How Can I Better Study a Bible Passage?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Well, we love to get questions
00:00:05.600 | on basic Bible interpretation,
00:00:07.440 | so much of what we do in helping you read your Bible.
00:00:10.920 | So please keep sending those questions into us.
00:00:13.760 | Today's question is from Deborah from Kalamazoo, Michigan.
00:00:17.400 | Hello, Pastor John, I've heard you talk about arcing.
00:00:20.380 | Can you explain to me the very basics of what arcing does
00:00:24.000 | and what we can learn from this practice?
00:00:26.080 | This is my introduction to it,
00:00:28.080 | so the simpler, the better.
00:00:29.840 | And if you have one simple example to explain it all,
00:00:32.640 | that would be great.
00:00:34.240 | Pastor John, what would you say to Deborah?
00:00:36.960 | - I would love to.
00:00:38.480 | So let me try to be simple,
00:00:40.120 | because at root, it is simple.
00:00:42.520 | Arcing is a way of taking a paragraph of Scripture,
00:00:46.000 | a unit of Scripture, let's just say a paragraph,
00:00:49.200 | breaking it down into individual statements,
00:00:52.720 | seeing how each of those statements
00:00:55.160 | relate to each other logically.
00:00:57.760 | Like is one the cause of the other?
00:00:59.620 | Is one the result of the other?
00:01:01.680 | Does one explain the other?
00:01:03.120 | So seeing the relationships
00:01:05.440 | and then putting all those statements together
00:01:09.160 | according to those relationships
00:01:11.840 | so that we can see the one main thing
00:01:15.880 | that the paragraph is saying
00:01:17.560 | and how each of those individual parts of the paragraph,
00:01:22.560 | those statements, work to support it and explain it.
00:01:27.920 | And then arcing provides a way of preserving
00:01:30.540 | what we've seen with a kind of drawing of the text,
00:01:34.580 | each statement having an arc
00:01:36.940 | and each relationship having a symbol.
00:01:40.540 | And so when you're done, you can file it away
00:01:43.440 | and remember everything you've seen
00:01:45.420 | next time you wanna study the passage.
00:01:48.100 | There's nothing really mysterious about it.
00:01:49.780 | We talk this way, we talk this way all the time,
00:01:53.500 | especially when we're trying to be clear
00:01:56.040 | and trying to explain something to somebody.
00:01:59.380 | We try to make a point,
00:02:01.140 | then we say other things about the point
00:02:03.440 | to explain it or support it.
00:02:05.540 | We do this instinctively.
00:02:07.420 | We manage to communicate pretty well from day to day.
00:02:10.280 | And what arcing does is force us
00:02:12.360 | to think about what we're doing
00:02:14.020 | and what the biblical writers are doing
00:02:16.620 | just as a way of making sure that we don't miss anything
00:02:21.620 | that they're trying to show us.
00:02:23.700 | The great value of arcing is mainly,
00:02:28.200 | it forces us to just look and look and look at the text
00:02:32.700 | and think and think about it.
00:02:34.240 | Paul said in 2 Timothy 2.7,
00:02:36.420 | "Think over what I say
00:02:39.460 | and the Lord will give you understanding."
00:02:41.680 | So in order to get the fullest meaning out of a passage,
00:02:44.520 | we have to look at it carefully and in detail
00:02:48.040 | and think about it.
00:02:50.760 | And then we need to construct the argument,
00:02:53.340 | reconstruct it in our heads or on paper
00:02:57.200 | and write it down lest we forget it.
00:02:58.840 | So here's the example of,
00:03:01.040 | so you get the idea.
00:03:02.840 | Romans 1, verses 15 through 17.
00:03:06.760 | Here's what it says.
00:03:08.080 | "I am eager to preach the gospel
00:03:10.680 | to you also who are in Rome,
00:03:13.380 | for I'm not ashamed of the gospel,
00:03:16.560 | for it is the power of God and the salvation
00:03:19.680 | to everyone who believes to the Jew first
00:03:21.560 | and also to the Greek,
00:03:22.920 | for in it the righteousness of God
00:03:27.020 | is revealed from faith to faith."
00:03:29.520 | So there are four statements here
00:03:32.000 | and Paul clues us into how they're related
00:03:34.620 | by the connecting words that he uses.
00:03:36.720 | In this case, it happens to be four, F-O-R, four, four, four.
00:03:40.640 | So each of those statements gets an arc.
00:03:44.240 | So you get four arcs.
00:03:46.040 | And we're trying to decide what's the main point,
00:03:49.600 | not necessarily the most important reality,
00:03:51.660 | but the main point that is the conclusion,
00:03:54.160 | what everything else is supporting here.
00:03:57.480 | So let's walk through these four propositions
00:04:00.560 | and see if we can reconstruct the argument.
00:04:04.120 | "I am eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome."
00:04:08.000 | That's statement number one.
00:04:09.560 | Here's statement number two.
00:04:11.020 | "For," or because,
00:04:12.880 | and so here comes the support or the ground,
00:04:15.060 | "because I'm not ashamed of the gospel."
00:04:19.320 | So one of the reasons he wants to preach the gospel in Rome
00:04:22.100 | is that he's not ashamed of the gospel at all.
00:04:26.100 | And then comes the third statement,
00:04:27.760 | which is given as a support or an argument or a basis
00:04:32.760 | for why he's not ashamed of the gospel.
00:04:35.300 | "I am not ashamed of the gospel
00:04:36.840 | because it is the power of God
00:04:39.720 | and the salvation to everyone who believes."
00:04:41.600 | That's the third statements.
00:04:43.820 | So now we have three statements
00:04:46.220 | and the last two are the arguments
00:04:48.100 | for the first one.
00:04:50.500 | And if we say it in reverse order,
00:04:53.600 | we can hear it even more clearly.
00:04:56.540 | When you go in reverse order,
00:04:58.180 | a because becomes a therefore.
00:05:00.840 | "The gospel is the power of God
00:05:02.440 | and the salvation for everyone who believes.
00:05:04.900 | Therefore, I'm not ashamed of it at all.
00:05:07.540 | Therefore, I am eager to preach the gospel to you
00:05:10.700 | who are in Rome."
00:05:12.580 | And then there's one last important statement,
00:05:15.740 | one more piece in the argument in verse 17.
00:05:18.660 | He gives the reason or the basis,
00:05:21.300 | the argument for why the gospel is the power of God
00:05:24.940 | and the salvation to everyone who believes.
00:05:27.700 | He says, "For, or because in it,
00:05:31.160 | the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith."
00:05:34.900 | So Paul is giving a three-step argument
00:05:38.420 | rooted in the very nature of the gospel
00:05:41.380 | for why he is so eager to preach the gospel
00:05:45.360 | in Rome.
00:05:47.100 | So I'll read it in reverse order
00:05:49.860 | so that you can hear how the argument works.
00:05:53.420 | "In the gospel, God's righteousness is revealed
00:05:58.100 | as a saving righteousness that is counted to us
00:06:02.180 | through faith."
00:06:03.580 | That's the first statement.
00:06:04.980 | "Therefore, this gospel is the power of God
00:06:08.600 | for the worst of sinners, Jew or Greek,
00:06:10.740 | through faith, whoever believes."
00:06:14.860 | Here's the third statement.
00:06:16.140 | "Therefore, I'm not ashamed of the gospel."
00:06:19.240 | Last statement.
00:06:21.380 | "Therefore, I'm eager to preach the gospel
00:06:24.180 | to you who are in Rome."
00:06:26.260 | So that's basically what we do in arching.
00:06:28.780 | We take a unit of scripture
00:06:31.420 | and we identify individual statements.
00:06:34.460 | Then we identify the relationships between those statements
00:06:39.180 | and then we rebuild the argument
00:06:42.020 | so that we can see what the main point is.
00:06:45.180 | What's the one thing he's trying to support
00:06:47.460 | with all the other statements.
00:06:49.420 | And I promise you, this is a promise.
00:06:52.780 | I promise you that if you begin to think about passages
00:06:57.060 | of scripture this way,
00:06:58.900 | you will not only see vastly more of what's really there
00:07:03.900 | that you might've missed,
00:07:05.940 | but your confidence level that you have seen God's truth
00:07:09.900 | will dramatically increase.
00:07:12.700 | And if God is willing, and I think he is willing,
00:07:15.980 | you will go very deep with him
00:07:19.020 | and you will know him as you've never known him before.
00:07:22.980 | - Amen.
00:07:24.660 | These are such critical skills for reading comprehension
00:07:27.140 | with scripture and really with anything.
00:07:29.700 | But thank you, Pastor John, for outlining these principles.
00:07:32.380 | Please keep sending in your Bible interpretation questions.
00:07:34.940 | It's one of the major themes on our brains right now.
00:07:37.460 | And really all the time we're thinking about these things.
00:07:40.300 | Pastor John's latest book, of course,
00:07:41.820 | is titled "Reading the Bible Supernaturally."
00:07:44.580 | You'll wanna check it out.
00:07:45.700 | And there's a really helpful guide to arcing
00:07:48.100 | as an appendix in that book.
00:07:50.020 | If you want a more visual representation
00:07:52.380 | of the principles explained here today,
00:07:54.180 | that's a great place to begin.
00:07:56.260 | And of course, if you want more examples
00:07:58.460 | and if you want more help with arcing,
00:08:00.140 | check out the web resource, biblearc.com.
00:08:03.620 | B-I-B-L-E-A-R-C.com, biblearc.com.
00:08:08.500 | A lot of great resources there.
00:08:10.940 | Well, it seems if we read our New Testaments correctly,
00:08:14.740 | that Jesus said that his return was going to be soon.
00:08:18.500 | So where is he?
00:08:19.900 | And why is the church still waiting for his return?
00:08:23.340 | That question is on the table Wednesday.
00:08:26.620 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.
00:08:27.460 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:08:29.660 | We'll see you then.
00:08:30.980 | (upbeat music)
00:08:33.580 | (upbeat music)
00:08:36.180 | [BLANK_AUDIO]