In this mini-lesson, we will give some suggestions of how to do a more serious study of a Bible passage. Remember that it is always important to pray, asking for the Lord's guidance and for the illumination of the Holy Spirit throughout the process.
First, what is our goal? When we analyze a Bible passage, our goal to bring into our present context the message that God gave to His people in the original context. That is, we want to know what He meant to say to the people who received the message originally, and explain it in a way that the people today will understand the same thing. The message is the same, but our context is different and our application will be different.
Another way of expressing this is to say that the words of the message are the same, but the "meaning" is different in the present context. In this case, the original "meaning" of the message includes the changes that God desired to produce in the original audience: changes in concepts, behavior, and feelings. The present "meaning" includes similar changes in concepts, behavior and feelings, but in the present context.
