“Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ This is a desert place.  And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over and join this chariot.’  So, Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”  And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me (Act 8:26-31)?’”

Let’s be candid, much of the Bible was written in a context that is foreign both in its culture and time.  This contextual separation makes it difficult for us to grasp not just a deeper understanding but honestly it can make it difficult to grasp a basic understanding.  This is especially true of the Old Testament.

Just like the Ethiopian mentioned in Acts we need a guide.  But be careful here.  You are still responsible for your understanding.  You will not be able to report to the “here after” with the excuse that you chose a poor teacher.  Not all Bible teachers are equal.  You have to find a trustworthy teacher.

I’ll never forget the Bible study I was a part of on Joint Base Balad in Iraq.  The guys in that group were diligent in their efforts to get at what the Word said.  Not what they thought it said but what it actually said.  One of the guys, a First Sergeant, had recently come out of a church that was teaching non-Biblical ideas as if they were the doctrines of the church.  As a result, he had not only lost faith in the teachings of that church but he had lost faith in any teaching outside of the Bible that claimed to teach about the Bible.  Now don’t get me wrong.  The Bible should be the standard upon which everything else is evaluated.  But until we are complete in our understanding of the Bible, we are going to need someone to explain the harder truths that are found in its pages.  The First Sergeant trusted me and the rest of the guys in that study, but he was having trouble trusting any written commentary.

I would love to say if you listen to me, you can’t go wrong.  But you don’t know me and often I don’t have the answer anyway.  I would recommend that you read your Bible along with a trustworthy commentary or two or three.  You will have to find someone you trust who can recommend a trustworthy commentary but as you spend more and more time in God’s Word your understanding of its contents will grow, and you will find yourself more and more capable of determining what is and is not a trustworthy commentary on your own.  This is why regular Bible reading is so important.

That being said, I am going to make some recommendations.  First, my all-time favorite commentary is the Bible Knowledge Commentary.  I’ve linked it here to my “store” but know that I have just recently changed the “affiliate” links in my store to the Logos website where you can get the item in my store even though I am not a Logos “affiliate.”  I make no money when you click on my store link and purchase an item.  Someday, I hope to be a Logos “affiliate” but right now I don’t generate enough views to meet the requirements of their program.  Keep in mind that Logos is a digital Bible software package so if you purchase the digital option you will have to have access to Logos.  They have a free version and then a set of packages for purchase.  They are expensive and I didn’t buy in until I was halfway through seminary but now, I am sold. Also, anyone who reads my blog will know that I refer to Adam Clarke’s Commentary fairly frequently.

I do want to take this time to talk about the expense of Bible resources.  I am an avid mountain biker.  It has been my experience that when I show up to ride with a rider who I have never ridden with the first thing they do is evaluate my equipment.  What bike am I riding?  Disk or lever brakes?  Am I clipped in or riding on flat peddles?  Am I wearing expensive or inexpensive shoes?  It has also been my experience that in order to make the grade I have to spend some money.  I’m not saying that you can’t mountain bike “on the cheap.”  But what I do know is that because you get what you pay for you well both be better at and enjoy the ride more is you spend some money on your equipment.  This is true of Bible study as well.  There is good equipment and bad equipment, and you will get what you pay for.

In short, Logos is an excellent resource.  I stand behind every item in my “store” as a trustworthy resource that will further your understanding of God’s Word.  If you prefer a hard copy or a Kindle edition it doesn’t change my assessment of the resource’s trustworthiness.  I wish I was wealthy enough to purchase these resources for anyone who asked but until that day the burden is on you.  Just as we may disagree on what bike is the best, we may disagree on what commentary is the best.  But I promise you if we are both studying with good commentaries the discussion, i.e., the ride, is going to be good.

Now, in Step 1 I invited you to join my reading plan at https://faithlife.com/faith-hope-lovelife/activity.  Faithlife.com is owned and operated by Logos.  You can read the daily reading with simultaneous access to any of your Logos resources.  Faithlife.com, your Logos desktop/laptop version, your smartphone/tablet app, and the web-based version of Logos can all be synchronized.  It is one of the features I love most about Logos.  When I read my daily devotional on my iPad and discover something I want to look deeper into I can highlight it and later when I’m back at my laptop, where I prefer to really dig, I can further my research with instant access to any short notes I made during my devotional.

This is part two of a three-part series I am entitling “Aaron’s Guide to Knowing God’s Word.”  Links to the first part will be made available at the end of this post and the third part when it becomes available.

Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash.