Studying a passage effectively involves a variety of skills. Yesterday we mentioned matters of contextual awareness, scholarly awareness and original language study. Today I want to share a few more. Not a definitive list or blueprint for the exegetical process, but a series of prompts that may or may not be helpful reminders.
Purposeful Study and Preaching – Too often, preachers study a passage to find meaning, then preach meaning and tack on purpose at the end. Purpose (i.e. application) is not only a concern in the formation of the message. Purpose should influence our exegesis too. If we remain blissfully unaware of the author’s intent, we will fail to fully grasp his content. Bring “purpose” into the mix long before you start thinking of your purpose in preaching it.
Point-ful Study – Make sure that your study of a unit of thought coalesces into a focused and unified sense of the passage idea. A random collection of exegetical artefacts is not the goal of exegesis, nor is it evidence of good exegesis. You are studying cohesive communication, be sure to grasp what the author would agree was a synopsis of what he was communicating. Getting to the main idea of the passage, thoroughly informed by every detail, is an absolutely critical point in passage study.
Scissors – A critical exegetical skill for the preacher is to decide what to cut out of the sermon. A condensed dump of all your gleaned knowledge will not serve your listeners. Study hard, learn lots, but cut out all that doesn’t advance the focused and pointed message.
What else would you add – other skills? Sometimes one of the greatest skills for exegesis is the skill of creating the time and space and quiet needed for intense study! What else?
Peter!
Have you seen this?: http://www.glennbeck.com/content/videos/?uri=channels/390088/1034428
Campaign Ad where they took one guys’s statement so blatently out of context and basically turned the guy into a demon.
What an illustration of the dangers and evils of taking words out of context!