Skip to main content

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


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

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Travel Adventures 2023

Travel Adventures 2023 – So many places to go!   This year my husband and I traveled to Reno, Lake Tahoe and Yosemite National Park. I took lots of pictures but could only choose a few for this blog. I’ve included a little information about each location we visited, along with a few pictures. Enjoy! Reno is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about 22 miles (35 km) north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry. We stayed at the Nugget Casino & Resort...and no, I did not put any money in the slot machines!!! :-) What's a vacation with shopping - the  Outlets at Legends  proved to be more than shopping. Then off to  Virginia City.   Lake Tahoe is located on the border of California and Nevada. About two-thirds of the lake is in California, with about one-third extending into Nevada at the north and south ends of the lake, and the entire

Happy Labor Day!

  Labor Day is an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers. It is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States. The holidays stem from the late 1800s when labor activists wanted a federal holiday to recognize workers' contributions to the country.   The first U.S. Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882 in New York City, planned by the Central Labor Union.  The Labor Day parade of about 10,000 workers took unpaid leave and marched from City Hall past Union Square uptown to 42nd street and ended in Wendel’s Elm Park at 92nd Street and 9th Avenue for a concert, speeches, and a picnic. Oregon was the first to declare Labor Day an official holiday in 1887. Labor Day is considered the 'unofficial NFL season kickoff.' 99.44 percent of the ti

Juneteenth 2023

Juneteenth  ...is considered the longest-running African-American holiday and has been called "America's second Independence Day." The day was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, when President Joe Biden signed Juneteenth National Independence Day Act the into law.        Blessings!