These are called key words. Kay Arthur’s definition of key words are those that are frequently repeated, and those that if omitted, would change the meaning of the text. I just call them, “words that make your tongue tired.”

Going back to our frog analogy: no matter where I go to study frogs, there will be some repeated words. “Pond,” “lily pad,” tadpole,” and “ribbit” would be words key to frogs. The same is true for studying the Word – in each book the author repeated words because those words are crucial to his purpose for writing.

If you were to write to your Gramma to tell her about the carnival you attended, you couldn’t help but use key words. They’d be ones like “carnival,” “prizes,” and “cotton candy.” If those words were omitted from your letter, the meaning of the letter would be lost. That’s what Paul has done in his letter to Titus. He wrote a couple of phrases over and over again because those phrases told the main purpose of his letter. Go read through Titus one more time – this time read it out loud. Look for words that are repeated, that are important, and that make your tongue tired. Don’t read here any further until you’ve done that, then come back and see if your guess at the keys are the same as mine.

Did you read it out loud? Did your tongue get tired at “good deeds?” It probably did, because that is a key word. Now read the whole thing again, marking “good deeds”. You can choose any color you like and scribble over “good deeds” and its pronouns.

What else made your tongue tired? “Sound doctrine”? Go back through the book and scribble “sound doctrine” with another of your favorite colors.

Remember that in inductive study, the point of marking anything is to make a list. So, grab a piece of paper and make two lists; one with the heading of “Good deeds” and the other headed “Sound Doctrine.” Again, pretend that you are a reporter and are searching for the whole story – who, what, when, where, how, and why. Stick to copying the Word as closely as you can.

Now you are starting to see why Paul wrote. He wants Titus to do some things, chiefly to teach our people to engage in good deeds. There are other things he’s to do, but it all revolves around good deeds. When you come back, we’ll begin the next step of our wonderful Inductive Study of Titus!

My favorite part of studying the Word is making lists. Irving Jensen, the man who “invented” inductive study, says that “the pencil is the third and most accurate eye.” It is in making lists that we use our pencil as our most accurate eye.

Get a clean sheet of paper and make two headings: Paul and Titus. We’ll work on Paul first, since he was the first Most Obvious Thing. This time through the book, you needn’t read the whole thing, but go through looking for your Paul marks, even those plural ones. At each mark, pretend that you are a newspaper reporter and must record what you learn. A reporter asks “who” “what” “when” “where” “why” and “how”. So at each Paul mark, ask those questions to learn all you can about Paul.

It is important that your answers be factual, and not made up of implications. For instance, in verse 3 Paul says that he was entrusted with the proclamation of the gospel. That’s a fact. An implication may be that he was humble. He may have been humble, but this verse doesn’t say that. Stick with the facts, with as close to quoting the scripture as you can. Challenge yourself by asking, “Is this exactly what the Word says?”

Let’s do some Paul list together. Paul is:

1. a bond-servant of God,
2. an apostle of Jesus Christ
3. was intrusted with the proclamation of God’s word
4. God commanded him to proclaim His word
5. God is his Savior
6. Titus is his true child in a common faith
7. Christ Jesus is his Savior
8. Left Titus in Crete
9. directed Titus to set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city.

You go through the entire book, looking for Paul marks and “listing” what you learn about Paul in each mark. Then do your Titus list.

1. God is his Savior
2. he’s Paul’s true child in a common faith
3. Christ Jesus is his Savior
4. was left in Crete
5. is to set in order what remains
6. is to appoint elders in every city
7. was directed by Paul how to appoint elders

Again, go through the whole book – not reading, but looking for Titus marks and listing what you learn about him.

Listing is something that we’ll spend a lot of time doing. This is the part of the study that really makes you see what the Word says and what it doesn’t say. I can’t stress enough the importance of writing down exactly what the Word says – when we see the Word through what we think it says, instead of what it actually says, we get in trouble. Jesus warned against that in Matthew 15: 6. He was talking to some Jews who weren’t paying attention to exactly what the Word said, but who were assuming that it meant something else, and He said, “And thus you invalidated the Word of God for  the sake of your tradition.”  It’s a sobering thought to realize that any of my preconceived notions could render the Word to no effect! That shows you just how powerful (and dangerous) preconceived notions about the Word are! That’s why it is so important to 1) pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and 2) see exactly what the Word is saying.

There are three main people groups in the Bible: Jews, Believers, and those who are Undecided. To properly understand the author’s goals and intents, it’s important to establish who his audience was. Obviously, an author speaking to Jews would approach them from an angle of shared history – the Old Testament. If an author is addressing a group of formerly Gentile Believers, he may mention the Old Testament, but spend more time explaining it, as opposed to assuming that they already understand its content. For an author to get through to a group of skeptics, he’d approach them from a different way; perhaps from logical reasoning or an emotional appeal.

To correctly interpret who the audience is, we mark the recipient. Choose another colored pencil (not green because that’s Paul’s). For me, recipients are always light blue (I don’t know why). We’re going to lightly scribble over any mention of the recipient, who is Titus. As with the author, we’ll also be looking for the recipient’s pronouns. Remember that a pronoun takes the place of a noun so we’ll be looking for words like “you” and “your” and plural pronouns like “our” “we” and “us”. Plural pronouns can sometimes be tricky – make sure that the author is including the recipient in his plural pronouns – the other possibility could be that the author was not alone when he wrote, therefore he refers to himself and his companions as “us”.

Looking at Titus, chapter one, the fourth verse: to Titus, my true child in a common faith: grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

You’ve already marked “our” in verse 4 with a Paul green. Because it’s plural, you need also to mark it with a Titus blue, so just put a blue box around it. That way you can easily see that “our” refers to both Titus and Paul. Paul said that Titus was his true child in a common faith, so we know that the audience is . . . Believers! So, Christ Jesus is both Paul’s and Titus’ savior.

Verse 5: For this reason I (Paul) left you (Titus) in Crete, that you (Titus) might set in order what remains, and appoint elders in every city as I (Paul) directed you (Titus).

You know what comes next: read through all three chapters of Titus marking Titus with a blue scribble, or a blue box around plural pronouns that include both Paul and Titus. Have fun, and check back when you’re finished!

John 14: 26 says “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” And John 16: 13 says ,”When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”

We see that it is the Holy Spirit’s job to 1) teach you all things, 2) bring Jesus’ words to your remembrance, 3) guide you into all truth, 4) speak what He hears, and 5) disclose things to come. Because those are His jobs, it makes sense for us to let Him do what He does best. So before you begin, pray. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you. Ask Him to disclose things, to speak all He hears, and to teach you. To enter into a program of Bible study without using the Helper that God provided would be foolishness. Don’t forget to ask for His help.

The next thing you should do is to read the book of Titus as if it came in the mail this morning. That was how Paul intended it to be read; it is a letter after all. Read the whole thing, start to finish, in one sitting, just as you would a letter from your grandma. Then do it again. Don’t skip this part, thinking that this sounds elementary. A lot of what I’ll ask you to do will sound simple – and it is, but is also very necessary.

One of the important principles of Bible study is to look for things that are obvious. I’ll not ever encourage you to go find something “new” out of a passage, or to dig until you uncover some truth. That’s not the way it works. The Holy Spirit is leading you to the truth, so the truth will be obvious to you. In the end you will see and learn things that you had no idea were there, but you won’t learn them until they are glaringly obvious to you.

With that said, after reading through Titus at least twice, what is the most obvious thing? Because this is a letter, and because “Paul” is the first word of that letter, Paul is the most obvious thing.   Now is the time you’ve been waiting for: you get to use a colored pencil!

Grab a color that you’d like to represent Paul. For me he’s always light green (I don’t know why). We’re going to read through the entire book of Titus again, scribbling light green over Paul’s name and over any of his pronouns. A pronoun takes the place of a noun, so any word that is a substitute for “Paul” should also be colored green. It will most likely be words like “me”, my”, and “I” and plural pronouns like “we” and “us”.

So start scribbling: Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowlege of the truth which is according to godliness . . . (I underline “bondservant of God” and “apostle of Jesus Christ” with Paul’s green because those are phrases which he uses to describe himself).

Verse 3: but at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I (Paul) was entrusted according to the commandment of God our (Paul and someone else) Savior,

Verse 4: To Titus, my (Paul) true child in a common faith . . .

Verse 5: For this reason I (Paul) left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I (Paul) directed you.

Now, if you have prayed for the Holy Spirit’s guidance (I trust you didn’t skip that part), continue with all three chapters of Titus, marking Paul the whole way. When you’re finished, come back to find out the next thing to mark; it will be obvious to you, I’m sure.

You’ll need a set of colored pencils. My recommendation is that you get a box of no more than 12 pencils. Any more than 12 and you will spend a lot of time searching for the same shade of green that you used yesterday, and you’ll waste time. The cadillac of colored pencil is a brand called Prismacolor. They average about a dollar per pencil, which may seem spendy, but they really are worth it. You also need a small set of markers. You’ll be happiest with the finest tip marker you can find – I use Prismacolor or those sold at scrapbooking stores.

You’ll also need a Strong’s concordance. They run about $23.00 at www.amazon.com or at a Christian book store. You need to be careful in buying a Stong’s, though. Strongs come in several Bible translations – King James, New American Standard and NIV. You want to have the Strong’s that matches the Bible translation that you are studying. I’m going to suggest that you study from a word-for-word translation, which are King James, New American Standard, or English Standard Version. Therefore, if you choose to study from New American Standard, the Strong’s you buy would say “Strongest NASB.” If you already own a Strong’s – one you’ve had for years, it’s most likely a King James Strong’s.

Inductive study is most easily accomplished on type-written standard sheets of paper. In other words, you won’t be using the markers or colored pencils in your Bible. I use http://unbound.biola.edu for getting whole books of the Bible off the internet.  On that site choose the version you’d like to study (I always use New American Standard) and enter the book into the site’s search fields. Then cut and paste the entire book into a Word document. You then should double space the entire document, which you do by highlighting the document then clicking on “file, paragraph, double space.” There are many sites that offer you the ability to copy and paste Bible text – I like unbound.biola because each verse begins on a new line and there are no added marks in the text, like cross-reference notations. I also manipulate the spacing so that each chapter begins at the top of a new page. My experience has found that I’m much happier and less confused when I print on only one side of the page. Even though I at first felt that I was “wasting” paper, the time I save by never having to look on the back of the paper was worth it.

So now you’ve got a book of the Bible typed out on regular paper, you’ve got a Strong’s to match it, and you’ve got colored pencils and markers. The only other things you need are a lot of blank paper and your Bible! You are ready to go!

We are going to begin by studying the book of Titus. Why? For several reasons. One is that it’s the book that I learned to study on. Another is that it’s chock full of rich theology, and the third is that it’s really short! All fine attributes for a book of the Bible!

Go to http://unbound.biola.edu and get your Titus sheets, double space them, make sure that each chapter begins a new page, and print it off. Round up your colored pencils, fine tip markers, extra paper and pens. Purchase your Strongest NASB (or your choice) and check back in for how to proceed!

I have to tell you that the steps really aren’t steps. “Step” implies that when the first is completed, you move on to the next, and only then can you go to the third. That’s not exactly the way inductive steps work. Inductive steps may overlap. They may not occur in the expected order, and it may be that the third happens spontaneously, or only after a lot of prayer and discipline.

The three steps are observation, interpretation and application.

When you are in observation phase, you are laying on your belly at the frog pond – taking in all the context that you can. Your goal is to find out what the author is saying. You’d look at his pond – where he was when he wrote, where his recipients were, what were their issues, and most importantly, determine what made the author sit down to write. What made him sit down on this day to write to these people? Something must have happened, and if we can determine what that something was, it will greatly aid in our understanding of context. In fact, that is context.

The next step is interpretation and when you’re interpreting, you’re figuring out what the author meant when he said what he said. I’m sure you’ve heard people ask you what your interpretation of this scripture is, or chastise your thinking, saying, “that’s just your interpretation.” The fact of the matter is, there is one interpretation for scripture, and it’s the one that the author intended, the one that the recipients understood.

“I really appreciated all the work you’ve done for me lately and to show my thankfulness, I’d like to take you to Subway for lunch tomorrow.” If I said that to you, you would immediately understand (or correctly interpret) my meaning. You know what work I’m talking about. You probably can guess which Subway location I’ll take you to, and you understand that I’m talking about lunch tomorrow. Interpretation answers the question: what did the author mean? I meant lunch tomorrow at Subway for you – not lunch everyday wherever you want it for you and all your friends.

Unlike interpretation, where there is one right answer, in application there are as many right answers as there are studiers. That’s because application is the heart of the matter – the reason behind studying the Word in the first place. During the application step, we decide how our lives will change as a result of studying this scripture. My assumption is that those who are interested in studying are those who understand that the Word of God is the standard by which we govern our lives. I also assume that we’re poeple who understand that if we see things in our lives that contradict scripture, it’s our lives that need to change, not scripture. So once we see what scripture is saying and understand what it means, we then apply it to our lives by changing in some area. This may happen instantaneously for some people. It may be the most arduous of work for others. But wheter you find it easy or torture, it is the point of Bible study and must not be ignored.

The reason that you’ll not hear me recommend a devotional book is that generally they skip observation and interpretation to hustle on in to application. They challenge you to apply scripture that you may not fully understand, and the result of that is frog-killing; taking the frog from his context and applying him somewhere he doesn’t belong (like the desert). In order to properly apply scripture, the author’s intent must be understood – just like you need to understand my intent to take advantage of the free lunch.

I promise that we’re going to get into actually doing inductive study – next post! I’ll give you more details about the three steps of inductive as we use them. I’m so excited to get started! I’m excited for you and the journey that you are beginning – because I was where you are now. And looking back, I realize that nothing has had as big an impact on my life as learning to study has.

Let’s imagine that I want to become an expert on frogs, the best thing I can do to gain my expertise is to put on my hip waders and lay on my belly next to a frog pond. From that vantage point I can watch the frog and see his surroundings. I can see which animals try to eat the frog, how he protects himself, how he attracts a mate, where he sleeps, and what he eats. I’d go back day after day and watch my frog in his natural habitat, learning how the change of season affects him, when the babies are hatched and learn about tadpoles and their legs that grow in. I truly understand the frog when I see him in his pond, or his context – everything that is around the frog.

Another option I have in my quest to become a frog expert is to catch the frog and bring him home. I could put him in a dish by my kitchen sink and study him from there. It would be much more handy, I’d get fewer mosquito bites, and I could study him when it’s convenient for me. However, the only truth I’d learn is this: all frogs die.  That is the truth, but it’s not the whole truth. There’s more to a frog than dying.

The same is true for studying scripture. We need to study it in its context – in its pond. We need to strive to understand what the author was saying, what he meant, what it meant to the original readers, and what was going on in his pond at the time. The danger is that in studying a scripture, we pick it up out of it’s context and put it somewhere it doesn’t belong. If I take the frog out of the pond and put it in Antarctica, it dies. If I put it in the dessert, it dies. It needs it’s pond in order to survive. And the same is true for scripture – I can’t pick up one verse and try to apply it all over the Bible, because out of it’s context it dies!

The final option that I could explore in my journey to frog expertise, is to go the library and read all the books I could find about frogs. In that way I’d be learning from the greats -all the frog experts who have gone before me. The only down side to this option is that I’d never have a personal encounter with a frog! I’d not know what his skin feels like, what his croak sounds like during mating season, or how to tell one frog from another. Reading all the books on frogs sounds like a good idea, but the reality is that I want to find out about frogs for myself.

The same is true with scripture. There are myriads of books written about each Bible verse and I could read them all, but still feel the frustration that comes from not learning it for myself.  I wouldn’t have had a personal encounter with scripture and would not love it with love that comes from personal experience.

As we begin our journey to learn to study the Bible, we will be ever conscious of context. We’ll be jumping right in that frog pond and emmersing ourselves in context! Are you ready to get wet?

Because I couln’t do it on my own, the alternative was to go to a Bible study. I wanted to be obedient, so I went to a lot of Bible studies! In each, the teacher would select a topic pertinent to her attendees then pull scriptures from various parts of the Bible to prove her point. She’d hand out homework, which consisted of lists of other Bible verses that also strengthened her point. Our assignment was to look up each of those scriptures, write them down, and hopefully understand the way in which they supported the teaching.

I spent years following that formula, advancing from position of attendee to teacher of my own Bible studies, all the while feeling that this wasn’t it – that there had to be more to Bible study than filling in blanks. What I wanted, what I felt God wanted for me, was a method or a plan of studying the whole Bible, not just random scattered verses. But, although years had passed, every time I tried to study on my own, the same old frustrations would be there – the Bible was still so boring – the sentences are still too long – the names still unpronouncable.

I continued to look for an answer, so attended a seminar at my church called, “How to Study Your Bible.” I paid the $25.00 (a huge sum at that time of my life) and sat through the seminar which described topical study, character study, book study, and themed study. I took copious notes. Nearing the end of the evening, the teacher said, “But the very best way to study your Bible is inductively.” I wanted to tear up my notes and begin again – if this is the very best way, why mention all the other ways? But instead of elaborating, he next said, “Well, thanks for coming! Drive safely!”

I was so frustrated! If that’s the best way, then it’s the way I want to study! He didn’t even explain what that word meant – I’m not even sure that I spelled it correctly in my notes! How could he leave me hanging like that?

So the same frustration and lack of direction continued for more years. One glimmer of hope came in a homeschool curriculum catalog. I was reading their description of effective Bible study tools. They mentioned commentaries, Bible dictionaries, archived sermons, and other helps. At the end of their article they wrote, “But of course, the best method of Bible study is to study inductively.” There was that word again! I eagerly turned the page to learn where to buy the inductive materials, only to learn that they’d moved on to math curricula! There were no more clues toward what that word meant! At least now I was sure how to spell it.

More years followed and nothing changed. I was still feeling that something was missing, attending or leading Bible studies, filling in blanks, pulling supporting scriptures from all over the Bible, and looking around for another mention of the word “inductively.”

I finally found it in a book called, “How to Study Your Bible Inductively” by Kay Arthur. What I learned in that book, in subsequent training seminars, in my own presentation of the method, and in my own studies, is what this blog is about. My goal is to help you learn to study. We’ll start right away and we’ll have fun doing it because studying inductively is a blast! I can’t wait for you to start!