While it is widely used, many Christians wonder, “What is Inductive Bible Study.” Inductive Bible Study is a method used to help readers dive deeper into God’s word.
I just started using the Inductive Bible Study method. However, I’ve been familiar with this particular study; I did not ever use it until very recently when I began a Bible study at church using Kay Arthur’s “Covenant” study.
For a woman who loves to read Scripture and loves color coding everything – THIS study has got my heart fluttering! The Inductive Bible Study Method will help you dig into God’s Word and requires time and commitment.
Inductive Bible Study Method – Part 1
But don’t let that scare you. The Inductive Bible Study Method is not just for Bible scholars and pastors. It is just a Bible study method that looks deeply into the Word of God so that you may fulfill 2 Timothy 2:15:
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth. (HCSB)
Inductive Bible study is not the ONLY Bible study to help you understand God’s truth in His Word. However, because it requires a deeper look into the context, meaning, and structure of the Word, it CAN help you “teach the word of truth” and share it with others.
Materials Needed
- A Study Bible (I use the Life Application Study Bible, New Living Translation.)
- Colored Pencils
- A notebook / 4×6 notecards
- Concordance, Dictionary, and other reference materials
Note: this is by NO MEANS a detailed view of the inductive Bible study method. However, this post will shed a little light on the subject of this particular method and provide information to help you discern if it is the kind of Bible study method you would like or should do.
The typical inductive bible study method uses color coding for words in Scripture. Some people do not like to mark up their Bible, which does not mean you cannot study it using this method. The following are suggestions after a review of Kay Arthur’s inductive study, Covenant, and also from personalizations I’ve made for my own use.
How to Start the Inductive Bible Study Method
Yellow = God. Highlight all references to God in yellow. Sometimes, God the Father is signified by a triangular symbol over the name in Scripture. God the Son is noted with a red cross. God the Spirit is noted with cloud shape and wavy lines. I happen to like the use of yellow for the names and references of God.
Red = Blood. The blood of Christ or blood sacrifice is red. Also, terms referencing salvation, redemption, etc. You could also underline or circle references to Christ’s blood or salvation in yellow to differentiate between animal sacrifice and Christ’s sacrifice.
Do you see how this works?
- Brown = earth / nature
- Green = geographical locations, time references; also could reference spiritual growth.
- Blue = particular characters by name and coordinating pronouns
- Orange = an alternate color for people, humans, and other characters to differentiate in a passage of Scripture
Different notations such as underlining, circling, wavy lines, and even little graphical representations (such as a book, a cloud, a flame, etc.) can be used to highlight the passage.
This is just a small introduction to the Inductive Bible Study Method for beginners. Here are more articles about the Inductive Bible Study Method. Learn how to go beyond simply color-coding your Bible and learn to pull out the meat of the message from the passage you intend to study in part two of this series.
Disclosure: Some affiliate links have been used within this post.
Inductive study is the best way to study scripture. I’m glad you found it and love it. I received my training from Precept Ministries some time ago, so I could bring it to my church and teach people there. Unfortunately, like you mentioned it takes time, and much to my disappointment people weren’t willing to put the extra time into it. I wanted to believe it was because they were too busy but I soon came to realize it was a lack of interest in studying their Bibles. They never knew the insights and benefits of this type of study they were passing up. I hope your post encourages people to dig into scripture more because it is one of the best ways to explore scripture and grow in the Lord.
I have been doing this type of a study, (not knowing it had a name,) and I’m very interested to learn more about what it entails. The color coding has been my favorite way to study, where before I just highlighted randomly in whatever color I had on hand.