Good question...
How about an example...
First step is
always pray first. Always go to God FIRST, and ask Him to guide you in your reading & studies of His holy word... to reveal what He would have you know, and to open you eyes and ears to see and hear it, and your heart to receive it & treasure it... and to help guide you in applying it into your life in accordance to His will and purpose.
Then you begin to read...
Let's say you read this...
[Luke 14:26 KJV]
26 If any [man] come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
So... you read this and think, wow.... that's harsh! Why am I supposed to hate my parents, children, brothers and sisters?! -That doesn't sound right...
(Maybe you wonder about the particular translation itself, so you look at another translation version... or several...)
26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
[Luke 14:26 ESV]
26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple.
[Luke 14:26 NIV]
26 "If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison--your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.
[Luke 14:26 NLT]
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Ok... we see that doing this didn't help much... but if you look closely, you'll notice the NLT does contain the words, "by comparison"....
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But it's still a bit "fuzzy"... so let's look some more..
what do the surrounding scriptures say?
Definition(lexicon)- Why was that word or phrase translated that way? What's the definition of the original wording?
Is this word or term used elsewhere in the Bible?
What was the custom/tradition/belief at the time?
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If we take a few minutes to research a bit... we will see that the word "hate" is used quite a few times... yet it doesn't always mean the same thing! (Our English language is pretty limited sometimes.)
Sometimes it does mean "hate" as we think of it... yet other times it can mean, to love less.
That would make more sense here... if we view that scripture with this definition in mind...
We can get a better idea of what is being said.
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Since we know from some of our other scripture reading that we are suppose to place God above everything & everyone... then it would make sense to look at it like saying...
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"If you want to be my disciple, you'll have to put me first in your life. If there is anything you love more than me, then you cannot be my disciple."
(me paraphrasing it a bit.)
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There are many great sites that have study aids included within them...
(just keep in mind, some are more reliable than others... use your discernment and test everything against what the scriptures say, so that you are not mislead.)
dictionaries
concordances
commentaries
lectures
sermons
expositions
word & topic studies
culture & history of the people
There are also some really good study Bibles on the market, as well as a few translations/versions that may be a bit easier to use for those places where you get a bit stuck.
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(btw- I am
not any kind of pastor or teacher... and I'm very much still learning & growing myself... I'm sure others can also add some great tips and advice.)
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