How to Go Deep in a Single Book of the Bible

By Adam Nesmith | January 14, 2022

The New Year is often a time when Christians choose to read through the Bible in a year. There are dozens of reading plans out there, each with a different path through the whole of Scripture. My wife and I are following this one together this year. However, as I have been going through this Bible-in-a-year plan, I am struck by just how fast you go. Certainly there are many benefits to reading through the whole Bible in a year. But going deep in a single book of the Bible is also an essential part of Christian study.

In this post, I want to lay out the benefits of focusing on a single book of the Bible and give an easy step-by-step method you can use to spend a month or two camped out in one book. As I have argued in another post, you and I need a balanced Bible diet consisting of both high level reading and also deep study. However, it is generally easier to simply read a large chunk of Scripture. Going deep in a single book of the Bible takes a lot more effort and analytical know-how. That said, there is nothing better than feeling like you know and understand deeply a part of God’s word. So, here are my thoughts on how you should study a single book of the Bible this year.

Benefits of staying in a single book of the Bible

There are a number of benefits you get simply from staying put in a book of the Bible for an extended length of time. By “extended” I mean at least a month. If a book is much longer, it will take you several months to dig deep into it’s theology. The idea is to not merely to read through the book. You want to understand the book and the points the author is trying to make. More than that, you want to stay in that book so long that you feel your life being confronted and corrected by it’s theology.

Here is a summary of some major benefits of staying in a single book of the Bible:

You understand the author’s intent
You will have parts, if not all, of the book memorized
You will be able to discuss the book in detail with other people
You can see how the book describes reality and applies to your life
You can give a summary of the book’s theology

Step 1: Read through the book multiple times

If you want to go deep in a single book of the Bible, the first step is easy: spend your first week or two of study simply reading through the book multiple times. If it is a short book like an Epistle or minor prophet, you might be able to read through it up to 10 times in a week or two. A longer book will take you longer, so 2 or 3 times might be the most you can do in a week.

This step is vital because you want to be familiar with the book. A vague sense of “I read that book before” is not going to cut it when it comes time to deeply study. By reading a book multiple times, you force your brain to start remembering what you read and noticing the overall structure of the book and maybe some of the finer details. You might even have some sections committed to memory by the time this step is over. Once you have a handle on the big picture of the book, it is time to move to step two. But again, don’t move on until you have read a shorter book through 10 times and 2-5 times for a longer book.

Step 2: Note any repeated words or phrases

After reading through a book of the Bible multiple times, you should start noticing patterns. Oftentimes, similar language is used throughout a book of the Bible in order to draw attention to the main themes. For example, if you were going through the Gospel of John, you might notice the repeated use of the words “believe” and “sign”. In this step, you simply go through the book you are reading again but this time, you circle, underline, or notate in some way a repeated word or phrase.

I personally always do this step twice because I might miss a word or phrase the first pass through. I recommend you get a few different colored pens, maybe one color per theme. That way, each time you see a certain color you know what repeated phrase you are tracing. The goal of this step is to start answering the question “what are the main points the Biblical author is trying to make?”

Your goal as a reader of the Bible is simply to see and understand what the author is putting in front of you.

Step 3: Outline the whole book if it is short or identify and outline key passages for longer books

This is where studying a single book of the Bible gets “difficult.” The first two steps were mainly focused on reading through the book and noticing patterns that stood out to you. Now, you need to actually work through the book as a whole. Outlining is simply the process of breaking a section of Scripture down into pieces that you then notate in a meaningful way. Here is a quick example of my outline for Romans 1:11-12 from an older post (which I recommend you read if you don’t understand outlining):

Paul long’s to see the Church in Rome
1. Why? To impart some spiritual gift to strengthen the Church
  1. What is the definition of “strengthen”?
  2. What is the definition of “spiritual gift?”
    1. “Charisma” -“a divine gift” points to the origin of the gift
  3. Why is encouragement called a “spiritual gift?”
    1. The encouragement of other believers is a gift from God
  4. How does mutual encouragement of faith strengthen a Church?
    1. Strong faith sets an example (Abraham)
    2. Strong faith points us back to God (Hebrews 11)
    3. Seeing faith in action in someone’s life encourages us to stay the course
Paul wants to be encouraged by the Church in Rome
1. Why is mutual encouragement important to Paul?
  1. Paul’s letters are full of encouragement to local Churches (1 Thess 5:11, Phil 2:1, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
  2. Scripture contains a number of “tools” to help Christians grow…one of those is encouragement
  3. Church in Rome was a minority, persecution was coming
2. What do Paul and the Church in Rome have in common?
  1. Same fundamental need
  2. Need righteousness from Christ
  3. Same ethical implications from Gospel
The source of this encouragement is each other’s faith
1. How can someone’s faith be an encouragement?
  1. Strong faith sets an example (Abraham)
  2. Strong faith points us back to God (Hebrews 11)
  3. Seeing faith in action in someone’s life encourages us to stay the course
2. What is the definition of “encouragement”?

Notice that in my outline, I include questions I have concerning the text. You will seek to answer those questions in the next step. Right now though, write them into your outline and bold them so you can easily find them when you come back later. Don’t be afraid to revise your outline multiple times. Very rarely will you perfectly outline a text on your first run through. If you are outlining a book or a larger passage, you might need even more passes before you get the outline satisfactory.

For shorter books, you might want to try to outline the whole book. Each day, work through a paragraph or two until you complete the book. If you are going deep in a longer book of the Bible, maybe focus on a dozen or so key passages or chapters. The goal of outlining is to understand the structure, flow, and logic of a passage. Once you complete your outline(s) for the book you are studying, you can start working on answering the questions you have in your outline.

Step 4: Apply any Bible study tools you know to the outlined book or passage

One of my main goals when I started this site was simply to have a place to contain all the different hermeneutical tools I came across. The tools I have in the personal Bible study page are designed to help you answer the questions you wrote into your outline in step 3. You won’t use every single tool in every Bible study, but you want to have a wide variety of resources at your disposal to answer the questions you have of a passage. Here is a key point though: do not go to commentaries to answer your questions until you have spent some time trying to answer them on your own.

Commentaries often make for lazy Bible study habits. Don’t get me wrong, I use commentaries and appreciate having the thoughts of godly Christians recorded. But commentaries should never replace personal analysis of a text. View commentaries as a way to check your personal study or as a conversation you are having with a “dead” fellow believer about a passage. But never start with them.

As I mentioned, tools you might need to answer your questions of a passage or book can be found here. However, here are three of the most basic methods you can use to answer your questions:

Define key words-a lot of times, questions arise from not understanding what an author means by a word or a phrase. The easiest solution is to use a tool such as Blue Letter Bible to do a quick word study. Oftentimes, simply learning the literal meaning of the word and where else in the Bible that word is used is enough to answer your question.
Look elsewhere in the book-I once had a professor who said “the answer is never far from the question.” What he meant was when you have a question about a Bible passage, look to see if the author clarifies elsewhere in the book. 9 times out of 10, the Biblical authors anticipate the questions you will ask and answer them somewhere in their book.
Find other passages which address the same topic-If defining the term and looking in the book both fail to answer a question, think of other places you know in the Bible which address the same topic. For example, if you are studying a passage about the Christian and the law in Galatians and don’t understand Paul’s point, then realize that Paul deals with the same topic in Romans. You can then go to Romans and see if your question is answered by examining a book other than Galatians.

When you answer a question, I would simply write it into your outline so you have it all in one place. It might take you a while to answer all your questions and some might not be answered completely. That is okay. Bible study is an iterative process and you should expect to spend multiple days and study sessions seeking to answer the same questions.

Step 5: Summarize some big points and then meditate on the implications for your life

If you are studying a single book of the Bible, getting to step 5 might take you a month or a couple months. Don’t rush any of the above steps. Each one is about growing your understanding of what God is communicating to you through His word. Step 5 is about summarizing what you have learned and meditating on some implications of those lessons. To do this, go through your outline and then at the top or the bottom, summarize 3-10 main ideas from the book.

What do I mean by ideas? I don’t mean you simply summarize the passage. You should already be able to do that from your outline fairly easily. Ideas are the fundamental truths taught in the passage. What spiritual realities has the text shown you? What unchanging truths are being pressed by the author of the book? How would you finish the sentence “This book of the Bible teaches…” using only things you’ve learned from your study?

If you cannot do this, then you might need to spend more time studying the book. Once you have these main ideas summarized, spend some time meditating on each one. Maybe only focus on one main idea a day. Ask yourself the question “If this is true, how should it impact my life?” I have written before that I think the Puritan application questions are probably the best for meditating in this fashion. You can read the whole post here, but here are the 6 questions the Puritans used to apply the truths of Scripture to their lives:

What following truths does this (idea) imply?
What errors does it contradict?
What good works does it require?
What should you stop doing because this (idea) forbids it?
What encouragement does this (idea) offer?
Where do you stand spiritually in light of this (idea)?

Conclusion

Going deep in a single book of the Bible takes a lot of time and mental energy. However, your effort is more than worth it in the end. Reading through the Bible in a year is great, and we should all make a habit of consistent Bible reading. But be sure to also make a habit of deep Bible study. The deeper you go into a book, the more you will be rewarded with insights which the Lord will use to conform you further to the image of Christ.

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