THE THREE COMPONENTS
OF INDUCTIVE BIBLE STUDY

Note: Please read all the instructions before you begin. Remember that our goal is to read the chapter in order to begin to establish the context.

In a formal Precept study on 2Timothy (Click for Pdf of lesson 1 on the Precept course on 2 Timothy), you would begin by reading all four chapters, first observing for the author, (because people, places and events are the easiest facts to observe and the Pauline letters always have both author and recipient) reading the book again for the recipient and then reading a third time for key words.

While you could simply read the book over and over in an attempt to establish the context, that process might become "vain repetition". On the other hand, when you read to observe for specific truths (author, recipient, key words), your reading is more interactive, purposeful and ultimately more productive than simple rote reading and re-reading. Don't lose sight of the fact that your goal is to establish the context...context rules and facilitates accurate interpretation without which valid application is not likely to occur.
 

1) In the box below you will find an Observation Worksheet on 2Timothy 1 in the NASB translation (or download Pdf which has observation worksheet of all 4 chapters), the translation which is recommended because it is more faithful to the original Greek and Hebrew. Remember that the more interpretative the translation (NIV is more interpretative than NASB click chart for comparison)  the more you as inductive student are allowing another individual other than God's Spirit to influence your observations and interpretation.
 

2) In the next section below there is a copy of what is referred to as an "observation worksheet", which is just that...a copy of the text which is for marking, taking notes, making lists and making changes. You are in the process of learning the inductive Bible study method and the observation worksheet gives you the "freedom" to make some mistakes without permanently marking your Bible.

Copy 2 Timothy chapter 1  to your word processor - highlight the text below, click copy or "control + C", and then use "paste" or "control + V" function to place the text on your word processor. Notice that there is some "extra space" between the verses which facilitates marking the text (see instruction #4).  To reiterate, please do not perform this practice exercise in your personal Bible.
 

3) Prayerfully, slowly read the text with the specific purpose of observing carefully for every use of the key word "God" and synonyms (e.g., "God the Father") and note that with certain words like "Lord" you may not be able (from the context) to clearly differentiate God the Father from God the Son. Don't mark (see below) specific references to "Jesus" at this time.

4) With each "encounter with God" stop and perform three maneuvers:

(a) MARK: Place a small triangle in the space over "God". Color is also helpful so if you have a purple pen make the triangle purple.

Note that if you decide to begin to study inductively in your personal Bible, be careful in your choice of pens used to mark your Bible as most ink will bleed through the page and as the British might say, "You'll have a bloody mess"! Click here for discussion of "Pigma micron pens" which are highly recommended for marking your Bible.

(b) INTERROGATE: Secondly, when you mark "God" interrogate this specific occurrence with the "5W's and H" questions. Don't come to the text with a previously prepared list of questions, but instead let the context guide your questions. For example, in verse 1, as you mark the first occurrence of "God", you might ask something like "What does God have?" (a will). "How does this relate to Paul?" (explains how he became an apostle - not by his will but by the will of God), etc.

Interrogation of Scripture may feel cumbersome at first or even somewhat mechanical but don't be frustrated or discouraged because you have already accomplished a major purpose even if you were not able to ask a specific question...you have slowed down and thought about what you just read. In essence, what you have just done is begun to learn to meditate on Scripture.

OBSERVATION WORKSHEET
2 Timothy 1

CHAPTER THEME:_____________________________________________________________

Click here for an example of what your list of observations and questions might look like.

1) Read the following passage

Colossians 1:15  "And He (Christ as determined by the immediate context) is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation."

2) Now, focusing on the last part of this verse, what is one possible conclusion you might draw about Christ?

Did you say "He was created" or the first one who was created? This section certainly could be misinterpreted in that way. In fact the Jehovah’s Witnesses cite this very verse as a “proof text” that Jesus Christ is not God, but rather the first angel that God created. What "fatal" flaw (and if they die believing this lie about Jesus it is ultimately a flaw that results in their eternal death!) have they made? Clearly they are basing their false teaching on one verse "yanked, screaming" out of its context. Now read the verse with its "neighbors" in context:

Colossians 1:15 "And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born  of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created by Him and for Him."

3) How does the interpretation in context counter the false teaching of the Jehovah's Witnesses that Christ is a created being? What do you learn about Christ in verse 16? What action did Christ perform? What truth about Christ is repeated for emphasis?

Colossians 1:16 (the immediate "context" of verse 15) teaches that Christ created all things. Do you agree? Paul even repeats this grand truth for emphasis. "All things" is just that in Greek or English. The plain (literal) reading of this text allows for no exceptions.

4) Then what is the logical conclusion and the accurate interpretation of Colossians 1:15 as determined by the context?

In view of the truth that Christ is the Creator of all things, He cannot be a created being as taught by the Jehovah's Witnesses. Do you understand how we arrived at this conclusion?

5) You may be saying "I'm still confused because 'first-born' if interpreted literally (which is how you say is the best way to interpret Scripture) certainly sounds like Paul is saying Jesus is the first Who was born". The question then is what does "first-born" mean or can this word have more than one meaning in Scripture?

This is a situation in which interpretation is aided by performing "Word Studies". Although Greek Word Studies are discussed elsewhere on this site (e.g., How to Do a Greek Word Study using free Web Tools, Greek Word Studies, Greek Quick Reference Guide) let's do an abbreviated Greek Word study to supplement the interpretation that Christ as the first-born cannot be interpreted as meaning that this use refers to Christ as the first born created Being.

To determine the Greek Word for first-born go to Studylight.org. Select "NAS with Strong's Numbers". Enter Col 1:15 and click on the underlined word "first-born" which pops up a window with the Greek word prototokos with a brief definition that is not very helpful but at least now you know the Greek word.

6) Now let's dig deeper on the meaning of this Greek word "prototokos" by clicking here for the search engine for Vine's NT Greek Lexicon. Enter "prototokos" in the Greek box or "firstborn" in the English box. Click enter and you will retrieve Vine's definition for prototokos which is quoted in part below...

PROTOTOKOS: "firstborn" (from protos, "first," and tikto, "to beget"), is used of Christ as born of the Virgin Mary, Luke 2:7; further, in His relationship to the Father, expressing His priority to, and preeminence over, creation, not in the sense of being the "first" to be born. It is used occasionally of superiority of position in the OT; see Exodus 4:22; Deut 21:16-17, the prohibition being against the evil of assigning the privileged position of the "firstborn" to one born subsequently to the "first" child (Ed note: Highlighting in red added for emphasis)

7) Since Vine gives two definitions for prototokos in the example above, one literally referring to the one who is born first but the other use signifying priority in importance or rank, rather than actual birth order, we determine which is the most appropriate definition  for Colossians 1:15 from the context.

As you observed above from the context, prototokos cannot refer to a literal first born in a family ,but instead must refer to the one who has "priority to and pre-eminence over".

Although it is not obvious in Vine's definition, notice that in Vine's subsection (d), the reference notation "cp. Psalm 89:27" (which reads "I also shall make him My first-born, the highest of the kings of the earth." Note: the Jehovah's Witnesses own translation also reads this way and can be used to illustrate why their teaching on Colossians 1:15 is not true). In Psalm 89:27, the Septuagint (abbreviated LXX and representing the Greek translation of the Hebrew OT) utilizes "prototokos" to translate "first-born". In the context of this psalm "first-born" is clearly a reference to David (and prophetically points to the Messiah), who was in fact not Jesse's first-born son but was actually his "last born" son! Using the normal, natural rule of literal interpretation in context, clearly God did not say He was reversing David's birth order but that He would give David priority in importance and make him pre-eminent among the kings of the earth. In short, in Colossians 1:15, Paul is teaching that Christ is pre-eminent over Creation!

Now we can read the Commentaries for their interpretation and you will always find Dr. John MacArthur's comments to be an excellent resource. Commenting on Colossians 1:15 Dr MacArthur writes...

Paul further describes Jesus as the first-born of all creation. From the Arians of the early church to the Jehovah’s Witnesses of our own day, those who would deny our Lord’s deity have sought support from this phrase. They argue that it speaks of Christ as a created being, and hence He could not be the eternal God. Such an interpretation completely misunderstands the sense of prototokos (first-born) and ignores the context. Although prototokos can mean first-born chronologically (Luke 2:7), it refers primarily to position, or rank. In both Greek and Jewish culture, the first-born was the son who had the right of inheritance. He was not necessarily the first one born. Although Esau was born first chronologically, it was Jacob who was the “first-born” and received the inheritance. Jesus is the One with the right to the inheritance of all creation (cf. Hebrews 1:2 [note]; Revelation 5:1-7 [note] Revelation 5:13 [note]). Israel was called God’s first-born in Exodus 4:22 and Jeremiah 31:9. Though not the first people born, they held first place in God’s sight among all the nations. In Psalm 89:27, God says of the Messiah, “I also shall make him My first-born,” then defines what He means—“the highest of the kings of the earth.” In Revelation 1:5 (note), Jesus is called “the first-born of the dead,” even though He was not the first person to be resurrected chronologically. Of all ever raised, He is the preeminent One. Romans 8:29 (note) refers to Him as the first-born in relation to the church. In all the above cases, first-born clearly means highest in rank, not first created. (MacArthur, J. Colossians. Chicago: Moody Press or Logos)

Refer also to the Verse by Verse Commentary notes on Colossians 1:15 this website.

Finally you might check Greek Word Studies also located on this website for in depth word studies (which are continually being updated).

 For example you will find an entry to the word we studied above, where the Strong's number links to Studylight.org and the Greek word links to an on site in depth study...

First-born (firstborn) (4416) prototokos

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Remember that the cults "major on the minors" and they are experts in taking Scripture out of context and twisting the literal meaning.

A text out of context is either

(1) a pretext (an excuse given to hide the real reason for something) or

(2) a proof text (use of isolated passage to defend one's position).

It may surprise you that many of the cults give considerable attention to Bible study, but their study is carefully orchestrated by clever leaders who provide their own interpretation of Scripture. Cult members are usually warned not to read material from those outside of their cult.

As you can see from this exercise, interpreting Scripture out of context can have eternal consequences! The best protection against Satan's lies is to know God's truth and to interpret that truth in its proper context!

C H Spurgeon aptly stated

"If you abide in Me,
and My words abide in you,
ask whatever you wish,
and it shall be done for you."
(John 15:7, NASB)

Some interpret this verse to be a "carte blanche" prayer...they focus on the last half of the verse and then when God does not answer them according to "their" will, they are frustrated, disappointed, etc. Remember inaccurate interpretation births inaccurate application which "tears down" instead of "building up" the believer. But is this what Jesus is really saying? Remembering that context is king for accurate interpretation, you can determine that Jesus is not saying that we will receive whatever we pray for if we are believers.

What is the condition under which the promise will be fulfilled? Abiding. Right? Well, what is an "abiding" believer? What would an "abiding" believer ask for? What abides in such a believer and what does that look like? Although you may understand what Jesus is saying in this verse, an examination of other Scripture can be revealing because we know that Scripture will never contradict Scripture. An excellent tool for examining related Scripture is the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK), widely available on the web and part of most Bible software packages. Let's compare the cross references in the TSK with those in the NASB margin.

Matt 7:7 "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you."

This cross reference taken from the margin of the NAS Bible does not help understand the meaning of John 15:7.  It is notable that that the TSK does not list this verse. This demonstrates the point mentioned earlier that the references in the TSK are generally more relevant and helpful in discerning the meaning of the verse in question.

1John 5:14 "And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him."

In comparing these two cross references it clear that Matthew 7:7 does not help that much in the interpretation of Jesus' promise. This cross reference still suggests that one needs to do is to ask and they will receive what they request, as if God were obligated to fulfill our every whim! Common sense and everyday experience tell us that this is not the case and that there must be limiting factors. As noted earlier the context of the verse emphasizes that one of those limiting factors is "if you abide in Me and My Words abide in you". 

Compare the cross references associated with My, which refers to Jesus' words abiding in us. What do these verses teach about His Word abiding in us? Do you receive any insights about what Jesus' word abiding in us means? Where does it abide? What effect does His Word abiding in us have on our conduct? Observe the next set of TSK references (after ye shall), noting especially that John 14:13 adds that one of the reasons prayer is answered affirmatively is "that the Father may be glorified in the Son."

What insight do you glean from 1 John 3:22 (Hold pointer over link for verse - Clue: Observe the word "because" which introducing some qualifying statements that aid accurate interpretation of John 15:7)?

Finally, note that 1John 5:14 adds another factor favoring affirmative answer to prayer. What is it? Clearly, John says it is asking according to God's will. And where is God's will most clearly stated? The Word of God of course. So if the Word of God is abiding in a believer, he or she is more likely to pray according to the perfect will of God.

If you read all the cross references, you probably noticed that not every cross reference in the TSK yields relevant insights. Remember that you need to maintain the attitude not of a tourist on a holiday but of an explorer who is seeking for the rich, true meaning of the passage which is like nuggets of gold that are yielded up only to the one willing to dig deeper. Yes, comparing Scripture with Scripture takes some time, but aren't you more likely to retain the insights you've discovered on your own?

By the way, let me encourage you to write the TSK cross references that you found helpful in your Bible margin next to John 15:7. Then, you'll be equipped to answer a friend's question or to lead a short devotional on prayer by referring to these references.

One caveat with the TSK is that in view of the fact that these cross references were compiled by a man and are not "inspired" by God and are fallible. This caution applies especially to the cross references on Scriptures that are clearly prophetic. Like the noble Bereans of old, don't blindly accept another man's interpretation, but always seek to be a Berean (Acts 17:11). For example, Torrey's cross references for the phrase the thousand in Revelation 20:3 are Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8...

Psalm 90:4 For a thousand years in Thy sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night.

2 Peter 3:8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Some commentators have misapplied these Scriptures in their attempt to interpret the number 1000 in Revelation 20. They say that based on the passage in Peter (who is alluding to Psalm 90) the number 1000 is clearly symbolic and is like one day. At first glance it appears they are utilizing good hermeneutical techniques by comparing Scripture with Scripture. The problem is that they have "mixed apples and oranges" so to speak. In other words both the psalmist and Peter clearly utilize a day and 1000 in a simile (see term of comparison - simile & metaphor) as indicated by the words like in Psalm 90:4 and as in 2 Peter 3:8.

Now read Revelation 20:1-7 carefully observing John's six uses of 1000. Do you see any evidence that John is utilizing 1000 as a "term of comparison"? Does he use "like" or "as" in any of the six occurrences of "1000"? Based on this simple observation, it is clear that 1000 is not utilized in the same way as in Psalm 90:4 or 2 Peter 3:8. The point of this example is that one cannot rely on the TSK cross references to "refute" the premise that "1000 years" is literally "1000 years". It would be more intellectually honest to say something like "I just don't like the idea of a 1000 year reign during which God will finally fulfill all of His promises to the nation of Israel." (Click for more on interpretation of symbols and numbers in Scripture)

Now back to our original objective - to accurately interpret John 15:7.

And since you have finished your own inductive study, you are now better prepared to reasonably assess the accuracy of the comments in commentaries like the one by William MacDonald who writes that...

Abiding is the secret of a successful prayer life. The closer we get to the Lord, the more we will learn to think His thoughts after Him. The more we get to know Him through His Word, the more we will understand His will. The more our will agrees with His, the more we can be sure of having our prayers answered.  (MacDonald, W & Farstad, A. Believer's Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson or Logos) (Note: You may not be familiar with this one volume commentary by Dr MacDonald but it is without question one of the best conservative commentaries available. It is available in computer format [Logos, Wordsearch and Biblesoft] or in the single volume book)

Warren Wiersbe adds that...
 

To abide in Christ means to be in communion with Him so that our lives please Him." (Wiersbe, W: With the Word: Chapter-by-Chapter Bible Handbook. Nelson or Logos)

The Bible Knowledge Commentary says that...
 

Christ’s words condition and control such a believer’s mind so that his prayers conform to the Father’s will. Since his prayer is in accord with God’s will, the results are certain—it will be given you (cf. 1John 5:14-15). (Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., et al: The Bible Knowledge Commentary. 1985. Victor or Logos)

J Vernon McGee comments...
 

1) Copy and print out Psalm 1 double spaced (below) to use as your Observation Worksheet. (Don't do this exercise in your Bible). Note Psalm 1 is in the NASB, one of the most literal and least interpretative versions - click for chart comparing different Bible versions.

2) Prayerfully read Psalm 1 observing for the obvious facts or truths (F.O.T.O. - do not become "bogged down" in details you may not understand), in order to get an overview and to establish the context. Did you observe what or who is being contrasted?     
 

3) Read Psalm 1 again specifically observing for what or who is being contrasted? As you identify the contrasts, mark the two major contrasting truths in a unique way. Each time you stop to mark a contrasting truth, also ask as many 5W and H type questions as possible.

4) Read Psalm 1 again, this time noting the figures of speech. Don't forget to interrogate each figure of speech with the 5W and H type questions.

5) Now go back through Psalm 1 and make a LIST of what you observed about the two major contrasts. Record the truth or fact using as many of the actual words of Scripture as possible and be sure to write down the verse where the truth is found.

6) Now click here to compare your list with mine.

If your list differs, that is fine. Our goal in this exercise is to practice the skills of observation, marking, interrogation and construction of a simple list.

In this process you read Psalm 1 at least four times, but each time you read with a different purpose. As you observed the Psalm again and again, did you notice how your observations began to give birth to interpretation and possibly even application? The more time spent in observation of a text, the more accurate will be our interpretation.

7) Application:  Don't leave this great psalm without taking some time to ask yourself some specific questions, allowing God's Spirit to "Search (you) and know (your) heart, (to) try (your) and know (your) anxious thoughts and (to) see if there be any hurtful way in (you), and (finally to) lead (you) in the everlasting way." Psalm 139:23-24

     What path are you walking on, that of the righteous or the wicked?
     What changes do you need to make in your lifestyle?
     Why might you not have a desire to read and study God's Word inductively?
     What does God promise will happen if you begin to meditate on His Word?
     What kind of prosperity do you think the psalmist promises - spiritual or material?
     What is the destiny of these two lifestyles? Where will you spend eternity?

Consider writing Psalm 1 on an index card, using spare moments to memorize this great psalm...
     How would this enable you to meditate on this Psalm?

8) After you have observed Psalm 1 for contrasts and compared your list of observations (here), you might want to compare your interpretation by consulting a conservative commentary.

One of the best commentaries on the Psalms is the Treasury of David by C H Spurgeon which is available on the Internet. (Click here for Spurgeon's comments on Psalm 1) Other conservative resources can be found at Bible.org. (see Psalm 1: The Life that Is Blessed by Allen Ross or Psalm 1 by Bob Deffinbaugh).

If you want some more practice identifying contrasts, take time to read Psalm 73 and note the dramatic contrasts (then you can read Spurgeon on Chapter 73 or Bible.org on Psalm 73).

Finally if you want to practice your observation for contrasts, read 2Cor 6:14-18 and make a simple list of the contrasts you observe. Then ponder the great application in the verse that follows in 2 Cor 7:1