The Different Hats of a Bible Student

A summary of the SIDL bible study process.

The Bible is a book, in one sense like other books of ancient history, poetry, story and wisdom, and as such it can be studied in the same way as one would study those other books. But the Bible is not only this kind of book. It is also the living word of God, and because of that it must also be approached differently.

In many ways the Bible is incarnational, just as Jesus was—divine reality translated into human reality. To look at Jesus as only divine or only human would give us an incomplete and thus inaccurate picture. To understand Him, we must recognize and deal with both sides of His nature. This is the same with studying scripture.

We need to understand the human component of Scripture. We are free to use all our human tools of study, analysis, and exegesis to get at what the text says. We ought to understand as best we can the origin, context, and content of scripture. But this is not sufficient. We must also understand the divine component of scripture. This is where we bring to bear the tools of the mystic—meditation, contemplation, memorization, and worship. When we do this, we come to the Bible not only as students and analysts, but also as lovers and friends. Only in this way do we move from simply studying an ancient book to listening for the voice of God.

Working through a passage of scripture with four different roles or "hats" will make sure this balance happens. Each of the four roles leads naturally into the next. Each role requires the foundation of the roles before it to maintain its integrity. These four ways of looking at scripture are:

1. Student – In this role, we study the material in a scholarly fashion, using the tools of analysis, study and exegesis to understand what the text was saying to the original audience

2. Interpreter – In this role, we take the text’s message to the original audience and look to apply it to today’s audience (us, our church, our culture, etc.) in a way that is consistent and has integrity to what we learned as a student of the text.

3. Disciple – In this role, we search the text and its message looking for specific instructions (or transferable principles) on how I am to live today in my current situation.

4. Lover – In this role, we listen for God’s voice through the passage of scripture to hear what He wants to say to me about who I am, who He is and how He sees me.

Any one of these roles alone is incomplete. The student role alone can begin to treat the Bible as an artifact of antiquity, interesting, but generally irrelevant to contemporary life and thus unintentionally reduce its contents to trivia. The interpreter role alone tends to reduce the Bible to a book of spiritual principles and can, without the aid of the student role, easily misinterpret the text. The disciple role disconnected from the historical context or the influence of the Holy Spirit can easily see the Bible simply as a book of ethical standards--a long list of dos and don'ts. Even the Lover role can use the Bible as a spring-board to any desired subjective destination without the concrete stability of the other roles. But taken together and in this order these four roles serve to guide us to a relevant and balanced reading of scripture.

Learning from scripture in this way is in harmony with Jesus’ own statement about how we are to approach God: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." (Matthew 20:37) If we love God, we will want to know Him more through any avenue available, including scripture. Loving Him in this way with all our mind would include using our understanding, our knowledge, our mental tools of logic, analysis, study and application—the roles of the Student and the Interpreter. Loving God in this way with all our soul would include a desire to have the words of scripture shape us and change the way we live as well as the practical disciplines that create space for this to happen—the role of Disciple. Loving God in this way with all our heart would include the tools of intimacy and a desire to grow in love for Him and hear His voice.

Note: The SIDL concept, acronym and descriptions are (c) Marc Schelske, 1994 and are used here with permission.