Why and How to Do a Topical Bible Study
A topical Bible study shows us what the Bible teaches about a particular topic or subject.
Why do a topical Bible study
As you read the Bible daily, there may be topics or ideas that make you stop and wonder a bit about them. They may challenge you or may be words that we don’t see in everyday life and yet are valuable to the Christian life to understand. There may be issues the Holy Spirit seems to keep bringing to mind and you aren’t sure how to address them. These are occasions when doing a topical study will help deepen understanding and help us grow in our Christian walk.
Some sample topics in each category might include: words we don’t see in everyday life such as atonement, repent, or propitiation; words that challenge us like trust, hope, and faith; and some Holy Spirit promptings might include tongue, gentleness, or wait.
Doing a subject analysis can help illuminate meaning and deepen understanding, as well as lead to our personal growth. You may also find that monthly Bible reading lists are topical.
Illuminate Meaning
A word study tracks the Bible’s idea across many books and from the Old Testament to the New Testament. This helps us understand if God has revealed more about a topic or reinforced his ideas and intentions for us over time. Since we are looking at a single topic, we read multiple verses on the same subject and gain insight from various uses in context, expanding our understanding of the meaning. Additionally, we include writing out the definition in our topic study.
Leads to Personal Growth
A subject-based study helps us understand what God’s intentions are for us around a topic. We then learn how to be more like Jesus, growing through knowledge and, when we complete the study, through application of what we have learned.
Tip: Open every Bible study time with prayer: a simple invitation for God to open your eyes and heart to His word and to his voice.
Steps for a Topical Study
A topical study may take a bit of time, depending on the topic. I’d recommend laying out the study that you’d like to do and plan to read through verses over several days, or even a whole month. If there is a particular topic that you want to study, you might even search for a ‘Bible reading plan on’ your topic and then follow the steps from 4 onward.
You will find free resources online or may have a concordance and Bible dictionary on-hand to assist in your study. I’ll note a few online resources as we go.
1. Choose a topic
The topic you choose may already be in mind, as from the suggestions above. It may be that you are new to the faith and don’t know where to start in reading the Bible, so you might choose ‘love’ to understand how much God loves us and how he loves. Some people have a word of the year, and they do a study on that. Others will choose a topic based on current events, like peace (with the conflict in Ukraine) or money (in times of inflation and tight budgets). The list is endless.
For some studies, you may have general questions you want answered. If you are studying prayer, for example, you might want to know when to pray, what the result of prayer is, and why to pray. As you read the passages you’ve identified, you can look for those specific questions. I’d encourage you to consider some specific questions, but not more than three to keep it simple. If you aren’t sure which subject to choose, you can try the Nave’s Topical Concordance for ideas.
2. Write definition
This seems pretty basic, but sometimes what a word has come to mean to us is not the intention in the original text. So, we can write a definition from the Merriam-Webster or Oxford dictionary and then check a Bible dictionary, like the Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology (free!).
https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/bakers-evangelical-dictionary/
Jot these down, as well and any notes on the difference between the common use of the word and the Bible’s use. You might choose to note the words in the Hebrew Bible or the Greek translations.
3. Locate verses
A concordance is handy to locate all the verses on a subject. A free online resource is also on the same site as the above dictionary, Nave’s Topical Bible or Strong’s Concordance are both good resources.
https://www.biblestudytools.com/concordances/naves-topical-bible/
You will want to make an organized list of the references from the concordance. If there are many or you intend to complete the study over several days, this is especially important to keep track of.
4. Study
As you read, consider the context of the verse or passage, ask questions about the passage. You may begin with the basic who, what, where, when, why, how about the passage. For example, who wrote this and to whom, what was the general topic being discussed where and when were the readers and why is this relevant to them, how did they understand this in their cultural context. These are questions that may be useful for any general Bible study.
You may want to ask more specific questions about God as well: what this says about God’s character or what this says about how God sees his children.
Once you have read some verses on the subject, you may also begin to ask what the similarities and differences are in the passages and how the topic is addressed by each author.
Be sure to note any answers to specific topic-related questions you may have developed when you chose the topic. If there are any other points to highlight, that too should be noted.
Remember to take your time during this section. Some topics, like faith, have over 100 verses while others have only one, like Deliverer. When there are many verses, you may consider narrowing the topic by doing an Old or New Testament study, or even a study of the topic in only one book or by only one author.
5. Summarize
Look over your notes and the definition to summarize what you have learned by reading these verses. Note any differences in your previous understanding or any instructions to believers about the topic.
Here you may comment about the differences between New and Old Testament verses or how Jesus has impacted our understanding of God’s ways.
6. Apply
Applying what we have learned has to do with asking ourselves if our behavior and beliefs are in line with what we have read and asking God to make us more in Christ’s image through this learning. Describe how these passages change you, your thoughts, or actions. Indicate any changes you intend to make based on this verse.
Your response may be prayer, poetry, sketch, sculpture, or other forms. You may also challenge yourself to integrate something into your life. For example, if you have studied hospitality you might decide to invite people once a month as a personal challenge to do what you have read about. You may choose to keep a gratitude journal if you have studied thanksgiving.
Topical Studies Dig Deep
A topical study of the Bible opens our eyes to what God has to say about a subject; it an approach at studying the idea as a whole throughout the Bible. Topical studies are good for complex topics or ideas as they are directed at obtaining answers. They deepen our understanding of the Bible and lay a firm foundation for our beliefs.
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