Page 58 - Teaching Principles and Methods Student Textbook short

1. Define the topic. This will be the theme of the verses you are going to teach. In our example
above, the topic would be “Imitating Christ’s Humility.”

2. Rewrite the topic into the form of a question. What aspect specifically about the topic would
you like to know? What would the study of this topic reveal to you? How can this study solve a
problem or answer your question? In our example above perhaps a good question would be, “In
what ways did Christ exhibit humility and how can I emulate His humility in my life?”

3. Do a search in your concordance for verses that deal with that word or synonyms. Say you
want to study principles about “giving” in the Bible. Think of synonyms of your topic word and
list them. Then you can study every verse in the Bible that references the words: tithe, giving,
money, wealth, riches, possessions, and any other words you can think of that would give you
some information about what God thinks about giving.

Write down the verses on a piece of paper or in your computer.

4. Limit the search to only those synonyms which will assist you in answering the question you
created about the topic. The topic you have selected may be way too broad and your search
will lead you to more than you can handle. By limiting the search to only those verses that deal
specifically with your topic question, you may eliminate studying hundreds of verses which
won’t help you answer your question.

5. Look up each verse and read it IN CONTEXT. Read the verses before and after and get the
thought that the entire passage is presenting. If there are insights into the topic, write them
down.

6. Check out the cross references. Some study Bibles have marginal cross reference passages
which relate to the passage you are reading. Go to those passages and do the same thing. Read
the entire passage to make sure the topic is being considered within the context of the passage
and further insights may be there.

7. Make sure you understand the book in the Bible from which your other supporting verses are
taken. To whom was it written? Was it written to address a problem? Is it a historical
narrative? Is it an Old Testament Book or a New Testament Book? What is the purpose of that
book? This is all part of the context of the verse. For example, on the topic of giving, if you take
information from the Levitical Law of the Tithe, the demands on the people of Israel would not
be at all what God commands for the New Testament church giver. Context is EVERYTHING!

8. Is the verse about what someone did? We cannot build doctrine on an historical event. If
someone did something that does not necessarily make it the norm for the church today. The
saints in the Bible did both what is right, and some did what is not right. Just because they did
something, does not make their actions the norm for today.

9. Compile your results with insights listed for each verse. Many verses will repeat ideas but
some will make your insights expand. Try to build definitive statements about what the Bible
says about that topic.

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