The task of studying the Scriptures is commanded by God, but whenever God requires something He always provides the means by which to fulfill it through our new divine nature and the Holy Spirit. There are many verses that not only exhort us to know God’s Word, but also command us to study the Scriptures. (
Joshua 1:8, Jeremiah 23:28-29, Psalm 119:9-11, Acts 17:11, 2 Timothy 2:14-16, Hebrews 4:12.) * These by no means are exhaustive but they will do.
The believer is called a disciple of Jesus which really means a learner or pupil.
The inductive study method is the most valuable and accurate way of studying the scriptures to arrive at the genuine interpretation of the day it was written to. This method focuses on three main areas:
1.
Context
The context is vital to insure the original intent and purpose of the writer of the day it was written.
A. Today many teachers and preachers do violence to the Scriptures.
1. They come up with some of the most erroneous interpretations because they have ignored this basic principle of context.
2. The result is that they destroy the original intent and meaning of the text.
• They interpret it subjectively.
• They interpret it by spiritualizing it.
B. Text out of it’s context is nothing but a pretext!
1. There are various types of sermons such as biographical, textual, topical and propositional.
2. But there is only one way to do inductive study which will prepare the expositor for his sermon material, whatever type is chosen.
This is the first area of inductive method!
2.
Historical Background
The historical background is also very important to insure what is being taught or required is relevant to our day.
A. A good example would be the command to the women to wear veils to honor their husbands at Corinth. 1 Corinthians. 11:13
1. The city had a temple to Aphrodite and the temple prostitutes would be unveiled showing that they had no covering over their lives, in other words no husband and were in fact temple prostitutes.
2. The command of Paul to the women is to not use their liberty in Christ lest two things take place; they be mistaken for temple prostitutes and dishonor their husbands by identifying with the permissive women of the city.
• This is what we might call “cultural relativity”, the literal command is not obligated nor does it apply to our present day.
• But we can apply the principle of honoring and obeying husbands as the heads of the homes and glorifying God in ones conduct by staying away from all appearance of evil.
3. The Bible transcends the culture regarding morals and ethics, not the reverse.
• If the Bible teaches sexual purity, it is an absolute for all ages.
• If the Bible teaches lying is wrong, it is for all ages
B. We must be careful not to compromise or substitute the word of God for human teachings in order to justify or rationalize a sinful lifestyle.
1. By Psychology.
2. By Anthropology.
3. By Sociology.
4. By situational ethics.
5. By value clarification.
6. By any other humanistic teaching that contradicts or opposes the word of God, trying to justified or your culpability of a sinful lifestyle.
This is the second area of inductive method!
Language
The original language is key to understand the meaning as well as the sense of the sentence, be it Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek.
A. Word studies must be done not in isolation but in conjunction with the passage, context and their relation to the other words that structure the sentence or section, lest a wrong meaning is given to a word because the same word can be used in different ways.
1. This simple three step process is call “general Hermeneutics” which means interpretation or to explain, at times called “grammatico-historical exegesis”.
2. There is special Hermeneutics which does not replace the former but adds other rules to help come to the original meaning, this would be true of Poetry and Prophecy.
B. Whenever a person begins to approach a book, a chapter or a section, the central theme or subject must be grasped and this comes only by reading it over and over again until the central theme stands out as the sun illuminating the rest of the material.
1. The Gospel of John central theme is ‘Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing you may have life in His name’.—John. 20:31
2. The theme of Romans is ‘the righteousness of God revealed for the salvation of man by grace and faith’.—Romans. 1:16-17
This is the third area of inductive method!
