COMMA: Bible study that invites a pause

I agreed that I should read the Bible long before I tried. And I tried Bible reading for a while before I learned how to read and study the Bible. Decades later, I'm still learning how to read and study the Bible. Here's what I mean: I'm still learning to hear, trust, and follow the God who speaks through His Word. God is infinite. I am finite. I will always be learning.

The goal is to start on the path of hearing, trusting, and following God. And then stay on the path. I'm glad I both started and stayed on this path.

Along the way, I've worked up what I call the "COMMA" approach to the Bible. This a practice I use and recommend for hearing, trusting, and following the God who speak through His Word.

Context

Observation

Meaning

Meditation

Activation

Here’s the COMMA practice in the form of some example questions.

Context: Where am I in sacred Scripture? What book? What part of the book?

Observation: What words are actually here? What are the words on the page?

Meaning: What do these words mean? Do I understand them? Do I need some help?

Meditation: This is the pause. Take some time and ask: Am I listening carefully to these words and letting them arrange and rearrange my thinking? Now listen.

Activation: How do these words strengthen my trust in God and fuel my surrender and obedience? Those are some questions that can go along with each step of this COMMA practice. There is one more word that helps in this process, and that’s the word, connection. How does this text—be it a verse, paragraph, chapter, book—connect with other truth in Scripture? Maybe it repeats an idea but in different language. Or, and this can be very important, maybe this passage helps me understand something that I have not yet understood? Perhaps this text—be it a verse, paragraph, chapter, book—brings clarity where I have had confusion. Confusion is okay. There are many confusing things in the Bible. There should be. The scriptures are an ancient body of writing and we are modern people. The Bible is a holy text and we are sinful people. The Bible a living text and we are being brought from death to life. So the Bible is confronting our death with God’s life, our sinfulness with God’s holiness, and our ignorance with God’s knowledge. We should find the Scriptures challenging and, at times, confusing. However, the Bible is accessible. It is accessible in the way that a ladder is accessible. There are rungs on the ladder for the beginners (those on the ground) and there are rungs for those further up and further along. So take heart wherever you are, and become willing to take the step that is in front of you.

I hope the COMMA practice can help you take your next step with God and help you make connections, especially the most important connection, the one between you, and the Savior, Jesus. That connection is called saving faith and it is the most vital connection to make. On the basis of that connection, there are many more to make as we grow in this saving relationship. That’s what the Bible is for: interactive engagement with Jesus and, in a growth in this relationship with Jesus.