In the previous article we discussed the importance of paying attention to what the text ACTUALLY SAYS. This may be the most important key to coming to solid understanding of the word of God. If you are willing to unlearn everything that you have learned that is wrong and really pay attention to what the word of God actually says and allow the Spirit of truth to guide you into truth, you will be well on your way to becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

The next tip I'd like to discuss really goes along with the first tip but just takes the next step. And the tip is:

Pay Attention to the KEY WORDS (or KEY PHRASES).  

Now, I am not saying we should ignore parts of the scriptures and only focus on certain key words or phrases. However, to come to a fuller and richer understanding of the word of God it will help greatly if we really get a solid understanding of the key words/phrases (which often are key themes) when we read through a passage.  

Sometimes I do the following exercise with a group of believers when we are studying the Bible: I pick a verse of scripture and have everyone read it and ask them what WORD (or phrase) really stood out to them in that verse. It’s amazing to see the responses and which word people consider to be the key word. There is no RIGHT or WRONG answer in this. And depending on where you are at in your walk with the LORD, it might change what word(s) stand out to you (we cannot process ALL of the Bible at once…). But it’s so important to pay attention to those key words/phrases and then really seek to understand the full and proper meaning of those words/phrases.

Before we look at an example, I think there are 2 follow up points that are important and will really help to unveil the meanings of these words/phrases. When you come across a word or phrase that you are unsure of the meaning of it (or even if you have a vague idea but lack solid clarity on it), then here are 2 things that will help:

1. Look up the meaning of that word in a dictionary. Now, when reading the King James Bible, a book that was translated in the early 1600’s, it’s important to understand that many words don’t mean exactly the same thing as they do in modern English. So a good dictionary to consult is the 1828 Noah Webster’s dictionary (just Google it; it is a free online resource). It is. very important to state though that Noah Webster’s dictionary is NOT the word of God and is not always 100% accurate to the Biblical meaning of a word (this is the work and definitions of a man). However it is quite accurate about 90% of the time and is an excellent and quite thorough resource to have (often Webster uses verses of scripture to show the usage of the word).
2. Look up other places in the Bible where that word/phrase is used and see how it is used and what it is connected to in those other references. Sometimes a word is used MANY times and so it will be unrealistic in the beginning stages of your Bible reading to analyze and consider all usages of the word/phrase. However, just pick a few at least to start and see what you can glean from those other references.

These 2 tips will really help begin to fill in the fulness of the meaning of a passage as you enrich your understanding and clarity of the key words/phrases in that passage. This also is another reason why/how the King James Bible stands FAR ABOVE all other “versions” of the Bible in English. This is because they have not changed out the words for “approximate synonyms”. This is one of the huge reasons why you will NEVER get the clarity in a modern “bible” that you will get from the King James Bible. Many of the modern versions just do a lot of swapping of words in order to change the text enough so that it can become it’s own “unique translation” so that it can be copyrighted and be sold as a new “bible.” (There is a lot of money in the Bible making business…). So because of all this word swapping you cannot trace the KEY WORDS through the new “bibles”. The studies break down because the words are swapped so often. But in the King James Bible, if you pick a key word like "faith", or "truth", or "love", or "holy", or "righteousness", etc… or a key phrase like “kingdom of God”, or “everlasting life”, etc… and if you use a tool (either a concordance or a search feature on an app) to look up where else it is found in the Bible, you will be able to make correct connections and gain fuller meaning of those terms.

Let’s look at an example:

“That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” - 1 Corinthians 2:5

What word(s) or phrase(s) stand out to you in this verse?

Now, there’s many studies that can come out of this simple short verse. Some of the key words that might pop out might be: “faith”, “stand”, “wisdom”, “power”, “God”. Some of the key phrases might be: “your faith”, “not stand”, “wisdom of men”, “power of God”.  

So now let's just look at what we might discover if we search some of these things out. If you look up the word faith in Webster's dictionary you will see 12 different meanings of the word and most of them he uses scripture to prove what he Is saying. His definitions are solid and accurate, but he misses one key element. He speaks of faith as being something in the mind; whereas in the scriptures, faith is spoken of as something that must be in the heart! (Ironically, one of the scriptures he uses to confirm his definition is Romans 10:10 which refers to the "heart" believing unto righteousness). So we can learn good things and get a more thorough understanding of "faith" by just looking at his definitions. However, this is a good case to prove that WEBSTER is NOT the Bible and he must be corrected by the Bible (not the other way around). Then if you search the word "faith" in the Bible to see how the Bible describes “faith” you will learn a lot more about what faith is according to God. You will see that there is only 1 TRUE FAITH and that this faith must come from God himself and be IN GOD.  You will see that FAITH comes from HEARING the word of God and that without FAITH it is impossible to please God. If you then look up “your faith”, you will begin to learn things about our personal faith in God (like it needs to be IN God, it needs to GROW, it can be spoken about throughout the earth (can impact others), it must be IN CHRIST JESUS, it is dependent upon the resurrection of Christ, it can bring JOY to other believers… etc). 

If you look up “wisdom” in Webster's dictionary you will find many thorough explanations of the meaning(s) of the word. Then if you search the key word "wisdom" in the Bible you will begin to see the connections between wisdom and other important spiritual qualities like the fear of the Lord, knowledge, understanding, righteousness, etc…, you can also begin to see the supreme importance of gaining God’s wisdom and the many blessings that it will bring, and then if you look up “of men” you will see that "of men" is NOT “of God” and often it is in contrast with things that are "of God". So therefore we come to the conclusion that the wisdom of God is something vitally important and valuable and teaches us how to walk in God’s ways, and so therefore, the wisdom of men will NOT be the wisdom of God, but will be something that seems to give earthly wisdom and gain, but has no real spiritual power or blessing from God.  

If you look up the phrase “power of God” in the scriptures you will see the following: that it is tied to “the scriptures”; it is associated with Christ’s power to heal and cast out devils; the “gospel of Christ” is the power of God; the “preaching of the cross” is the power of God; “Jesus Christ” himself is the power of God; the resurrection of Christ is the power of God; the work of the Holy Ghost in sanctifying us and keeping us from falling is the power of God, etc…

Now, these are just a few of the key words and key phrases that might pop out at you and just by looking them up in the dictionary and looking up other references where they are found it helps make the meaning of this scripture so much richer and fuller. So let's look at the verse again:

“That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”

So now, based on what we have seen we can see the following in this scripture:

We must have THE 1 TRUE FAITH (this is the only faith that will ultimately last and endure trials and tribulations, and this true faith comes from God’s word and is what PLEASES God). However this faith must become “OUR FAITH” (“your faith”). If it does not become ours, then the faith of Christ is real and powerful, but it will not benefit US or others around us. Our Faith MUST STAND! But it must NOT STAND in the “wisdom of men”. If we are putting our trust in what men say purely because it sounds good to us or feels good to us or feels right to us or they are impressive communicators, etc… then our faith is standing in the WRONG THING and this faith will not last NOR bring the power of God. No, our faith MUST STAND ONLY in the POWER OF GOD! And therefore our faith (everything we believe in our hearts) must stand (remain fixed, steadfast, and firm) in THE SCRIPTURES, in JESUS CHRIST himself, in HIS GOSPEL, in HIS RESURRECTION, and in HIS SPIRIT and the work HE DOES inside of us! We must make sure that everything that we are believing and standing in is all according to THOSE things! And then, we will have the TRUE POWER of GOD which will enable us to fulfill God’s will and overcome sin and temptation and be true to the Lord Jesus no matter what the circumstance.

Now, you by no means have to go to such great extent of studying out all these key words and key phrases of every verse you read every day (this would neither be possible for most of us nor profitable as it would be FAR TOO MUCH information to digest). So allow the Spirit of God to lead you into these examinations. If there is a word that he really pops off the page for you and you want to know more about it, then go for it! If there is a word you don’t understand or know the meaning to, then look it up in the 1828 dictionary (or another older dictionary) and look up other references of it in the word until you get a decent to solid understanding of what it means.  

While it is impossible to understand ALL of the Bible immediately. We should at least endeavor to get a basic understanding of what we are reading on a daily basis. And the LORD will help us to begin to dive into these things and uncover these things as we seek his face.  

However, there is one last point that I must make: our further studies into a word and it’s meaning must NEVER overthrow what the text is saying. If we get a wrong definition of a word, or run a rabbit-trail of what something means and we end up way off the mark, when we come back to the original passage that we launched from, that passage cannot be in error or in contradiction to what we have come to “understand”. While these are good techniques to follow and (if guided by the Holy Ghost) can lead to understanding the truth better, we are still human and sometimes we attempt to reach into territory that the Lord is not revealing to us yet and we can come to conclusions about something that make sense to “our understanding” but are not really true from the Lord. In these cases, always go back to the passage you were reading and see if these conclusions and understanding align with what the verse is actually saying. Always let the verse stand as absolute truth and believe it as it is, even if your study doesn’t bring the answer right away.

“The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.” - Ecclesiastes 12:10

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” - 2 Timothy 2:15

“To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding… To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.” - Proverbs 1:2,6