🌱 GROWING IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
📚 Lesson 5: How to Study the Bible
📘 5.7 Questions
The right attitude toward God’s Word
📖 1. Introduction – An honest self-examination
With what attitude do you open the Bible?
Do you come to learn—or to be confirmed?
This question is crucial, because often it is not the text, but our attitude, that determines what we take from it.
📜 2. The foundation – Attitude determines understanding
The Bible is clear, but our hearts can be closed.
Humility and surrender are necessary for us to understand God’s Word correctly. Without this attitude, we may read—but we do not truly hear.
👉 Your attitude determines whether God’s Word transforms you or passes you by.
🌍 3. Connection to today’s world
Today, it is normal to strongly emphasize personal opinions. Everyone has their own perspective, their own “truth.”
This attitude can also influence our Bible study:
we come with fixed opinions and seek confirmation.
But this prevents us from truly hearing God’s Word.
💡 4. Central message
👉 The Bible speaks most clearly when we are willing to listen—not to control.
True understanding begins where we let go of our own ideas.
✝️ 5. Theological focus
At the center of these questions is the inner attitude of a person toward God’s truth.
The Bible is not just a text, but revelation. This means it carries authority above human thinking. When a person approaches Scripture with a fixed, unchangeable opinion, a conflict arises: either they submit to the Word—or they try to reshape it to fit themselves.
Humility is the key. It does not mean weakness, but a willingness to be corrected. Without humility, a person remains trapped in their own thinking.
Another important point is the danger of “originality.” The desire to discover something new or unique can lead to rejecting or distorting known truths. Not every new idea is wrong, but when it arises from a desire for self-affirmation or distinction, it becomes problematic.
Theologically, there is a deep danger here: the person places themselves at the center. Instead of seeking God’s truth, they seek something that elevates them.
This contradicts the nature of faith, which is based on truth—not on originality.
👉 Theologically decisive:
True understanding does not come from new ideas, but from proper alignment with God’s truth.
📖 6. Biblical and practical perspective
The Bible repeatedly shows that God gives understanding to those who are willing to listen.
Humility means in practice:
- being willing to question your own opinions
- allowing yourself to be corrected by the Word
- remaining open to change
Letting go of your own ideas is not a loss, but a gain. It creates space for genuine truth.
The danger of originality appears especially when people deliberately search for something “new” that differs from what is already known. This can lead to false interpretations.
Instead, the Bible calls us to:
- remain faithful
- examine carefully
- place truth above personal ideas
👉 In summary:
What matters is not what is new—but what is true.
🔧 7. Application in daily life
This lesson becomes practical through the following steps:
- pray consciously before reading
- question your own opinions
- be open to correction
- do not seek “new ideas,” but truth
- regularly examine your own heart
❓ 8. Reflection question
Am I willing to let God’s Word correct my own convictions—even when it is difficult?
🌟 9. Final thought
God’s Word transforms us only
when we allow it.
Not pride,
not originality,
but humility leads to truth.
For:
👉 Whoever is willing to listen will understand.
