A Step-by-Step Process for Understanding God’s WordSample

Identify the Main Idea

When studying Scripture, we need to identify the main idea or core message the author was communicating to the original audience before determining how we might live out the passage today.

This will help us avoid holding on to outdated practices while completely missing the original purpose those practices were intended to fulfill.

So how do we find the main idea the Bible’s original authors wanted to communicate? According to the authors of Grasping God’s Word, the main idea (or principle) of any biblical passage should:

• be reflected in the text
• be timeless and not tied to a specific situation
• not be culturally bound
• correspond to the teaching of the rest of the Scripture
• be relevant to both the biblical and the contemporary audience

If a rule or guideline you see in Scripture doesn’t meet all five requirements, then take a step back and think more broadly. Read the surrounding passages and research for additional information.

Ask questions such as, Why does Scripture give us this command? or What did the original author or speaker ultimately want their audience to know?

Keep reading, studying, researching, and asking questions until you find the main idea that meets all five requirements. This can take some digging, but don’t skip this crucial step!

We may or may not have to follow exactly an individual command given to a specific church or individual thousands of years ago. But God still expects us to follow the main idea of every passage of Scripture, and we can’t do that if we don’t know what it is.

Read Deuteronomy 21:18–21. How does this passage instruct the Israelites to deal with rebellious sons and daughters? Should we deal with our rebellious children the same way today? What is the main idea of this passage? How else might we live out the main idea of this passage in our culture? Next, read Luke 10:3–11. This passage contains several individual instructions. Which specific commands do you think we still need to follow exactly as written? What main idea(s) might we take from this passage instead?