FREE & FABULOUS: Bible Study Tips-Part 2

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. 2 Peter 3:18 ESV

Hello. Thank you for joining us as we continue our FREE & FABULOUS series! Tip #1 we put into practice immediately with our Amos study group. It was delightful to find various translations of Chapters 1 & 2 as we individually studied the passage prior to Monday night’s meeting. What an amazing time to live—we have a world full of technology at our fingertips and can deepen our knowledge of Scripture at our own convenience. AND-most of these online study tools are FREE!

Tips #2 is for those who want to dig deep into the meaning of God’s Word. If you are like me, I want to consult a commentary mainly when a particular passage captures my attention. However, I don’t particularly want to always consult the set we were given years ago.  

Let me introduce Study Light. https://www.studylight.org/commentary.html

WHAT IS IT?  It is a verse-by-verse Bible commentary where you can search for specific Scripture and have a large collection of commentaries, concordances, dictionaries, and encyclopedias at the click of a button. Some of the Bible commentaries include Clarke, Bridgeway, Coffman, Henry, Barnes, Calvin, Smith, Gill, Kelly, etc. There are over 100 different commentaries used to build this resource. It does have pastoral resources if some of you are leading a Bible study over a particular book of the Bible and need some ideas, sermon illustrations, and the like. There are suggested daily reading plans and daily devotions if this is something you are needing. The site offers solid, foundational material for studying God’s Word.

WHY I USE IT? This online resource has become a new love of mine. In the past I have searched the internet for commentaries, sermons, and videos based on the chapter I was reading/studying. I like this site because I can drill down into the chapter verse-by-verse and receive some of the world’s greatest Bible scholar’s comments all in one location. I have enjoyed finding meaning over a particular verse which stood out to me each week. (Sidenote: I use a Scripture Notebooking plan) It is user friendly and doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles to sidetrack my attention. Although I have my favorite commentaries, this site has given me the opportunity to see Scripture through other’s eyes which I probably would not have entertained/found/read on my own.

HOW TO USE IT?

1. Click on Bible Study Tools. Then choose your resource (commentary, concordance, dictionary, encyclopedia)
2. When choosing Bible Commentary-now click on the book of the Bible, the chapter, and then the verse.

TRY IT: Choose Bible Commentary-New Testament 1 John-Chapter 1-Verse 1

Scroll down and look at Barnes’ Notes. You will the verse is broken down into small parts and each is explained in depth. Most of the commentaries give you cross references as well as other Bible study tools to use. I really like this style of commentary because it reminds me a lot of Verse Mapping.  

This is what you should see:

Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible

That which was from the beginning – There can be no doubt that the reference here is to the Lord Jesus Christ, or the “Word” that was made flesh. See the notes at John 1:1. This is such language as John would use respecting him, and indeed the phrase “the beginning,” as applicable to the Lord Jesus, is unique to John in the writings of the New Testament: and the language here may be regarded as one proof that this Epistle was written by him, for it is just such an expression as “he” would use, but not such as one would be likely to adopt who should attempt to palm off his own writings as those of John.

This is one you need to experience. Play around with it a bit and see what commentaries you like best. Like I said, this is a new resource for me! There is a wealth of knowledge on this site. It has been around for over 20 years so I am sure you will find a lot more offered than the small tip I have shared. I will continue tapping into this free resource as I drill down weekly into my Holy Spirit guided Scripture study method.