Why Read a Passage Multiple Times?
Many of us were taught to read the Bible with the goal of looking primarily for one thing: what does this mean, and what should I do about it? This approach isn’t wrong, but it overlooks something very significant. It overlooks the fact that Scripture isn’t just information to be found or instructions to be obeyed. Scripture is bigger than that, it’s a revelation of a person who is meant to be treasured. It is offering to every man a God to behold. We must take it up on this offer. We must search it like we would for treasure, we must dig into it for the sake of our own joy and not for the sake of summary or to simply answer questions in a Bible study book. This requires our continual abiding in its pages, not just for self-help, but to really know and enjoy our God.
A single pass over a passage, followed by a sprint towards meaning and application, will tend to produce either cold, informed Christians who never really worship, or busy and obedient Christians who never learn to delight. Our study needs to affect our whole being. It needs to impact our minds, affections, and will. There are methods that are close to what I do, but they mainly focus on the mind and will, while skipping the affections. The Beholding Method is my approach to improving this.
The Method
The method goes like this: read the same passage three separate times, with each read addressing a different set of questions. The first pass will be for meaning, the second for beauty, and the third for obedience. Each pass will build on the one before it. This needs to happen because a person cannot rightly admire what they have not rightly understood or beheld. A person cannot rightly obey what has not brought them to a point of humility and delight. When a person skips meaning and beauty they become moralist, when they skip beauty and obedience they become intellectuals and when they skip meaning and go straight to beauty, they become bloated with sentimentality. Each of these things are dangerous.
What follows is this method laid out in full detail. It will provide the purpose behind each pass, specific questions, tips, pitfalls, and an example that walks through all three reads on a single passage.
Read One: Meaning
What is God Saying?
The purpose of this initial pass is not to ask what this passage means for you, rather what it really says. We don’t want to read our assumptions into the text and we don’t want to jump into application before we truly understand what is being said. This first read requires patience and is historically called exegesis.
The Questions
What is God really saying? Read the passage in its context. This means reading the verses around it, the chapter, and the book. While reading the passage ask things like, who is the author? Who is he writing to, and why? What kind of writing is this (narrative, poetry, epistle, prophecy)? This all shapes how this passage should be read. Use cross references and get to know the text.
Central claim? Every passage that is read has a main point, which usually takes time to find. The main point is found by looking for the main verb (action word), repeated words, and the structure of the argument presented. Ask what is the passage really asserting?
What would be false if false? This question is a test for truth. If you can’t say what would have to be untrue for this passage to be false, then you probably have not identified what the passage is really claiming (I have an example of this below because it’s kind of hard to understand).
Tip
Before moving on, write down the main claim of the passage in a single sentence. Write it in your own words, but do not write down any application yet. If you can’t do this in one sentence, then you probably need to reread the passage before moving on.
Read Two: Beauty
What is Worthy to be Admired?
After the main point or claim is identified, it’s time to look for what is praiseworthy. This is the most neglected step in mostly every Bible reading method plan ever made. This is amazing because, again, scripture is revealing to us a person, it’s not just cute verses to collect for Sunday morning. This step will not be neglected in this method. This method is fixated on looking for or beholding things like the attributes of God, the life of Christ and his works, his grace, and even his glory, with the goal of admiration, enjoyment, and praise.
The Questions
What is worthy of admiration? Look at the passage carefully. What does the passage show you to be true, good, and beautiful? Do not look for a command at this point. Look for ways that God is patient, just, tender, powerful, or any thing related to the simple fruit of the Spirit (Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, etc.).
What does this reveal about God or Christ? Become even more specific and look for things that relate to the character of the Godhead. A simple thing to consider is, if this text were the only thing you knew about God, what would you know about him?
One paragraph/sentence of worship. After the admiration is spilling over in your heart, write it down and begin praising God for what you have beheld. Don’t rush this or write in unspecific detail, but write with genuine love, detail and patience.
Tip
Don’t rush to application. Read One is the work of the mind and Read Two is the work of the heart. Take your time. It may seem unproductive at first, don’t become discouraged. You don’t need a takeaway for your reading to be valuable at this point.
Read Three: Obedience
What Sin is Exposed, and what Grace is Offered?
At this point Meaning and Beauty have been embraced. The heart and mind are enjoying the truth and delight that has been uncovered. This has been a slow and intentional reading of one passage, and now it’s the time to embrace the call to change. Read Three, asks what response this passage is asking us to step into. Things like repentance, grace that needs to be clung to, and how it changes our life, today.
Questions
What sin is exposed? It’s time to be honest and specific. “I’m a sinner” is not specific. “I’ve been trying to produce the fruit of the Spirit through my own effort instead of abiding in Christ” is specific. Get specific. What sins do you need to confess and address?
What grace is being offered? Before you ask what to do, ask what God has already provided in this passage, or surrounding passages, to make your obedience possible.
What obedience is for me today? Do something with what has been seen. If it has to do with love, ask what physical action of love you can do. If it has to do with something that needs reconciled, make that phone call. Whatever it is, do it, today.
How can I pray? After all the seeing is finished, start considering how and what to pray for. Then pray.
Tip
Remember to be specific and to take action.
Common Pitfalls
Read One becomes the whole method:
If the study stops with just information recollection and never moves to worship and response, something is wrong. Start over.
Skipping Read Two in order to get to application:
If you skip the understanding and delight, you risk becoming bitter and judgmental towards others. You also risk doing things apart from love, which is worthless (1 Cor. 13).
In Read Three, skipping the need of grace to get to the commands:
This is the fast way to guilt-driven obedience. Let all of your obedience be fueled by grace.
Not being specific:
When reading, we must be specific in what we learn, what we admire or behold, and what needs to happen. We must pray and be watchful in it (Colossians 4:2). This requires specific detail and our full attention. No scrolling.
Rushing the whole process:
This is worth all of your time and attention. This is not fast food, likes on social media, instant gratification, or any other thing that is rapid and fleeting. This is slow and methodical. So take your time. You will read a single passage over and over again, this is a slow process. You will also read everything around the passage for context and understanding. Take your time.
An Example: John 15:5
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” —John 15:5
Read One: Meaning
In this passage Jesus is describing the relationship between himself and his followers. The imagery he uses is that of a vine and its branches. The main point is that our fruitfulness is solely dependent on whether or not we are connected to Christ. A branch (believer) cannot generate this on their own. What would be false if this were false? A Christian would be able to bear lasting fruit through their self-effort, willpower, or discipline apart from an ongoing and abiding relationship with Christ. For this to be false we would see evidence of the opposite side of what the passage claims.
Read Two: Beauty
The thing that is worth admiration or praise here is that the Son of God is describing his relationship to believers in a very close and beautiful way. Christians are grafted into Christ for their very life and usefulness. One sentence of worship is “Jesus, you are the source of every good thing that could ever grow in me, and I praise you for inviting me to be joined to you where there is so much life and purpose for me.”
Read Three: Obedience
A sin that is exposed here is that I want to produce my own fruit through my own effort apart from him. This is hard, and yet, his grace says that he doesn’t ask for fruit he hasn’t first made possible, because the abiding comes before the fruit. One obedience that I can do today is to set aside time and actually abide in him. I can spend time in his word and in prayer. I can enjoy him instead of trying to do something I can’t do without him, create my own fruit. Then I pray, “Father, keep me abiding in you today rather than striving on my own strength. Amen.”
Conclusion
This method is probably not what you are used to, and in a lot of ways it may seem hard at first. We like quick results. Yet, abiding isn’t quick, knowing someone isn’t quick, beholding something takes time, and enjoying God takes forever. This is why we should take this method and start today. I hope this helps you and I hope you find it enjoyable. Behold your God.
Cling to Christ!
Thank you for sharing this method! It is one I plan to adopt and teach it to others🥰🙌🏽🙌🏽
When I teach my class, I always emphasize to them to answer one question about any passage they read and that is... What do I learn about God from this? This? Only when you can answer that question first and behold Him, do we look for how it applies to me or what should I do with it?.