Guidelines For The Understanding of The Scriptures: Dr. J. Vernon Mcgee
Guidelines For The Understanding of The Scriptures: Dr. J. Vernon Mcgee
UNDERSTANDING OF
THE SCRIPTURES
So the Lord Jesus is saying that we are to ask. He has many things for
us, and He has sent the Holy Spirit to be the Teacher. Again over in
chapter 14 He says,
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the
Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all
things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you. (John 14:26)
The Holy Spirit is the Teacher, and He must be the One to lead us and
guide us into all truth, friend. If you ever learn anything through my
Bible study program, it will not be because this poor preacher is the
teacher, it will be because the Spirit of God is opening up the Word
of God to you.
This, then, is the first guideline: Begin with prayer and ask the
Spirit of God to be your Teacher.
2. Read the Bible.
The second guideline may seem oversimplified. Someone asked
a great Shakespearean scholar years ago, “How do you study
Shakespeare?” His answer was very terse, “Read Shakespeare.” And
I would say to you: Read the Word of God. Do you want to know
what the Bible has to say? Read the Bible. Over and above what any
teacher may give you, it is all-important to read for yourself what the
Bible has to say.
Dr. G. Campbell Morgan has written some very wonderful and
helpful commentaries on the Bible. In fact, he has a series of books
that I recommend on all sixty-six books of the Bible. I know of noth-
ing that is any better than them, and when I started out as a student,
they had a great influence on my study of the Word. It is said of him
that he would not put pen to paper until he had read a particular book
of the Bible through fifty times. So don’t be weary in well doing,
friend; just read the Word of God. If you don’t get it the first time,
read it the second time. If you don’t get it the second time, read it the
third time. Keep on reading it. We are to get the facts of the Word of
God.
There is a very interesting incident over in the Book of
Nehemiah:
And all the people gathered themselves together as one
man into the street that was before the water gate; and
they spoke unto Ezra, the scribe, to bring the book of
the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to
Israel. And Ezra, the priest, brought the law before the
congregation both of men and women, and all who
could hear with understanding, upon the first day of
the seventh month. And he read from it facing the
street that was before the water gate from the morning
until midday, before the men and the women, and
those who could understand; and the ears of all the
people were attentive unto the book of the law.
(Nehemiah 8:1-3 NSRB)
This is a very remarkable passage of Scripture. You see, these people
had been in Babylonian captivity seventy years; many of them had
never heard the Word of God. It did not circulate much in that day.
There were not a hundred different translations abroad nor new ones
coming off the press all the time. Probably there were just one or two
copies in existence, and Ezra had one of those copies. He stood and
read before the water gate.
So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly,
and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the
reading. (Nehemiah 8:8 NSRB)
From the way the account is given, I assume that men of the tribe of
Levi were stationed in certain areas among the people. After Ezra had
read a certain portion, he would stop to give the people who had lis-
tened an opportunity to ask questions of the men who were stationed
out there to explain the Bible to them.
. . . And the Levites caused the people to understand
the law; and the people stood in their place. (Nehemiah
8:7 NSRB)
Not only did they read the Word, but they caused the people to under-
stand it.
We need to read the Bible.
There are so many distractions today from the study of the Word
of God. And the greatest distraction we have is the church. The
church is made up of committees and organizations and banquets and
entertainments and promotional schemes to the extent that the Word
of God is not even dealt with in many churches today. There are
churches that have disbanded the preaching service altogether.
Instead they have a time in which the people will be able to express
themselves and say what they are thinking. I can’t imagine anything
more puerile or more of a waste of time than that (although it is a fine
excuse to get out of preaching for a lazy preacher who will not read
or study the Bible). I find that the people who are more ignorant of
the Bible than anyone else are church members. They simply do not
know the Word of God. And it has been years since it has been taught
in the average church. We need to read the Bible. We need to get into
the Word of God—not just reading a few favorite verses, but reading
the entire Word of God. That is the only way we are going to know
it, friend. That is God’s method.
WHEN YOU READ THE BIBLE THROUGH
I supposed I knew my Bible,
Reading piecemeal, hit or miss,
Now a bit of John or Matthew,
Now a snatch of Genesis,
Certain chapters of Isaiah,
Certain Psalms (the twenty-third),
Twelfth of Romans, First of Proverbs—
Yes, I thought I knew the Word!
But I found that thorough reading
Was a different thing to do,
And the way was unfamiliar
When I read the Bible through.
You who like to play at Bible,
Dip and dabble, here and there,
Just before you kneel, aweary,
And yawn through a hurried prayer;
You who treat the Crown of Writings
As you treat no other book—
Just a paragraph disjointed,
Just a crude impatient look—
Try a worthier procedure,
Try a broad and steady view;
You will kneel in very rapture
When you read the Bible through!
—Amos R. Wells
Then the third guideline is . . .
3. Study the Bible.
Someone came to Dr. Morgan, years ago, and said, “You speak
as though you are inspired!” Dr. Morgan replied, “Inspiration is 95
percent perspiration.” The Bible needs to be studied. We need to real-
ize that the Spirit of God will not teach us something that we could
get ourselves by study. I used to teach the Bible in a Bible Institute,
and the classes were made up of all kinds of young folk. Among them
were a few very pious individuals, and I understood these young peo-
ple very well after a period of time—I confess I didn’t understand
them at first. Their pious facade, I found, covered up a tremendous
ignorance and vacuum relative to the Word of God. Some of them
would not study the night before an exam. They always would give
an excuse that they were busy in a prayer meeting or a service some-
where. I had the feeling that some of them believed that they could
put their Bibles under their pillows at night and, as they slept, there
would come up through the duck feathers the names of the kings of
Israel and Judah! Believe me, it won’t come up through the duck
feathers. We have to knuckle down and study the Word of God. A fel-
low student in a Bible class when I was in college said, “Doctor, you
have assigned us a section that is very dry.” The professor, without
even missing a step, said to him, “Then dampen it a little with sweat
from your brow.” The Bible should be studied, and it is very impor-
tant to see that. There is a certain knowledge that the Spirit of God is
not going to give you. I do not think He is revealing truth to lazy peo-
ple. After all, you never learn logarithms or geometry or Greek by
reading a chapter of it just before you go to sleep at night!
Now you may be shocked when I say that I do not encourage
devotional reading of the Bible. Over a period of years I have learned
that a great many people who are very faithful in what they call devo-
tional reading are very ignorant of the Bible. I stayed with a family
for over a week when I was holding meetings in a place in middle
Tennessee. Every morning at the breakfast table we had devotions.
Unfortunately, breakfast was always a little late, and Susie and Willie
were rushing to get away to school. I am confident that they didn’t
even know what was read. Dad was wanting to get away to work, and
he generally made the Bible reading very brief. Always he’d say,
“Well, I’ll read this familiar passage this morning because we don’t
have much time.” And, believe me, we didn’t. By the time the read-
ing was over, Susie and Willie left the table like they were shot out of
a gun, and Dad got out of there almost as quickly as they did, and
Mother was left with the dishes—and I wondered if she had really
heard what had been read. I determined right there and then that in
my home we wouldn’t have devotional reading. I have always
encouraged members of my family to read the Bible on their own.
That is the reading that is profitable.
Someone is going to say, “But I have my devotions at night after
the day is over.” Now really, don’t you have them right before you go
to bed? You’ve got one foot in bed already, one eye is already closed,
and you turn to a passage of Scripture to read. Now, friend, you can-
not learn mathematics that way. You cannot learn literature that way.
You cannot learn the Bible that way. You have to study the Word of
God. You ought to read it when you can give time to it. And if you
can’t find time, you ought to make time. Set apart thirty minutes or
an hour. Or if you do things haphazardly like I do, read thirty minutes
one day, perhaps only five minutes the next day, and two or three
hours the next day, however it fits into your program. I put down no
particular rule except that each person should read for himself, and
boys and girls should be encouraged to read the Bible for themselves.
Some folks feel that they ought to have devotional reading together.
And that is fine, if the Lord leads you to do it, but I guarantee you will
not be intelligent Bible students after twenty years of doing it like
that. You also need to study the Word of God on your own.
It was said of John Wesley that he was a man of one Book. What
made him a man of one Book? Well, he got up and read the Bible at
four and five o’clock every morning—read it in five different lan-
guages. Believe me, he studied the Word of God. And you and I need
to study the Word; we need to get the meaning of the Bible.
This leads me to the fourth guideline:
4. Meditate on the Bible.
Meditation is something that God taught His people. The Word
of God was to be before the children of Israel all the time—so that
they could meditate on it.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall
be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently
unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou
sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the
way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest
up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine
hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house,
and on thy gates. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)
Now that is an amazing statement coming from the Lord. He told
them to write the Word of God upon the doorposts. In other words,
wherever they turned, it was just like looking at billboards. You can-
not drive up and down our streets and highways without seeing liquor
signs and cigarette signs—billboards galore! Now you can under-
stand why people today drink liquor and why they smoke ciga-
rettes—it is before them all the time. The Lord knew human nature.
He knew us. And He told His people to get the Word where they
would see it. It was on their doorposts, on their gates, and they wore
it on their garments. And they were to talk about it when they were
walking. They were to talk about the Word when they sat down. They
were to talk about it when they went to bed and until they went to
sleep. God asked His people to meditate on His Word.
Now what does it really mean to meditate on the Word of God?
There is a very interesting statement over in the First Psalm:
Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of
the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor
sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in
the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate
day and night. (Psalm 1:1, 2 NSRB)
To meditate is to ruminate, to bring to mind and consider over and
over. Ruminating is what a cow is doing when she is chewing her
cud. You know how the old cow goes out of a morning, and while the
grass is fresh with dew she grazes. Then when the sun comes up and
the weather is hot, the old cow lies down under a tree, or stands there
in the shade. You see her chewing and you wonder what in the world
that cow is chewing. She will chew there for an hour or two. Well, she
is meditating, friend. She is bringing the grass she ate of a morning
(we are told that a cow has a complex stomach) out of one chamber
and is transferring it to another. In the process she is going over it
again, chewing it up good. You and I need to learn to do that in our
thought processes. We are to get the Word of God, read it, have it out
where we can look at it, then think about it, meditate on it.
Many times in preparing a message I’ll take a verse of Scripture
and spend hours doing nothing but reading it over and over, checking
what others have said about it, and just keep reading it. Finally new
truth will break out from that particular passage. I remember hearing
Dr. Harry Ironside say that he had heard a lecture on the Song of
Solomon which left him dissatisfied. He said that he read the Song of
Solomon again, got down on his knees and asked God to give him an
understanding of it. He did that again and again—in fact, he did it for
weeks and months. Finally new light broke from that book. When I
teach the Song of Solomon I generally give his interpretation for two
reasons: it satisfies my own mind and heart more than does any other
interpretation I have heard, and also I know the man who got it had
spent a great deal of time in meditation.
There are folk who write to us saying that the wife listens to our
Bible study by radio at home, and the husband listens to it at work,
and of an evening at the dinner table they discuss the Scripture that
was covered. That is meditation; it is going back over it again. Riding
along in the car alone is a good place to take a passage of Scripture
and really give thought to it.
How many of you, after you have had “devotions,” meditate
upon that passage during the day? Most people read it and then for-
get it—never thinking about it again until it is called to their atten-
tion. Or, if they read it at night, they jump into bed as quickly as they
can, turn out the light, and go to sleep, forgetting all about it.
Meditation is almost a lost art in our contemporary society. Frankly,
television in many homes absolutely blots out the possibility for med-
itation. It is changing the spiritual life of many families today. One of
the reasons that our churches are becoming colder and more indiffer-
ent to the Word of God is simply because there is that lack of medi-
tation upon the Word of God.
Remember (in Acts, chapter 8) the Ethiopian eunuch who was
riding along reading Isaiah. He was actually studying Isaiah, because
he was in a passage with which he was having trouble—he did not
know what it meant. Here is a man who is reading and studying, and
the Spirit of God is going to open the Word of God to him. That is the
reason the Holy Spirit had Philip there to explain the chapter to the
Ethiopian. It opened up a new world to him, and he came to know
Christ. The record says that he went on his way rejoicing. What was
making him rejoice? He was meditating, friend. He was going back
over that fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. Have you ever meditated on
that Lamb who was brought as a sheep to the slaughter? Who was
He? He came down here and identified Himself with us who like
sheep have gone astray and have turned every one to our own way.
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. How often do you
meditate on these things? Well, the Ethiopian did. It always has been
a matter of speculation as to what he did after that. Tradition says that
he went back to his land and founded the Coptic church of Ethiopia.
That could well be; we do not know. However, the interesting thing
is that he went on his way rejoicing, which lets us know that he was
meditating on the Word of God.
5. Read what others have written on the Scriptures.
I know that this is a dangerous rule, because many folk depend
on what someone else says about it. Also there are many books on the
market today that give wrong teaching concerning the Word of God.
We need to test everything that is written by the Bible itself.
However, you and I should consult a good commentary. With
each outline of the books of the Bible I list recommended books,
commentaries that I have read and have found helpful. You will find
it very profitable to read what others have said. Actually you are get-
ting all the distilled sweetness and study of the centuries when you
read books written by men who have been guided in their study by
the Spirit of God. You and I should profit by this. There have been
some wonderful, profound works on the books of the Bible.
In addition to commentaries, a concordance is invaluable. I can
recommend three: Young’s concordance, Strong’s concordance, and
Cruden’s concordance—take your pick. Also you will need a good
Bible dictionary. The Davis Bible dictionary is good if you don’t get
the wrong edition. Unger’s Bible Dictionary I can recommend with-
out reservation.
Every teacher and preacher of the gospel has a set of books that
he studies. He needs them. Someone asks, “Should he present verba-
tim what somebody else has written?” No, he should never do that,
unless he gives credit to the author. But he has a perfect right to use
what others have written. I have been told that some of my feeble
messages are given by others, and sometimes credit is given and
sometimes no mention is made of the author at all. As far as I’m per-
sonally concerned, it makes no difference, but it does reveal the char-
acter of the individual who will use someone else’s material verbatim
and not give credit for it. A professor in seminary solved this prob-
lem. When someone asked him if he should quote other writers, he
said, “You ought to graze on everybody’s pasture, but give your own
milk.” And that means that you are to read what others have written,
but you put it in your own thought patterns and express it your way.
You have a perfect right to do that. The important thing is that we
should take advantage of the study of other men in the Word of God.
6. Obey the Bible.
For the understanding and the study of the Scriptures, obedience
is essential. Abraham is an example of this. God appeared to him
when He called him out of Ur of the Chaldees and again when he was
in the Promised Land. But Abraham ran off to Egypt when famine
came, and during this time God had no word for him. Not until
Abraham was back in the land did God appear to him again. Why?
Because of lack of obedience. Until Abraham obeyed what God had
already revealed to him, God was not prepared to give to him any
new truth. So it is with us. When we obey, God opens up new truth
for us.
Even the gospel which is given to save our souls is given for the
very definite purpose of obedience. The greatest document that ever
has been written on the gospel is the epistle to the Romans. And Paul
put around the gospel this matter of obedience. He begins with it:
By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for
obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name.
(Romans 1:5)
Again, at the end of Romans Paul comes back to this:
But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the
prophets, according to the commandment of the ever-
lasting God, made known to all nations for the obedi-
ence of faith. (Romans 16:26)
“Obedience of faith” is the last thing Paul says in this epistle. What
is between? He sets before us what the gospel is, that great doctrinal
section; then he concludes with a section on duty—what we’re to do.
Paul put around the gospel this matter of obedience.
Obedience to the faith. This is where Adam and Eve went
wrong. Eve not only listened to Satan, the enemy of God, but she also
disobeyed God.
Obedience to God is very important. And we must recognize that
God will not continue to reveal truth to us if we become disobedient.
We must obey the Bible if we are to profit from its reading.
Also obedience is important because there are folk who measure
Christianity by you and by me. Cowan has well said, “The best way
to defend the Gospel is to live a life worthy of the Gospel.” That is
the way you prove it is the Word of God.
Four clergymen were discussing the merits of various transla-
tions of the Bible. One liked the King James Version best because of
its simple, beautiful English. Another liked the American Standard
Version because it is more literal and comes nearer to the Hebrew and
Greek texts. Still another liked a modern translation because of its up-
to-date vocabulary. The fourth minister was silent. When asked to
express his opinion, he replied, “I like my mother’s translation best.
She translated it into life, and it was the most convincing translation
I have ever seen.”
You will recall that Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians:
Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and
read of all men: forasmuch as ye are manifestly
declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us,
written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living
God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the
heart. (2 Corinthians 3:2, 3)
The Gospel is written a chapter a day
By deeds that you do and words that you say.
Men read what you say whether faithless or true.
Say, what is the Gospel according to you?
—Author unknown
That little jingle is true, by the way.
Oh, how important it is to obey the Bible! I believe that today
Christianity is being hurt more by those who are church members
than by any other group. That is one of the reasons that we have all
of this rebellion on the outside—rebellion against the establishment,
which includes the church. A placard carried by one in a protest
march had four words on it; “Church, no; Jesus, yes.” Candidly, the
lives of a great many in the church are turning people away from the
church. There was a barrister in England years ago who was asked
why he did not become a Christian. This was his answer, “I, too,
might have become a Christian if I had not met so many who said
they were Christians.” How unfortunate that is! We need to examine
our own lives in this connection. How important it is to obey the
Word of God!
7. Pass it on to others.
Not only read the Bible, not only study the Bible, not only med-
itate on the Bible, and not only read what others have written about
it, but pass it on to others. That is what we all should do. You will
reach a saturation point in the study of the Word unless you do share
it with others. God for some reason won’t let you withdraw yourself
from mankind and become some sort of a walking Bible encyclope-
dia, knowing everything, while the rest of us remain ignorant. I think
that is the reason He said:
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as
the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and
so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
(Hebrews 10:25)
God has told us to be witnesses. He said, “Ye shall be witness-
es.” He did not say that we should be scholars, walking encyclope-
dias, or memory books. Do not bury God’s truth in a notebook.
Someone has said that education is a process by which information in
the professor’s notebook is transferred to the student’s notebook,
without passing through the mind of either. Well, there is a great deal
of Bible truth like that. It is not practiced, not shared. We are called
to be witnesses today, therefore we ought to pass it on to others.
I learned this lesson when I was in seminary. I pastored a little
church, as did five other fellows, and we found that when we were
graduated, we were at least a year ahead of the other members of the
class. Why? Because we were smarter than the others? No. Because
we were passing it on. God was able to funnel into us a great deal
more than He might have otherwise.
My friend, pass it on.
These, then, are the seven basic guidelines to follow as you take
in your hands the Word of God:
1. Begin with prayer
2. Read the Bible
3. Study the Bible
4. Meditate upon the Bible
5. Read what others have written on the Bible
6. Obey the Bible
7. Pass it on to others
HOW TO STUDY YOUR BIBLE
Locate:
1. The theme
2. The most important verse
3. The most prominent word
4. The teaching about Christ
5. The command to obey
6. The promise to claim
7. The new truth learned
Psalm 119:18
These notes, prepared by J. Vernon McGee, are for the purpose of giving
assistance to the listeners of the THRU THE BIBLE RADIO program.
They are to be used with the Bible and will be more meaningful as you
look up all the Scripture references. Due to the necessary brevity of both
notes and broadcasts, a list of recommended books is included for those
wanting a more detailed study. These books may be obtained from a
Christian library or bookstore or ordered from the publishers.
POETRY
MAJOR
Job PROPHETS
HISTORY Psalms
Proverbs Isaiah
Ecclesiastes Jeremiah
Joshua Song of Lamentations
MINOR
Judges Solomon Ezekiel
Ruth PROPHETS
l Daniel
,1 2 Samue
EPISTLES
1, 2 Kings Hosea
ECY
icles
1, 2 Chron
RY
Joel
Ezra
HISTO
Amos
PROPH
Nehemiah Obadiah
Esther Jonah
Romans Micah
PENTATEUCH Acts 1, 2 Corinthians Nahum
Galatians Revelation Habak
kuk
esis
ELS