How to Ask the Right Questions

How to read the Bible series

Everyone knows the story of the Tortoise and the Hare.

The Hare challenges Tortoise in a race. Tortoise accepts the challenge. At the beginning of the race, the Hare gets a head start, The Hare is obviously faster than the Tortoise. The Hare sees Tortoise far behind and decides to take a nap, allowing Tortoise to catch up and get ahead. Tortoise slowly and steadily approaches the finish line. The Hare realizes too late and loses the race.

The lesson of the story is that the slow and steady wins the race.

If you asked,

• What kind of shoes was the Hare wearing?
• How many friends were cheering for Tortoise?
• What was the condition of the road they were racing on?
• What did the Hare do the day before, why was he so tired?

You would be missing the point of the story. These questions would divert your attention from the message of the story and the purpose of this story.

When we read the bible, we need to ask the right questions. We have to make sure not to bring our own questions into the text. There is a time for that, but we need to start with understanding the questions of the author and reader of the books and letters in the bible.

How do we do that?

We start off by understanding who the original author and audience is.

If Paul is writing a letter to the church in Corinth. We need to understand where Paul is and what he is dealing with. We need to know why Paul feels the need to write this letter to the church. If Paul is in prison writing this letter, his current condition may impact what he shares and how he shares. This will help us understand the tone of his voice and his level of concern.

We need to understand the questions, issues, and situation of the church in Corinth. What is going on in their city? What kind of city is it? What kind of people come through? What is going on in their church? What issues need to be addressed?

Once we understand what the text means to the people in their time, we can think about our context today and the questions we wrestle with. Find the similarities and differences and think about how the words of Paul to the church in that context can also speak to our context.

Conclusion

Our questions are important, but we need to first understand the questions of the authors and the audience before we ask our own questions. This can be done by looking into the contexts of the books and letters and by understanding the context of their times.