Word studies - they are an excellent means of finding out what the Bible says about a particular word, theme, idea. What you are doing when you do a word study is finding the definition, the part of speech, how the word is used (along with its context) and organizing that information into a manageable format that you can take and work from. It allows you to compile the information so that you can then teach others what you have learned and your only source (outside of a Bible dictionary, concordance, and possibly lexicon) is the Word itself. I was walked through how to do this as a teen and was assigned word studies in college, in the hopes that I would be able to take the information I gleaned and teach from it, if necessary, down the road.
Doing this well takes much practice, so don't get discouraged if it doesn't all fall into place on your first try. Start small and grow from there. Even when you don't have all the answers, don't be afraid to share with others what you are learning.
The method I'm about to show you is the one that works best for me. It is referred to as "The Inductive Study Method." It requires a lot of work up front but, "You'll never know what the Bible means until you know what it says." (Dr. Bill Jones) You can't interpret information you don't have. You will misapply and misunderstand the text (What does it mean?) unless you understand first what it says. Also, the goal of studying the Bible is not, primarily, personal application. The Bible is not about you - it's about God - and the goal of studying it is not primarily getting personal benefit so much as it is knowing the Author better.
(Side note: Understanding the historical context of the text is also crucial to an accurate interpretation of the text. We are not the Bible's original audience and we tend to interpret what it says through our 21st Century lenses and read things into the text - isogesis - rather than pull things that are actually there out of the text - exegesis. Find Bible teachers who will both preach the text and give the historical context of it - it will greatly enrich your understanding and help provide boundaries for your interpretation that will line up more accurately with the original intent of the author.)
To Get Started:
What you will need:
- Holy Spirit
- Prayer
- Bible
- Concordance (I prefer Strong's and it is the most widely used, that I am aware of - you can order it in hardback form or use free ones online)
- Bible Dictionary and Lexicon (Websites like Blue Letter Bible compile all of these resources in one place for ease of access)
To start out, the Bible is the Holy Spirit's book. He is the expert on the subject and if you have a personal relationship with Him (John 14:16-17; 16:5-8), He will be your greatest Helper on this journey. He wrote the Book (2 Peter 1:21). He knows what it says and what it means. Do NOT start this journey without Him. Do NOT assume that your human understanding and academic faculties will be sufficient on this quest (ask me how I know). Part of the role that Holy Spirit plays in our daily walk is to open our eyes to truth (John 14:26; 16:13-15). Without His help, we cannot accurately understand His Book. Begin this quest/journey asking for His help.
Step two is acquiring the remaining needed resources. What may come to some as a surprise is that, in order to do Bible study, you must start with the Bible! There are many excellent teachers out there who have provided excellent resources for us, but, for our purposes here and to facilitate your own ability to accurately understand the Bible, we need to leave those other sources behind. When I was working through the word studies in college and had to create the first few lessons of a Bible study for one of my assignments, I was not allowed to crack a commentary until the very end of the process. The thinking was that the Holy Spirit was completely capable of teaching me what He wanted me to know and the additional voices would only cloud my thinking with the opinions of those of lesser authority on the subject. The remaining three resources are reference materials that will aid in our ability to find and understand the words/themes that we are dealing with. You can find hardbound copies of a concordance online but also use the free resources available to you on websites like Blue Letter Bible (blb.org). I would recommend, if you're first starting out, to use an online resource like this so that you don't have to have multiple tomes (big, heavy books) sprawled out in front of you while you're trying to track your way through things. This could get confusing very quickly. Once you have assembled the suggested resources, read Part 3 to begin the process of doing a word study (There is so much information that I want to keep it manageable for you and not put it all in one place - it can be overwhelming).
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