Using 1 Peter 2:1-10, I look at the kind of thinking that goes into learning what a passage means.

Good observation of the details in a passage will set us up to accurately learn what the text means as we study to determine the original author’s intended meaning.

So, what goes into interpreting a Bible passage?

First, Look! We need to take time to notice what is in our passage, then onto the Learn stage:

1. Context: Historic

When was the passage written? What was happening at the time? What prompted the author to write it? What can we understand about the relevant cultures, the occasion for the writing, the situation at the time? (Click here.)

2. Context: Written

The passage you are looking at sits within a book and therefore there is a written context to consider. What has come before your passage? What flows out from it?

To understand a passage, you have to wrestle with the flow of the whole document. (Click here)

3. & 4. Content: Details

Remember all the details that we spotted in the Look stage of our study? Now we need to seek to understand them in light of the context of the passage. (Click here  and here)

5. Content: Flow

How do the details work together in the flow of thought in this passage? It is so important to not only understand details, but to understand them in their most immediate context (Click here)

6. Intent

What did the author intend to achieve through writing this passage? Are there clues within the passage, and are there indications within the book as a whole? (Click here)

After the Look! and the Learn! stage of Bible study, we will then move on to the Love/Live response (what should the text stir?)

Peter Mead is mentor at Cor Deo and author of several books. He blogs at Biblical Preaching