How to study the Bible part 2

We continued our series this past Sunday "40 Days in the Word" with part 4" Why it is important to read & study the Bible on your own." You can listen to the podcast at http://www.wyandottefamily.com/listen.html or you can download it from iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wyandotte-family-church/id478735158  

We talked about reading and studying the Bible on our own, actually helps us grow and resist temptation. All week long in my blog we'll be looking at the practical side of it and how we can study the Bible on our own.

So far we have talked about the 4 steps to studying the Bible on your own. In Yesterday’s blog we looked at a specific passage of the Bible and went through the first step of Bible study together…observation. If you didn’t catch yesterday’s blog I encourage you to pause and go back and read it before you read on.

Today we are going to practice together the 2^nd step of Bible study, interpretation. Asking the question, “What does it mean?” Discovering what the specific passage means.

This passage (Philippians 2:19-30) is an extremely powerful passage because it gives us the five marks of what it means to be a man of God.  The five marks of what it means to be a godly man.  Or for that matter, a godly woman.  If you want to be the kind of person God blesses, if you want God to use you, if you want God’s power to be at work in your life, this passage becomes extremely important to study.  Because it tells us the five characteristics of the man of God or woman of God. We see the example that these guys set and what we are to build into our lives as well. We are to be like them and we are to honor others like them. We learn all of this through this passage of the Bible.   

So now let’s go back and let’s look at the five things we observed in step 1 and say, What does it actually mean? (Interpretation)

Verse 21, we find the first characteristic.  Paul says about Timothy, “I have no one else like him.”  Why is nobody else like him? What sets Timothy apart from others? It does on to say…  Because “He takes a genuine interest in your welfare and everybody else only looks out for their own interest.”  Paul says that’s rare.  That’s unusual.  That’s different.  I’ve got nobody like him.  He has a genuine interest in your welfare and nobody else does that.  They all look out for their own interest.

One of the tools you can use to help you interpret Scripture is by comparing passages to other translations.  In English, fortunately, we have dozens of translations of the Bible.  You say, why do we need so many translations?  Because no single word adequately can explain another word in a language.  Often it takes a phrase to explain a word. 

For instance the Bible is written in over eleven thousand Hebrew and Greek words.  But the average English translation, no matter which one you have, uses only about eight thousand English words.  That means something is getting left out in the fuller meaning. 

For instance, in English we only have one word for “love.”  Love.  And we use it to refer to everything.  I say, I love Jesus Christ… I love my wife… I love popcorn…  I love America...  I love music or I love hot dogs… I’ve just used the same word in multiple different ways. 

Greek was much more technical, much more precise than that.  For instance in Greek they have four words for love:  eros where we get erotic love from – sexual love.  Storge which means strong love.  Phileo which means brotherly love.  Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love.  And agape which is unconditional love.  And all of these words are used in Scripture.  So there are different words where we only have one word to communicate love. 

So you look in different translations.  Many translations have slightly different ways to communicate the same thing.  So by looking at different translations, you can get a bigger interpretation without having to know any Greek or any Hebrew.  That’s a good thing.  That’s an advantage of somebody who speaks English. A great resource that is free to use is www.blueletterbible.com On this website you can read the New Living Translation (NLT), the New International Version (NIV), King James Version (KJV), and even the Message Paraphrase. You can also see the Greek and Hebrew def. as well!! They also have bible reading plans and even have an app for your phone.

So a couple of other translations of verse 21.  It says “Timothy genuinely cares for you while others only care about themselves.”  He says that’s why he’s worthy of honor.  The Phillips translation says “They’re all wrapped up in their own affairs.” 

1.     A godly man/woman is caring. 

A godly man (woman) is compassionate, he’s caring, he’s unselfish.  He thinks about others.  He’s not just thinking about himself.  He’s unselfish.  He’s not self-centered.  He is caring.  Timothy genuinely cares about you.  Everybody else is only interested in their own agenda, their own business and their own things.  He says, that is worthy of honor. 

If we are completely honest, if there’s ever a message that’s needed today it’s that.  Because everything in our culture, teaches us to be self-centered, not unselfish.  Everything in our culture teaches us to care only about ourselves, not about others.  Every advertisement is all about you:  “We do it all for you.  Have it your way.  You deserve the best.  You deserve a break today.  Look out for number one.  I’ve got to think of what’s best for me.”  Almost no ads are telling you to be unselfish.  Most music, most movies, most tv shows, novels, magazines, video games are all about you, the consumer.  It’s not about you helping anybody else. 

So it is rare to find an unselfish man.  It’s rare.  Paul says I don’t have anybody like him who genuinely cares about other people.  Everybody else is only caring about themselves.  They’re not self-giving.  They’re self-centered. 

2.     God is looking for men/women who are consistent. 

The second thing we learn about Timothy it says “Timothy has proved himself, [underline or highlight that] because as a son with his father, he has served with me in the work of the gospel.”   In the God’s Word translation it says “You know what kind of person Timothy proved to be.”  The word “proven” there means tested.  It means verified, it means checked out, it means determined reliable.  This guy is ram tough.  This guy is dependable.  This guy is reliable.  This guy has proven faithful, is what the Bible calls it – faithful. He follows through on what he says he is going to do.  

The greatest ability in life is dependability in life.  The number of people who are dependable, who don’t flip flop, who keep their word, who do what they say, who keep their promises even when it hurts them, is unusual. People of conviction and character. You know the difference between conviction and an opinion?  An opinion is something you’ll argue about; a conviction is something you’ll die for. 

Do you have any conviction in your life?  You are not ready to live until you know what you’re willing to die for.  Are you willing to die for anything?  Until you know and have made that list: “I would die for this…  I would die for this … And I would die for this…”  you are not living, you are just existing.  God is looking for consistency.  Godly people are not just caring, they are consistent.  They are proven reliable.  They’re committed to God’s standard.  And they are consistent in their values.  They don’t act this way with one group of people and this way with another group of people and this way with another group of people. 

3.     A godly man/woman is cooperative.   The, next verse.  He says “I send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and my fellow worker and my fellow soldier.”  He gives us three metaphors here that are relational – brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier.  He says “He’s also your messenger because you sent him to me to take care of my needs.”  You sent him to bring me good word of you.

Each of these three metaphors has something in common.  What they have in common is cooperation. 

He said, he’s my brother, he’s my fellow worker and he’s my fellow soldier.  Why?  Because the Christian life is a family, it’s a fellowship, and it’s a fight. 

First, we are a family.  He says, he’s my brother.  We’re related.  Did you know that the phrase brother and sister is used about 133 times in the Bible to refer to Christians.  For thousands of years church members always referred to each other as brothers and sisters –There’s Brother Tom and Sister Jane and.  The reason they did that was for this reason. Because we’re a family.  We’re children in God’s family.  And we are brothers and sisters.  There is a relationship there. 

We’re also in fellowship.  We’re fellow workers.  That means we have the same task, the same mission, the same great commission.  We’re to work together, we’re to serve together.  We’re fellow workers.

Finally we are comrades in arms.  We’re fellow soldiers.  Because we have the same battle, we have the same enemy – Satan.  So we support each other, we encourage each other.  That’s why we have home groups because we’re in this together. 

A godly person is cooperative.  When you see someone who says, “I don’t need anybody else.  I’m a lone ranger.”  That is not a characteristic of a godly person.  When you see somebody who says “I don’t really need to go to church, I don’t need a home group, I don’t need anybody else,” beware.  Because nobody has it all together.  We need each other.  You have strengths that I need, I have strengths that you need and we need each other. 

4.     He/She is considerate.    Verse 26, it talks about Epaphroditus and it says “For he [Epaphroditus] longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill.”  Notice the emotional content.  What’s going on here? 

Here’s a church over here in Greece called the church of Philippi that’s started by Paul. Paul is in prison in Rome in Italy.  They take up a love offering to send to Paul.  Then they say, we need somebody to take it.  One of the business men in the church Epaphroditus goes, I’ll do it.  He’s going to have to walk.  There are no planes, trains, automobiles.  He’s going to have to walk all the way around from Greece to Italy.  They’re going to be bandits and there’s going to be no motels, no hotels.  He’s going to have to leave his business behind for a few months while he goes and does this.  He’s doing this at great personal expense. 

On the way Epaphroditus gets sick and nearly dies delivering the offering which the people say, we entrust in you.  We believe you won’t spend it, you won’t rip us off, you’ll get it to the right place it needs to go.  Because you have integrity.  On the way he nearly dies.  When word gets back to the home church, Epaphroditus nearly died on a peace trip!  He was out there and he got so sick, they got all worried. 

What is his reaction?  He is distressed by their distress.  He is concerned about their concerns.  He’s worried about the fact that they’re worried about him.  He’s not thinking about himself.  He’s thinking about how his actions and his words are causing grief to other people.   

Considerate means you think not just what other people say, but you think of their emotions.  You think of what you say and how your actions are going to affect other people.  It says he longs for you because he’s distressed because you heard he was ill.  He’s distressed about their distress.

5.     A godly man/woman is courageous. 
Five, the next verse, verse 27, “Indeed [talking about Epaphroditus] he was ill, and he almost died… he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help that you couldn’t give me.”  He’s saying you guys in Philippi, you couldn’t come and help me when I was in prison in Rome.  So you sent Epaphroditus and on the way, trying to walk from Greece to Rome he nearly died. 

Underline or highlight the phrase “risking his life.”  Because this is the fifth characteristic of a man/woman of God.  He risked his life, almost died for the work of Christ.  Risking his life to make up for the help that you couldn’t give him. 

Notice what he’s courageous about.  “Risking his life to make up for the help that you couldn’t give me.”  He’s courageous not for his own benefit.  He’s taking risks for the benefit of others and the kingdom of God. 

They are plenty of people who take risks for themselves.  They’ll go climb mountains and scale walls and surf enormous waves and bet the farm on a business deal as long as they’re going to personally benefit from it.  I’m not talking about risking, doing risky stuff so that you can get a rush from an extreme sport, or risking something so that you can get glory.  Or risking something so that you can make a lot of money.  I’m talking about risking for the benefit of somebody else.

How often do we do that?  We’ve made risks in our sports life. We’ve made risks in many areas that would benefit us.  How often do we make life-taking risks for the benefit of somebody else?  That’s a godly person.

He made an inconvenient journey for the benefit of another.  He puts the cause of Christ before comfort.  Paul’s in prison in Rome, he’s in Greece.  The church takes up a love offering.  No planes, no trains, no automobiles.  And he volunteers to be the courier and he nearly dies.  Yet he perseveres in spite of his pain.  He’s committed to finishing what he started.

Finding someone like this is very rare.  People often say, I’ll live for Christ when it’s convenient.  I love church as long as there’s not a good game on.  If it’s coming on soon I will leave early because the game is more important to me than God. Please don’t take this as a guilt trip. We simply make time for what is important to us. We all do this.    

God uses courageous people who put people before profit and who put courage before comfort and convenience.  Who put service before security.  Who take a risk for the kingdom of God.  Who serve God and others with reckless abandonment.  That’s a godly person.  And Paul says you need to honor people like that. 

The phrase “He risked his life” in Greek literally is “he hazarded his life.”  It’s a gambling term.  He’s going to roll the dice.  “I don’t know if I’m going to make it back but I’m going to make sure that offering for that church gets to Paul in Rome.  And if I die trying, so be it, I die trying.”  He is God’s great gambler. 

I see people gambling their lives on temporal stuff today. All of Detroit’s casinos are full of people risking a lot, instead of gambling on stuff that will make their lives count and last forever.  He’s God’s gambler.  He’s gambling his life for Jesus Christ. 

Is your commitment to Christ deep enough to cause you to risk anything in your life for it?  Or is it just a convenient faith? I pray that no matter how you answer that question, you make a declaration to take your next step to move one step closer in the right direction. It is possible for you to be all in. It is possible for you to know God so personally and walk with Him so closely that you’ll do whatever He asks of you. It is such a rewarding life, to take risks for our Lord and Savior.

One thing that I am excited about is how many godly men/women we have at Wyandotte Family Church. We have men/women of consistency. I am so proud of the men at WFC who come every Sunday for the stage crew. They put the interest of others before themselves. They get up early and get everything ready so others can experience God!!! Right now we have a group of people planning on going to the Dominican Republic this summer to build playgrounds for children. People willing to sacrifice, raise money and take vacation to go serve others. We have a team of people working and planning right now for Week in Wyandotte. Wanting to instill in over 100 teenagers how to live a life of serving others just like Jesus. This is what life is all about. We have a group of leaders who are all volunteers. They have full time jobs and families. Yet they pray, plan, train, serve and give so others can be trained and equipped to do the work of the ministry. These are the types of people we should honor!!!

We get all of this from studying this passage from Philippians. The first step is observation and the second step is interpretation. Tomorrow we’ll look at correlation. (finding other parts of the Bible to help me understand a specific passage)

adapted from thoughts from Rick Warren and 40 Days in the Word Campaign

PS. Don't forget ladies this weekend is the IF conference. Check out FB page for details