What is Inductive Bible Study?
I recently posted week 1 of a three-week inductive study of 2 Timothy. Since then, I have realized it would be helpful to explain what I mean by “inductive study.” I am by no means an expert, but I am happy to share my take on inductive study as well as my personal experience with it. Please click here for the free download of An Inductive Study of 2 Timothy.
First John 2:27-29 says, “The anointing that you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in Him.” When I was a child this was my parents’ desire for my life: that I would one day abide in Christ and go to the Bible as my source of perfect truth. So, when I was twelve years old my mom started teaching me to study the Bible for myself. The method she used and taught me to use was the inductive study method. This isn’t just a Bible study method; in fact, I also used it to study for my nursing school classes and any of you familiar with the scientific method will recognize aspects of it as well.
The inductive study method has been around since the late 1800s and it has come in and out of vogue as prominent pastors and Bible study teachers have used it in their ministries. It was first developed when a seminary professor named William Harper was concerned because his students were spending more time reading books about the Bible than they were reading the Bible Itself. So, he, and then later one of his students Wilbert White, developed this method of study (Bauer, 2013). It gives students a systematic approach that they can use to study any book of the Bible for themselves, so that they can know for themselves what is true, without being dependent on what someone else tells them is true.
As believers we must know truth for ourselves, which means we must spend time in the Word because the Word is truth (John 17:17). If we base what we believe on secondhand information, then there will be flaws in our beliefs. We’ve all played that telephone game where everyone sits in a circle and one person whispers a sentence to their neighbor and then they whisper it to their neighbor and by the time it gets back to the first person there are distortions to the original statement. 2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the Word of truth.” In our Christian walks we have a responsibility to know truth. We should not base our faith on what we are being told is true by others, but rather on what we know is true because we have gone to the source of truth, the Word of God. As Christians, I believe we should open our Bible’s first before any other book. Then, after we are equipped with truth we can start reading other sources and learning from them, but only after we are trained in truth and can recognize lies.
So, what is the inductive study method? My one sentence answer to this is: It’s a method of study in which you observe the subject and draw conclusions based on the subject itself regardless of (and often in defiance of) what other sources may say. For example, if I wanted to learn about butterflies, then using the inductive study method, I would grab a pen and paper and I would go observe a real butterfly. I would then draw my conclusions about butterflies based on what I had observed. After I had done this, I could then go read what other people had written about butterflies. But only after I had observed them thoroughly for myself. That way if someone had written something that wasn’t true about the butterfly, I would be able to recognize it. Because I had observed the butterfly for myself, I knew the truth and could therefore recognize the lies.
The inductive study method consists of four basic steps: Observation, Interpretation, Application, and Correlation (Bauer, 2013; Precept.org, 2020). In our three-week study, we want to know what God has to say in the book of 2 Timothy. So, we are going to use the inductive study method to observe the Biblical text for ourselves, draw the interpretation from the Bible alone (2 Peter 1:20), and apply it to our lives (James 1:22-25). We will not be consulting any commentaries during our study, because we want to base what we believe on the Bible alone, trusting the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth (John 16:13). So, always start your study in prayer. It is the Lord who gives us understanding as 2 Timothy teaches us and apart from Him you can do nothing (John 15:5).
For Observation we will be reading the text and asking questions. It can be helpful to remember the 5W’s and an H (who, what, when, where, why, and how). We will be looking for key people and repeated words. These key people and repeated words can guide us into what God wants us to learn from the text. And we will be identifying major subject divisions and textual themes. Remember chapter and verse divisions were not a part of the original text so we want to look for the natural transitions in the author’s writing regardless of chapter divisions.
For Interpretation we will be using the Biblical text alone to draw our conclusions; remembering that no scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21). So, we will use Scripture to answer the questions we asked during our observation of the text. I frequently write my questions on a note card and then write the answer on the other side. For example, I might ask “Who was Paul?” on one side and on the other side write everything the text teaches me about Paul. In an earnest effort to rightly handle the Word of truth, do not put things into your own words; rather use the exact words of Scripture (this will help you in your efforts to memorize the book of 2 Timothy as well). Sometimes you will have a question that you cannot answer from the passage you are studying. This is when we cross-reference and use Scripture to interpret Scripture. We will also be using cross references to gain context and to correlate how what we are learning fits into the overall Biblical picture.
Finally, we will be applying what we learn to our lives. This means we will take what we learn and then act accordingly. Matthew 7:24 says, “Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on a rock.” We must be doers of the Word and not hearers only (James 1:22-25). So, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).
If this sounds a bit overwhelming right now, don’t worry. I’ve written step by step instructions on how to apply the inductive study method to the book of 2 Timothy, which you can download here. But the point is that with practice you won’t need anyone’s instruction sheets. The inductive study method is a tool and once you learn it, you will be able to open any book of the Bible and thoroughly study it for yourself so that you can know truth for yourself, unadulterated by any of man’s opinions. Do you have to use the inductive study method in order to know the Bible? No, absolutely not. There are many useful study methods out there and this is only one of them. Like it says in the 1 John passage I opened with, as a believer you only need the Holy Spirit in order to study the Word. “The anointing that you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in Him.” So together let’s study the Word and abide in Him.
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References:
Bauer, D. R. (2013). Inductive Bible Study: History, Character, and Prospects in a Global Environment. The Asbury Journal, 1(68), 6–35.
Crossway Books. (2008). ESV Study Bible. Wheaton, Il.
Precept.org. (2020). Precept Bible Study Method Overview. Chattanooga, TN.