Do the Work. Be Humble. Don't Strive.
There is no shortcut to understanding the Bible. Pastors, teachers, books, and sermons can all help edify the church, but every believer has a responsibility to know, understand, and believe the word of God through personal study.
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” - 2 Timothy 2:15
Notice who the workman is approved to. It is not a denomination, a favorite teacher, a theological tradition, or the people around us. It is God. Many ideas commonly accepted as “Christianity” are actually contrary to Scripture rightly divided, and traditions can become so familiar that we assume they must be biblical. We would never know the difference unless we opened the Bible ourselves and let it correct our thinking.
Do the Work
Real Bible study does not start with commentaries. They can be useful, but only after you have searched the Scriptures and formed your own understanding from your own study. Every commentator brings assumptions from tradition or a theological system, and a commentary may gather the verses that support a position while overlooking, willingly or ignorantly, the ones that challenge it.
Begin with the Bible. Use a concordance or Bible software. Search repeated words, compare related passages, and examine the context. Ask who is speaking and to whom, what they are speaking about, when, and why it was said. This is the method Scripture gives:
“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” - 1 Corinthians 2:13
Then rightly divide. All Scripture is profitable for us, but not all of it is written to the Body of Christ in the audience. If we fail to distinguish God's dealings with Israel under prophecy from the mystery revealed concerning the Body of Christ in Paul’s thirteen epistles, we will mix instructions God never intended to be mixed. Believers end up back under the bondage of the law (Gal 5:1), claiming Israel's promises, seeking Israel's signs, and wondering why the Bible seems contradictory in certain spots. Rightly divided, every verse can be believed exactly where God placed it.
That takes time, and usually it means changing your mind. Without it, you will simply repeat the conclusions of your favorite pastor or teacher, which creates the illusion of understanding without real depth. If your entire defense of a doctrine is “my pastor says,” “I heard it in a sermon once,” or “my denomination teaches,” you may know what someone else believes without knowing why you believe it. Appreciate faithful teachers, but never make them your final authority.
“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:21
The final question should always be the same: what saith the scripture? (Rom 4:3)
Be Humble
The proper disposition toward Bible study is not “How can I prove my position?” It is “What does God’s word actually say?”
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” - 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Scripture reproves and corrects us too. If we come to the Bible only looking for ammunition against everyone else, we have missed its purpose. The goal is to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:2) as God's word effectually works in us who believe it (1Th 2:13). That work produces not only proper understanding but patience, meekness, and charity.
“Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.” - 1 Corinthians 8:1-2
Everything we understand rightly we received (1Co 4:7). Sound doctrine should make us more confident in God's word and less impressed with ourselves. None of us has arrived. There were doctrines we once misunderstood and verses we once misused, and there are still things we understand imperfectly today.
That should not make us uncertain about everything we believe, or make an excuse not to study as if truth is relative and doesn’t matter, because you can know things that are right with certainty from the Scriptures. God’s truth should ultimately make us more humble while we believe it.
Don't Strive
Serious study should produce conviction, but conviction must not become contentiousness, especially with controversial topics where the flesh easily gets in the way. The same chapter that commands us to study and rightly divide also tells us how to minister truth:
“And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” - 2 Timothy 2:24-26
Fighting for truth is not the same as being contentious with people. We must preach clearly, expose error when necessary, and never compromise the gospel, but we must also walk with gentleness, longsuffering, and meekness, which are the fruit of the Spirit. They are what sound doctrine should produce in us by faith, and if we’re not walking that way, we’re walking in our flesh.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.” – Galatians 5:22-26
Once we are persuaded by Scripture, we have a duty to teach others. But notice the manner:
“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” - 2 Timothy 4:2
Not doctrine alone, but longsuffering and doctrine. It is inevitable that people will find teachers who tell them what they want to hear (2Ti 4:3-4). Our responsibility is to speak the truth of the Bible faithfully, not to force anyone to believe it, because you can’t, and to seek to persuade them of the truth. Faith comes by hearing the word of God (Rom 10:17), so the power is not in winning an argument, but in God's word being preached.
That is why we speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15). Truth without love becomes unnecessarily abrasive, and love without truth isn’t love at all and is useless. False doctrine should be identified and corrected, but if we are contentious or striving, we are not walking in the Spirit, and our flesh can hinder the very message we are trying to deliver.
Conclusion
When doctrinal discussions become about proving that “I am right” and “they are wrong”, the flesh has turned a concern for truth into something self-serving. The issue should not be our reputation. It is whether God's truth and grace are preached rightly and believed, because that is what saves and transforms. If our understanding of a doctrinal issue is right but our conduct is marked by pride and strife, something is wrong.
So do the work. Study the Bible, rightly divide it, and be persuaded from the Scriptures. Be humble, as willing to be corrected by the Bible as to preach from it. And don't strive. The goal is not for people to see that you were right, but that God's word is true: “let God be true, but every man a liar” (Rom 3:4). Then get yourself out of the way, because the ministry is not about us. It is about Jesus Christ, His finished work, and His glory.
“For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.” - 2 Corinthians 4:5
