When it comes to OIA Bible study, observation is the method’s beginning, not the method’s end. I find people can often get distracted from this point in one of two ways.
Distraction #1: Ending with Observation
When you develop the skills of mature observation, you can start to feel like a superhero. You’ll start seeing things the people around you don’t take time to see. You learn to identify parts of speech, sentence structure, and train of thought. Skilled observation can be quite thrilling, and it tends to receive praise. This is a good thing, because careful observation of God’s word ought to be something people find praiseworthy.
But the danger is that the thrill and the praise become your food and drink. When you train your senses to observe the Scriptures closely, you will probably start finding things that nobody in your immediate circle has found before. And you can quickly form an addiction to the dopamine released in the process.
This may result in doing even more observation, getting better and better at it. People start looking to you for insight, and they ask you for the final word on any questions they have. Sometimes this delight in observation can provide an escape from the painful labor of interpretation, or the uncomfortable humility required for application. You can also avoid having to draw conclusions about anything the text might mean, or any ways it may be speaking into your culture or community, by keeping your sights trained simply on what it says.
Perhaps this distraction resonates with your own proclivity. Or maybe your struggle goes in a different direction.
Distraction #2: Failing to Make Use of Observation as a Means
Maybe you are more tempted to skip observation to get to the good stuff faster. Your understanding of “the good stuff” could be focused on either interpretation (we have to get our doctrine in order, after all) or application (what good are we if we are not practical, right?). Either way, you try not to get bogged down by grammatical minutiae or pesky questions about big picture and train of thought.
Maybe you come to the Bible under the expectation that it must move you to some specific and inspiring action steps right here and now. Or maybe you teach others, and you feel you have failed if they don’t deliver something mind-blowing and practical quickly enough. Maybe you’ve trained yourself to spend more time looking up cross-references than discovering the structure and climax or chief conclusion of the text at hand. Maybe you’ve presumed that good teachers should aspire to preach or teach 300 sermons/sessions on Romans, and so you’re constantly bouncing away from your abbreviated text in order to fill the air space with fully fleshed-out theological or ethical reflections.
Conclusion
The answer to the second distraction is to realize (and believe in your bones) that without observation, you cannot interpret or apply. At least, not in alignment with the will of God recorded in Scripture. Observation lays the foundation for all else. If your observation is poor, your interpretation won’t be any better, and your application will fall to the ground. Any power your conclusions or instructions might have comes more from your personal persuasiveness or charisma than from the Spirit of God.
The answer to the first distraction is to realize (and believe in your bones) that your purpose in Bible study is not to impress people or thrill yourself. Your purpose is to help people—beginning with yourself—know God through his Son Jesus Christ and be transformed into the image of Christ by the Spirit who inspired this text. Observation lays the foundation for all else. If observation is your end game, it’s like living your spiritual life on a cement slab in a half-acre plot, without erecting the rest of the house. You’re ready for a tempest to rise against you, but the wifi doesn’t really work.
With trained and habitual observation, we plug into the power of God found in Scripture. We’re thereby locked and loaded for productive interpretation and application to help lead people to their Creator and King.
Leave a Reply