Bible Study Skills – Commentaries

There are many super intelligent, highly-educated Biblical Scholars out there who’ve spent countless hours digging deeper into God’s Word and writing about it. Their fact-finding results and opinions are recorded in what we call Commentaries. Commentaries are a fantastic resource to use in order to deepen our knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures.

Why do these matter? For me personally, I love gaining a deeper understanding of what God’s Word says, by reading what points brainy folks come up with … stuff that I wouldn’t see, without their help!

Read Philippians 1:21 (or even the whole chapter), and ask yourself — what do you think it means? Pray over the verse and ask the Lord for wisdom in understanding.

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (NIV)

One caution: we shouldn’t rely merely on human opinions and it is wise to check multiple trusted commentaries. Here are a few great websites you can go to for FREE commentaries.

BibleHub — Type in “Philippians 1:21″ at the top of the page and then scroll down to discover the Commentaries underneath the list of verses in different translations. {Click here or on the picture below, to visit BibleHub.}

BibleGateway — Type in Philippians 1:21 at the top of the page, then click on the blue button (at right) for “Study This” to reveal the Commentaries. {Click here, to visit BibleGateway.}

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=philippians+1%3A21&version=NIV

Click here for video: https://youtu.be/4YZugdOohTs

Spend some time looking at the different commentaries and journal your thoughts on what Paul means when he says: “to live is Christ.”

Sweet friends, I just want to be sure you understand that these are mere mortal’s opinions and while some are, no doubt, spot on … there are some debates between scholars, so I would encourage you to always dig deeper yourself by looking into the context! Check out the Digger Deeper blog for more information.

Your Turn: What does “to live is Christ” mean to you?

Be blessed & be a blessing,

Cheryl

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