7, 2022
- Lips that Honor God - January 20, 2022