Application

Individual Impressions Are Inevitable

March 28, 2022 By Ryan Higginbottom

I studied the book of Lamentations with my small group during most of 2021. Through thinking about lament in general, and the book of Lamentations specifically, God taught me so much more about grief, prayer, trusting him, and his faithfulness than I could have predicted. It’s no exaggeration—I think I grew more spiritually by studying Lamentations than I have through any other book study in the last five years.

However, not everyone in my Bible study felt the same! A woman in my small group could not wait for us to move on to study something different. She found Lamentations repetitive and deflating (despite all my cheerleading). I’m sure most of my small group friends fell somewhere in the middle.

The Bible lands on each of us differently because God works with different people in different ways. We see this in several places in Scripture.

Shouting and Weeping in Ezra

After King Cyrus of Persia sent a group of Israelite exiles back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, their first order of business was to construct the altar. After this was accomplished, the people offered burnt offerings and celebrated the prescribed feasts (Ezra 3:3–6). They hadn’t been able to do this for decades!

After the altar, the Israelites laid the foundation of the temple (Ezra 3:10). This was a time for worship and singing.

And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,
“For he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.”
And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away. (Ezra 3:11–13)

There was a loud, joyful shout from some people and loud weeping from others. Despite the celebratory occasion, some of the older Israelites mourned because they had seen the original temple (and they had also seen it destroyed). Each person’s history and experience shaped their reaction to this event.

It’s not unusual for God’s people to come away with different responses when he acts.

Surprise, Not Everyone Is Like Me!

When I have a strong reaction to something I expect others share my conclusions and enthusiasm. This is especially true when learning from God’s Word. I think everyone should be convicted in the way I’ve been convicted and focused on the same applications as me. I’m the center, and I’m the standard.

When I get some distance, I can see that my thinking is ridiculous. There is so much that determines how a Bible passage affects a person. Their background, interests, social circles, vocation, experience, and spiritual maturity all play a role.

I need to remind myself frequently that this is a good thing. My church would be boring and unbalanced if everyone took identical impressions and applications away from a Bible study, class, or sermon.

The Value of Application Questions

God works by his Spirit in large crowds with largely uniform responses. (The apostle Peter’s sermon at Pentecost seems to be an example of this.) But God also knows and works with each of us as a loving father trains his children individually according to their needs and disposition.

Bible study leaders can trust God to produce the fruit he wants in each Christian. We guide and lead our friends through observation and interpretation to understand the meaning of a passage, and we should press our friends toward application. But we cannot broadly dictate application to individuals.

This is one reason (among many) that I advocate for asking application questions. It may be better, through such questions, to suggest areas for our friends to consider than to list specific options. The Holy Spirit often helps us examine our lives in light of those questions, convicting and directing us.

Two people at the same study may come away with very different applications of a Bible passage. Bible study leaders can plant and water, but God gives the growth.

The Dangers of Recycling Bible Studies

February 28, 2022 By Ryan Higginbottom

As a teacher, there is a huge difference between teaching a class for the first time and teaching a class for the second (or third) time. When I’m new to a class, I prepare each class meeting from scratch—the lectures, the discussion questions, the activities, and the assignments. It’s a lot of work.

When I teach a class that’s not new, I can breathe a little easier. I can anticipate the common pitfalls, I know which lessons need to be improved, and my previous notes serve as a starting point.

Bible teachers may feel this same way. When teaching a lesson they’ve been through before, they think preparation will be a breeze. I’ve thought this same thing. And those have been some of the worst studies I’ve ever led.

What’s the Danger?

The biggest danger with recycling Bible studies is assuming that gaining information is the most important goal in a Bible study. A leader can think that if they’ve saved their earlier notes, they only need to brush up on the particulars and walk a familiar path. Surely the truths in the Bible haven’t changed, so if the study worked last time, why change a thing?

A leader with this mindset is missing a vital ingredient of teaching the Bible. Effective Bible teachers must be transformed by the text. A Bible study should aim much deeper than a mere transfer of knowledge.

If there is too much time between when I wrestle with the application of a Bible passage and when I teach that passage, I lose much of the power of my transformation to help others. My friends cannot see as clearly how the passage has changed me, so their application may lack the teeth it otherwise would have had.

I’ve even experienced this on those rare occasions when I finish my Bible study preparation “too far” in advance. If I don’t revisit all parts of the lesson before the meeting, the discussion can be weak and tepid. I try not to use this as justification for procrastination, but I know that my studies are generally more lively and the learning more lasting when I complete my preparation within a few days of the meeting.

Should We Avoid Recycling?

I don’t think we need to draw a line in the sand and insist on preparing every Bible lesson from scratch. However, we need to take great care when taking “old” material to new settings. Here are some practices that might be helpful in reusing old Bible studies.

We should prayerfully consider using recycled material in the first place. We need to weigh the risks against the benefits and take time to minimize those risks. And, yes, all of this should not just be done deliberately, but prayerfully.

As much as possible, we should approach the Bible passage fresh. Even though we’ve previously studied the passage, we should read it several times and, without looking at our old notes, try to understand what the passage says. In some ways, we should consult our previous work as we would use study Bible notes or a commentary. (This is good motivation for making and preserving decent notes when preparing Bible studies!)

After we’ve gotten a good handle on the structure and main idea of a passage, we should turn to personal application. Remember, the most effective leaders are the ones who have been transformed by the passage they are teaching. We skip this step at great cost to ourselves and our Bible study group members.

One note here about application. It may be helpful to include details on personal application when writing our leader’s notes for a study. (We just said they might be valuable in the future!) But, we rarely encounter a passage the same way twice. We are different people from month to month, so our application will—and, likely, should—change. We may have different people in our lives, different temptations to resist, different challenges with which we need to trust the Lord. So, our notes from a previous study will describe how God changed us last time, but that won’t be as powerful as sharing how God is changing us now. (There is a similar lesson here for preachers about recycling sermons, but I’ll leave that for someone else to tackle.)

Seek the Spirit’s Warming

When we prepare to teach the Bible, we need the Spirit to warm us—to change us—by his word. And if we teach that material again in the future, we need to ask the Spirit to bring us close to the heat and transform us anew. This gives us the best chance to share the fire with our friends.

5 Conduits for Bible Application

February 2, 2022 By Peter Krol

Joe Carter highlights “5 Ways to Read the Bible for Personal Application.” He explores the idea that the Bible wasn’t written to us but for us. So it ought to shape our lives, but not always by means of direct commands. Those 5 ways are:

Direct commands
General truth
Direct analogy
Indirect analogy
Indirect extension

These are helpful categories for us to consider the manifold means by which we may connect the truth of the Bible to our lives today. The main caveat I would want to add is that, before we attempt to apply a Bible passage, we should first grasp the author’s main point for his audience. Many of the errors Carter enumerates would be solved if we were to apply the authors’ main points instead of isolated sentences that simply strike our fancy.

Check it out!

Arise My Love — Part 3: Application

December 17, 2021 By Peter Krol

I’ve already shown you some of my observation and interpretation of Song of Songs 2:8-3:5, which led me to the following as the poet’s main point: A couple’s purpose in pursuing a romantic relationship ought to be the movement from separated togetherness to the mutual possession of marriage. Now it’s time to connect this main point to the gospel of Jesus Christ so I can apply it to today.

Gospel Connection

I try to avoid following my imagination from any old detail in the text to the message about Jesus. Instead, an important discipline to develop is to reflect on how the main point of the passage directs us to the gospel. In the case of the Song of Songs, I do not want to ignore or bypass a literal reference of the text to human relationships. But I also can’t avoid the fact that the Bible clearly describes how human relationships are meant to be pictures of God’s relationship with his people (e.g. Hos 1-3, Eph 5:22-33).

Therefore, the clear and selfless direction of a godly romance (toward the mutual possession of marriage) ought to be a signpost pointing the way to Jesus’ clear and selfless pursuit of his bride, the church. When Jesus invites people into a relationship with him, he’s not messing with them from selfish motives, but he’s wooing them into a covenant of mutual possession. He became a man and died to overcome our separation from him, so we can now be his forever. Because of his pursuit, through death and resurrection, the chief promise of God’s covenant is now fulfilled; the Song’s “my beloved is mine and I am his” becomes our “he is our God and we are his people.”

Now that we’ve considered the main point through the lens of the gospel, how will I apply it today? Application is always tricky because it depends so much on context. And my context — situation, circumstances — differs from yours.

But here’s what has struck me as I’ve studied this text: I’m mostly impacted by it personally in the outward heart and outward hands boxes on the application matrix. In particular, I have an opportunity show my children the problems with the world’s way of mating, and to show them the delightful glory of God’s plans for his people. I want to dig into this passage with my children to show them how delightful God’s plan for mating is. I want to expose the failure of the world to find true delight in exchange for cheap counterfeits (hooking up, one-night stands, etc.). I want to draw the connection between how we mate as Christians, and what that tells the world about Christ’s love for his people.

In particular, we don’t date people just to feel close to them or to have fun being together. We date in order to purse a clear and selfless direction toward marriage. That is, the purpose of dating (or whatever we want to call it) is to discover whether marriage is a good idea.

And we can navigate the ups and downs and awkwardness of human romance because we stand fast in the reality that Christ is ours and we are his. He will never let us down, reject us, or break up with those who trust him.

An Honest Look at the Scriptures

October 13, 2021 By Peter Krol

One of my greatest privileges at this blog is getting to share the space with one of my longest and closest friends, the sage essayist and mathematician, Ryan Higginbottom. Ryan also blogs at his own site A Small Work. If you haven’t been following him there, you really ought to consider it.

Ryan recently composed a wonderful piece called “The Weight and Wound of the Word,” a brief reflection on the piercing swordplay of Scripture well worth your time. Here is a taste:

While many today look to the Bible for comfort or inspiration, an honest look at the Scriptures reveals that not all of it was given for these purposes. If we randomly dip a ladle into the depths of Ezekiel, the brew that emerges is more likely to be sharp than sweet…
Some—perhaps much—of the Bible was given not for our comfort but for our discomfort. The Scriptures are profitable for reproof and correction, after all; they provoke, unsettle, and rebuke us. Far from harsh, this is a sign of God’s love. It is damaging for our souls—indeed, for our humanity—to turn against God in rebellion. The fact that he steers us away from sin and back to himself is evidence of his care.

Ryan goes on to describe some particular ways we may be prone to dulling the sharp edges of Scripture, thereby throwing ourselves in front of the Holy Spirit’s bulldozer. This is well worth your time and consideration.

Check it out!

How to Help Others Apply the Bible

October 11, 2021 By Ryan Higginbottom

The church is a body, linked together in union to Jesus Christ. We need one another.

At Knowable Word, though we aim to help ordinary Christians learn to study the Bible for themselves, we do not expect or desire any believer to cut themselves off from from the body. As we need one another in general, we also need one another in Bible study.

We encourage Christians, as they are able and have opportunity, to study the Bible with other believers. Fellow disciples can offer great help in the observation and interpretation phases of examining the Scriptures. But, frankly, there are books, videos, and other resources that can offer significant help with these phases. Christian community fills an irreplaceable role when it comes to application.

I’ve previously written about how to apply the Bible in community, and in that article I focused on peer relationships. Therefore, most of this post will focus on helping others to apply the Bible as a teacher or leader.

Helping as a Friend

Application is the most personal stage of Bible study. The way a person takes a Scriptural truth and works it out has much to do with the specifics of their life—their relationships, their history, their fears, their pressures. This is where friends are essential; when others know the details of our lives, they can show us the shaded corners of our garden that are overrun with weeds. This mostly happens through longer conversations and patient questions.

A one-on-one friendship in which each person wants the best for the other is pure gold for a follower of Jesus. This is love. This is a rare opportunity to help another person believe, trust, and obey the Lord.

If you are blessed with such a friendship, thank God! And be willing to both offer and accept suggestions about Bible application in this context. If you do not have such a friendship in your life, pray earnestly that God would provide.

Helping as a Leader

Those who teach or lead others in the church have the blessing (and responsibility) to help with Bible application. While this is a natural and expected part of Bible study, it can be difficult for leaders to find their groove.

Most teachers are comfortable talking about observation and interpretation—that’s their bread and jam. But application is tough. It’s personal, as we’ve mentioned, and it’s often last, meaning it frequently gets cut in favor of earlier material. My sense is that teachers are much less practiced when it comes to bringing application in for a landing.

I see at least three ways for a leader to help others apply the Bible. The order below is not necessarily my suggested order during a class or study, merely the most natural way to discuss the options in this article. Additionally, any one attempt at encouraging application need not involve all three of these suggestions. (I’d propose a thorough mixture over time, however.)

Ask Application Questions

When it is time to turn to application in a Bible study, questions are natural. The intention here is to provoke others to consider areas where the main point of your Bible passage might have some corrective use.

When a leader knows their group well, targeted questions provide traction. There may be common situations for the group (a transition or event at church) or known experiences within the group (illnesses, difficult relationships, loss of work) that are ripe for questions to spark prayerful contemplation.

For an article-length example of application questions, see 40 Application Questions From Isaiah 40.

Give Personal Examples

When a teacher gives application examples from their own life, it serves at least two purposes. It moves the idea of application from vague to specific, and it shows that the leader has been affected by the very Scriptures they are urging their group to consider.

My friend’s application will likely not be mine. But when that friend tells me about the way God is helping them to obey the Scriptures, it gives me hope that I will find that same help in my life.

Give Application Suggestions

This strategy is like scattering seed on the ground. A teacher throws out suggestions for applications and sees where they may take root.

If a leader has applied the Bible themselves, they likely have considered a lot of applications before the class or meeting. The more specific a suggestion, the better. One of these suggestions may inspire a similar (or wildly different) application in a group member.

Conclusion

There are as many ways to faithfully apply the Bible as there are Christians reading the text. Having conversations with other believers about this application is like adding Miracle-Gro to the soil of a Christian’s life.

Once we realize just how much we need each other, we can joyfully and humbly embrace the privilege of bringing God’s Word to bear in one another’s lives.

Let the Bible Speak!

October 6, 2021 By Peter Krol

I appreciate this brief word from Amy K. Hall on the need to teach what the Bible says before attempting to teach how it applies. As she writes:

Remember that the Bible is primarily there to show us who God is and what Christ has done for us, giving us a 2,000-year history of his works, revealing his character, our purpose and need, and his solution. Sometimes, people who are teaching the Bible try much too hard to be brilliant, giving us their own insights into life rather than letting the brilliance of the Bible speak for itself. Let the Bible speak! I would rather hear one halting, inexperienced speaker show me God in a text of the Bible than hear 1,000 polished pastors give me their three-point, alliterated instructions for life, which are often only loosely based on the actual text.

Check it out!

Clean Out the Application Cobwebs

September 13, 2021 By Ryan Higginbottom

Heiko Stein (2016), public domain

There are two types of extra-dirty places in my house: those I actively resist cleaning and those I don’t think about at all.

My shower is dirty because I dislike cleaning it. Though it takes only ten minutes—and it isn’t even that difficult—I build the task up in my head to be impossibly long and tedious. I’d rather clean any other part of the bathroom.

The area behind the washing machine, on the other hand, is dirty because I never consider cleaning it. Unless there’s a problem, I don’t look back there at all.

I suspect these types of neglect are present in our Bible studies too, mostly when it comes to application. Whether we actively resist or regularly overlook an area of application, we need to identify and fix the problem.

Applying the Bible

After observing the text of the Bible, we interpret what we find. We try to identify the author’s main point in the passage.

Then we turn to application. This is where we ask the question, so what? What implications does this truth have for God’s people?

While there may be a handful of accurate, biblical interpretations to a text, applications run in the millions. But there are some ways to organize our efforts.

Application can take shape in two directions: inward and outward. Inward application is pointed toward ourselves, and outward application involves influencing others.

Application can also happen in three spheres: head, heart, and hands. Head application involves what we think and believe, heart application involves our character, and hands application involves what we do.

This makes six combinations to consider every time you study the Bible. (I’m not suggesting you must hit all six areas with every study!)

Diagnosing and Treating the Problem

Different passages lend themselves to different types of application. Not every main point is easily applied in every sphere or each direction. And different people are drawn toward different application emphases.

But over time, it’s possible to get into a rut. Or to consistently neglect one or more areas of application. We need to find these dusty corners and sweep out the cobwebs.

For some people, applying the Bible outward is easy, but making specific changes to their own life is a challenge. Other people may think of head and hands applications quickly, but they struggle to make heart changes.

The best way to diagnose an area of application neglect is to pay attention. Take notes after personal and small group Bible studies. What types of application do you hit most frequently? Which ones are harder for you? Which ones don’t show up at all? Using the two-by-three grid on this worksheet may be helpful.

Like individuals, small groups tend to have areas of application inattention. Have an honest talk with your group and work to identify those application topics you consistently overlook.

Once you’ve identified your weak areas of application, the treatment becomes obvious if not easy: Work on those areas! Pick a neglected box on the application worksheet and don’t let go.

Two Tools for the Task

A common vocabulary with your friends can be useful as you tackle your application weaknesses. There’s nothing sacred about the words we use here at Knowable Word (inward, outward, head, heart, hands), so if you find something else more helpful, go with it! The general ideas will likely be similar.

And finally, as you target this individual or group deficiency, don’t forget to pray! Our neglect is often the fruit of our spiritual blindness or apathy, and we need power from God for spiritual growth. Application always involves a battle of the Spirit and the flesh, and the fighting is more intense when we don’t consistently train for the conflict. But nothing is impossible with God, and he leads us into repentance, joy, and obedience with his strength.

5 Reasons to Read Your Bible Beyond Practical Application

September 10, 2021 By Peter Krol

I believe in practical application. Here are more than ten biblical reasons why you should do it. But the dangers are legion if you come to your Bible reading with nothing but practical application on your mind. You might rush—or even worse, skip!—your observation or interpretation for the sake of that practical nugget. Your application might come unmoored from the text and take you in exactly the wrong direction. You might fall into the well-worn path of failing to identify any applications beyond the Big Three.

And there is a major opportunity cost involved. Treat personal application as the only consistent outcome for your Bible reading, and you may simply miss out on these other benefits the Lord wishes for you.

1. Storing up now for the coming winter

A regular habit of Bible reading is worth maintaining, even when no urgent or timely application comes readily to mind, because you are depositing divine truth in the storehouses of your soul from which you can later make withdrawals. “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Ps 119:11). “My son, keep your father’s commandments … bind them on your heart always … When you walk, they will lead you … For the commandment is a lamp … to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress” (Prov 6:20-24).

We ought to consider the ant and be wise (Prov 6:6-11, 30:24-25), not only with respect to our work ethic but also with respect to our truth ethic. It is foolish to abstain from Bible reading because it’s not practical enough for today. When the time of temptation arrives, you will have an empty storehouse—an empty heart—with no stockpile of resources available to supply your resistance.

2. Receiving comfort amid sorrow

It is true that suffering people need time and space to process. Yet may it never be that our “time and space” isolate us from the Lord, when they ought to bind us more tightly to him. The laments of the Bible are wonderful for giving us words when we don’t know what to say, and feelings when we don’t know what to feel. The Spirit who intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words (Rom 8:26) is the same Spirit who inspired the words of the prophets and apostles to give expression to such groanings (1 Pet 1:10-12).

“My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!” (Ps 119:28). Such strengthening does not typically result in an item for the to-do list or a practical application to go on the calendar. These words are shaping us to know where and when to find true solace.

3. Motivating future obedience

Reading your Bible saturates your mind and heart in the love of God for you, which will motivate you to even greater obedience in the future. Though you may not get a nugget of practical application right now, the good news will inflame your desire for such obedience in perpetuity.

“Let your steadfast love come to me, O Yahweh, your salvation according to your promise; then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me … And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth … I will keep your law continually, forever and ever, and I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts” (Ps 119:41-45).

4. Learning to both love and hate the right things

Sometimes Bible reading does not produce immediate behavioral change, but instead trains our senses to distinguish good from evil, to discern right from wrong. And it trains not only our mind’s acuity but also our very affections, that we might love what is good and hate that which is evil. “Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that Yahweh, the God of armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph” (Amos 5:15).

Our Bible reading shapes our hearts in immeasurable and incremental ways, with respect not only to ourselves but also to those around us. “Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked, who forsake your law. Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning” (Ps 119:53-54).

5. Spending time with the Beloved

A marriage relationship is not merely a socioeconomic contract wherein two parties engage in mutually beneficial transactions and improve their financial benefits. Yes, it is at least that, but more often than not, a relationship characterized by love involves simply spending time together. There is a delight to be had from communing together, living life together, sharing experiences, and growing old together as lovers and companions. So, too, in this marriage between the Lord Jesus and his Bride. We meet together corporately to worship the father through him. And we read the Bible that we might simply know him and enjoy his sweet companionship.

To ensure we don’t wander off with a “Jesus” of our own invention, our communion with Christ must involve a communion in his word. God is revealed most clearly in his word, so knowing God must involve knowing his word. “Yahweh is my portion; I promise to keep your words … The earth, O Yahweh, is full of your steadfast love; teach me your statutes!” (Ps 119:57, 64). “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

Conclusion

Whoever desires practical application to result from Bible reading desires a noble thing. But it’s not the only thing. Please keep reading your Bible, even when you can’t see immediate, outward life change by the end of the day. I assure you: Though you may not see quick and immediate change in yourself, others will certainly perceive the gradual and lasting change that transpires in you as the seasons come and go. As you spend time with your Beloved, you can’t help but become more like him.

Sometimes We Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Apply Scripture

September 1, 2021 By Peter Krol

Pierce Taylor Hibbs has a really helpful piece entitled “Christian, Here’s When You’re Allowed to Apply Scripture.” In it, he laments the way too many of us too often use the Scripture.

Much of the time, we’re pigeons grabbing bread crumbs of information and entertainment. And that crumb-picking habit carries over into our understanding and application of Scripture. We’re not asking questions of a text, working through context in widening circles, or even using our God-given reason to reach understanding. Instead, we’re crumb-picking. We grab a friend’s complaint here, a Facebook comment there, and a Scripture passage we found through a Google search, and boom: we’ve got an “argument,” an arrow to shoot in conversation. And because we’re quoting Scripture, it appears to be biblical. But let’s be clear: Quoting a Bible verse doesn’t mean you’ve made a biblical argument.

He then proposes that what authorizes someone to make use of the Scripture in application is that they have first done the hard work of observing it in its original context and interpreting it in light of the person and work of Jesus Christ. He then walks through a 3-step process, showing how to do this difficult work, with the example of an easy-to-misuse verse: “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim 1:7).

This article is well worth your time. Check it out!

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