Here in Charlotte, we recently completed a study in Philippians. As I was preparing materials for the class, I decided to incorporate the idea of inductive Bible study.

Essentially, IBS involves reading the text, making observations on what you read, and drawing conclusions based on those observations. Ideally, the goal is to let Scripture speak for itself, to see it with no prejudices or preconceptions. My experience has been that we give out workbooks and study the workbooks instead of the text. We wind up studying about the Bible instead of actually studying the Bible. It's the old "give a man a fish" vs. "teaching a man to fish" comparison; we teach people what to believe instead of how to learn from God a bit too much, IMO.

To that end, the handouts I provided the class with were intended to spur exploration of the text. I offered some questions in the first lesson as examples, then phased them out in later lessons. You can view the material on IBS I gave the class {content_link:47}here{/content_link}.

You can also take a look at this site or this one or this one for some thoughts on IBS. I also reviewed a book on the subject here.

In our first lesson in the Philippians class, I wanted to look at the book's background. Who wrote it? When was it written? From where? What were the circumstances? What was the city like? What was the church there like? When was it established?

I decided the best place to start the study was in Acts 16:6-40, where Paul and his companions are directed to Philippi, establish the church there, and face persecution. I also did some reading on the history of Philippi. You can view the handout I gave the class to facilitate study here.

These were some key thoughts I drew from this lesson's study:

• God knows what's best. Paul and his companions were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the Word in areas they considered profitable. Instead, they were sent to Philippi, a heavily Roman city without even enough Jews (the group Paul traditionally preached to first) to form a synagogue. Here, they faced strong persecution and had to leave the city. From our perspective, Philippi would seem to be a poor choice. However, we see a strong, faithful congregation presented in the letter; in contrast to Paul's other letters, there is high praise and almost no negativity. Obviously, God knew what He was doing.
• Knowing the city's history explains the reaction. Philippi was perhaps more Roman than Rome itself. It was founded largely by Roman ex-soldiers. They took great pride in their Roman citizenship. Because of this, they would look down on Jews, whose loyalty was, to say the least, questionable. When the slave owners accused Paul and Silas, the main charge was that they were Jews trying to convert Romans and that they were causing chaos (a big "no-no" to Roman authorities). The immediate reaction of the chief magistrates can be understood by understanding the background.
• Despite being unjustly persecuted, Paul and Silas taught. One main purpose of singing is to teach (Colossians 3:16). We see from v. 25 that the prisoners were listening to them; from the centurion's question, it's possible he was as well. Even in the midst of persecution, there was an opportunity to teach.

What thoughts do you have from the text?

After you've made your own study, you can read some of my notes here.

It's been a few days longer than I'd expected since I transcribed thoughts from a Philippians class I taught. We last looked at the Philippian church's establishment in Acts 16:6-40. In the second lesson, I had the class read the whole book in one sitting to try to get the main thoughts from it. In the summary, I emphasized what I felt were the key points giving insight to the letter.

• Understanding the identity and circumstances of the writer is crucial. The writer, of course, was Paul. He was under house arrest in Rome (1:7, 12-14; 4:22) awaiting an audience with Caesar. He wasn't certain what the outcome of his imprisonment would be (2:17), but he was still writing to encourage the Philippians, for whom he felt great affection.
• Understanding the identity and circumstances of the audience is crucial. As we saw in the previous lesson, the church in Philippi began under dubious circumstances. The city was a difficult field in which to plant the Word. There was no synagogue from which to draw believers. Anything of Jewish origin was view with suspicion, if not hostility. Paul and Silas were thrown in prison on their visit. From man's point of view, evangelism in Philippi would have been a long shot. However, it was God who directed Paul to the city, and we learn some of the results in this letter. In contrast to Paul's other letters, this one is almost entirely positive; we also see that in less than a decade, the church had grown to have elders and deacons (1:1). We see the wisdom of God is superior to the wisdom of men.
• Understanding the theme of the letter is crucial. Paul uses the word "rejoice" seven times and "joy" seven more times in the NASB. The single verse that best sums up the book is found in 4:4: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!"

The main purpose of inductive Bible study is to find application of the Bible to our lives. I call one of the methods I use "interrogation": asking questions of the text. In this case, the most obvious question was, "Given that Paul is unjustly imprisoned, how is it that he could rejoice?" I tucked this question away to help in observation in future classes.

After reading the text, what questions did you form?

My apologies for the lack of updates lately. Every time the tendinitis in my wrist starts to feel better, it flares up again - and considering my job consists of typing all day, you can imagine how ready I am to face the keyboard at night.

Continuing our study of Philippians, we looked at the letter's introduction in the third lesson. Using the inductive study method, I had the class read through the text several times; on each pass, they were to look for more detail and build on previous observations. I did the same in my private study. Feel free to use the student guide here.

The first time I read the text, I noted some general impressions I drew. The first eleven verses are basically an extended greeting; Paul salutes the Philippians, says he is thankful for them, and offers a prayer for them.

On the second pass, I broke the text down into sections or paragraphs. I grouped and designated the verses like this:

• Verses 1-2 - Salutation
• Verses 3-5 - Paul's thanks for the Philippians
• Verses 6-8 - Why and how he was thankful
• Verses 9-11 - Paul's prayer for them in the future

I looked for obvious facts from the text on my next time reading the text. It wasn't much more than just rewriting the main points of each section in my own words. For example, from the first two verses, I noted that :

• The letter was from Paul and Timothy
• The letter was to the Christians in Philippi
• The number there included the elders and deacons.

The next pass was time to start interrogating the text. I started digging into the less obvious points and asking questions about the things I'd noted before. For example, I had noted that Paul greeted the elders and deacons.

• Recall that the church in Philippi was formed from mostly Gentiles with a few Jewish women.
• I then did a little side-reading to establish some dates; the church there had begun around 49-51 AD, while the letter was written around 61-63 AD.
• In about a decade, men had established themselves enough to meet the qualifications of elders, which is rather remarkable.

From this in-depth observation, I began to draw conclusions and make applications for myself. Using the example of the Philippian elders, I noted that they met this qualification in a little over a year decade, while many congregations I see today have existed for decades on end without elders. It would seem to me that we've made training preachers a necessity and helping men to become elders a luxury. It should be the other way around. What are we doing to work toward having elders in congregations where there aren't any? What am I doing to prepare and train myself to become an elder one day? Have we become so comfortable with "business meetings" that we think they're a God-approved replacement for having elders rather than a shame and a reproach?

After you've made your own study, you can read my complete notes here.

Continuing our inductive study of Philippians, the class next looked at Philippians 1:12-26. You can use the class worksheet to help you in your personal study.

In this section, Paul reports his personal circumstances to the church at Philippi. He also notes that he is torn between wanting to go and be with God or remaining; he decides it's better for him to stay on in the flesh.

I noted three key words from the text:

• progress (v. 12, 25)
• joy / rejoice (v. 18, 25)
• confidence (v. 26)

On my second pass, I broke the text down into five sections:

• 12-14 - His imprisonment has led to the spread of the gospel
• 15-17 - Motives of those who preach the gospel
• 18-20 - Paul rejoices in spread of gospel
• 21-24 - Two paths: to live or die
• 25-26 - Because of Philippians, will remain for a while

On the third pass, I began to pull out obvious facts from each section. For example, in verses 12-14, Paul notes that his circumstances (i.e., being imprisoned unjustly) have actually turned out for good. The gospel has spread so that everyone in Rome has heard it, even in the Praetorian Guard, the emperor's personal troops. This has given courage to Christians.

When I read through a fourth time, I began to ask questions and draw conclusions from the text. I looked at the phrase "everyone else" and asked who this was; I concluded he was talking about those in Rome by his use of the Praetorians. I also noted a parallel with Acts 28:15, when Paul first arrived in Rome; there, it had been the Christians from the area who had encouraged Paul, but here (verse 14) it was Paul who encouraged the brethren.

I also wondered from Paul's language if any in the Praetorian Guard had been converted. Looking closer, I didn't see anything to indicate one way or the other, so I made a note to research it further.

Finally, I asked why Paul's imprisonment would make others trust in the Lord more. After all, Paul was under house arrest unjustly for Christ's sake; why would this give them courage? I noted two possibilities: that Paul's imprisonment had blunted Jewish zeal for persecuting Christians and shown that the Romans were not interested in a widespread persecution, or that it was Paul's manner while under house arrest (not the imprisonment itself) that gave them courage. Again, I made a note for further research at a later date.

After this, I formulated some conclusions. I came up with three major points to consider:

• Remember that God is in charge. All things will work to His glory, even when they're intended for ill and even when it might not seem that way to us.
• We need to learn to see opportunities rather than merely problems. A problem is often just an opportunity in disguise. Instead of bemoaning the negative, we need to train ourselves to find the chance to further the gospel.
• Even death is an opportunity. Paul viewed the death of a faithful Christian as better than remaining on earth, because it was an opportunity to gain eternal life.

What did you find in the text?

When you've completed your study, you can look here for my study notes.

It's been a while, but I recently recovered my notes from the inductive Bible study of Phillipians from 2006. Because of this, I'd like to continue this series of posts with a look at how I broke down 1:27 - 2:18 of the book.

Recall that the method of study was to read and re-read (and re-re-read, etc.) the text. On the first pass, the reader is just to gather general impressions of the text. On subsequent passes, he should make more specific observations, look for patterns, and draw conclusions from the text. If you'd like to do some study of your own before proceeding, perhaps the class worksheet can help.

On my first reading, parts of this passage (especially the first few verses of chapter 2) were difficult for me to process in the NASB. Sometimes the most literal translations can confuse as much as enlighten. So, I tried reading from other versions. One of the versions I least prefer - the New International Version - helped me better grasp some of the verses, in no small part because of its use of paragraphs. (You can read the NIV's translation of these verses here.)

Though Paul addresses several topics here, the underlying point seemed to me to be one of encouragement. He encouraged the church at Philippi to be like Christ and united in Him. I read a second time and broke the text down into several main points.

• 1:27-30 - Stand firm
• 2:1-4 - Look out for others, not just yourself
• 2:5-8 - Look to Jesus' example
• 2:9-11 - Jesus was exalted
• 2:12-16 - Work out your salvation
• 2:17-18 - Rejoice

With the third reading, I noted some obvious facts in each of these subsections. I noted especially how Paul used the example of Jesus' strength and sacrificial nature to show the pattern they should follow. He also encourages them by reminding them that God is with them and that God will win. Because of these things, Paul also gives them two separate lists of things they need to do. He then closes by turning back to himself, telling them that even if he dies, they should rejoice.

When I read through the text a fourth time, I began asking questions, finding answers to those questions, and drawing conclusions from the text. In particular, I found his use of the phrase "in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ" in the opening verse intriguing. He ties that both to standing firm in the face of opposition and to standing together with each other. This is true unity - being of one mind and one spirit, esteeming others as more important than yourself; it is definitely not the libertarian and individualist "unity in diversity" that some preach.

Paul's use of Jesus as an example to the Philippians was also interesting. The NIV structured it like a poem or a song; I made a note to research this (I later found out that some commentators think 2:6-11 may have been part of a first-century hymn). Christ's example was that He gave up everything for others and died a shameful death; the application to both the original and modern audiences is obvious. Are we prepared to give up anything - let alone everything - for others? For Christ? Are we prepared to die? It was also interesting that Paul describes Christ by what He did (much like Mark does in his gospel to a Roman audience); wouldn't this have appealed to the Roman colony at Philippi?

The strongest conclusions I drew were in how this verse deals with a Christian's relations to three people or groups. First, to God and Jesus, we must obey and follow Christ's example. Second, we must help and be united with other Christians. Third, to the world we must be examples and stand firm even before those who are enemies of the cross.

After you've studied this passage on your own, feel free to look here for my full study notes.