As we grow in our Christian walks and delve deep into God’s Word, we are guaranteed to find problems. God’s Word is a perfectly unified body of Truth, but it doesn’t always seem like it to our eyes. There are some difficult issues that are not easily resolved.

I have the privilege of taking a course called Omnibus (published by Veritas Press) as part of my homeschooling curriculum. It is a conglomeration of literature, history, and theology. In it I have run into several perplexing issues in the Bible, such as the morality of revenge. It sometimes seems that God contradicts Himself in His Word, but that cannot be the case. So how do we, as finite human beings, understand the difficult issues? I have a list of 5 steps (we seem to like 5-point lists here, don’t we) that will hopefully serve as useful guidelines.

1. Focus the Question

This is very important. If you don’t have a clear idea (or if you keep changing your idea) of what you’re looking for in Scripture, you won’t find much. You need to establish a question or issue firmly in your mind. Here are 3 questions that you should ask yourself to help focus:

1. What is the issue at hand? Are there any facets of it that I’m not seeing?
2. Am I looking for what the whole Bible says about this issue, or just one of the Testaments?
3. What are my biases and previous thoughts on this matter?

2. Set Aside Your Biases

Biases are tricky things. We are often completely blind to their existence or unwilling to lay them down. However, though difficult, the execution of our presuppositions is essential to effective study of a difficult topic. If you hold firm to your biases, they will color your view of everything. So, you must ask God to help you take everything you learn in the upcoming study with an open heart and mind.

3. Search the Scriptures for Pertinent Passages

This is where Ben’s post on topical studies comes in handy. I would recommend that you follow the guidelines he gave there to collect passages relevant to the issue you are studying. In order to get the whole counsel of the Word on the matter, I would recommend that you try to be comprehensive (as much as possible). Of course, if you are intending to only study the issue in one Testament, then only use the passages from the Testament in question. As you read, things you should consider doing include: looking at the original Greek and/or Hebrew, looking at related passages as listed in most Bibles, and making concept maps of the ideas presented in the verse to help comprehension.

Be careful to NOT TAKE VERSES OUT OF CONTEXT. This is quite risky. When you take a verse out of its context, its meaning can be warped significantly. It is in this manner that heretics find “support” for their beliefs.

4. Read What Others Have Written on the Subject

In addition to the actual Bible verses, I would recommend finding and reading commentaries on the matter. This way, you will gain from the wisdom and hard study of others. Try to read the thoughts of people from various denominations and schools of thought so that you will have input from those who think in different ways and have different backgrounds than yourself.

5. Process with God

Finally, the most important step is to process what you have studied with God. Depending on the issue you were considering, you may or may not have come to a definite answer to the question. Regardless, you will have grown in your understanding of God’s word as you wrestled with difficult issues. And as result of that growth, you will be closer to you Creator.

Conclusion

I have unfortunately never tried to apply the steps outlined here. As a result, they may be impractical. I would welcome any constructive criticism and ideas that anyone could provide.