An open invitation to anyone who wants to dig deeper into Scripture
By Lewis McLain Jr.
Most Christians want to study the Bible more deeply. Few of us know where to begin. We open to a chapter, read it, get something out of it — and then close the book wondering whether we actually understood it. What was Paul really arguing? Why did he choose that word? What did the original audience hear that we are missing?
I’d like to offer to help.
Why I’m Writing This
For quite some time now I’ve been preparing detailed Bible study tools — interactive HTML documents — for my own use, for our church life group, and for friends and family who’ve asked. Topics have ranged across Joshua’s conquest, the role of the Levites, the Avenger of Blood, Caleb’s faithfulness, the lineage of promise from Adam to Christ, and the history of the Popes. Each one starts the same way: a question I’ve had, a passage I’m wrestling with, or a topic I want to understand more fully.
I’ve come to enjoy this work enough that I want to extend the offer more broadly. If you’d like a study tool prepared on a book of the Bible, a chapter, a handful of verses, or even a question or struggle you have with the Bible — send it to me, and I’ll prepare one for you. No charge. No catch. I genuinely enjoy the work. And I learn!
What I Mean by “Study Tool”
I don’t mean a sermon or a devotional, although I could create those. I mean a working document — built to be used, returned to, and read alongside your Bible. Depending on the topic it might include:
- The full text of every passage (so you don’t have to chase references)
- Word studies on the original Greek or Hebrew terms — what they meant, where else they appear, and what’s lost in translation
- Historical and cultural background — what the original audience would have understood
- Cross-references with full verse text alongside
- Tables, outlines, and structural diagrams
- Application threads tying the passage to questions we still wrestle with
The goal is not to replace your study but to give you a head start — a foundation you can build on, mark up, and bring to your group or your prayer time.
What You Can Send Me
Don’t overthink it. Any of these work:
- A whole book — “Help me understand Galatians.”
- A chapter — “I want to dig into Romans 8.”
- A few verses — “What’s going on in James 2:14–26?”
- A topic — “Trace the theme of covenant through Scripture.”
- A struggle — “I can’t reconcile Old Testament violence with Jesus’ teaching.”
- A question — “What does the Bible actually say about heaven?”
Tell me a little about what you’re after — for personal reading, for a group, for a class you’re teaching — and I’ll shape the tool to fit.
How I Prepare a Study
So you know what you’re getting, here’s the work that goes into one of these documents. The sequence varies, but the core steps don’t.
1 Read the passage in context
No verse stands alone. Before I look at a single Greek word, I read the surrounding chapters — sometimes the whole book — so I know what came before and what comes after. The question I’m asking is: what is the writer doing here, and how does this passage fit?
2 Identify the historical setting
Who wrote it, to whom, and why? When? What was happening in that city, in that church, in that culture? A letter to a persecuted minority church reads differently from a letter to a triumphant one. The original audience always shapes the meaning.
3 Mark the unusual words
As I re-read, I flag every word or phrase that seems to carry weight — words used unusually, words repeated, words drawn from a specific cultural setting (military, athletic, legal, agricultural). These become the word-study entries.
4 Look up the original language
I check the Greek or Hebrew, look at the word’s range of meaning, where else it appears in Scripture, and what nuance is lost in English. Sometimes a single word changes the whole interpretation of a verse.
5 Trace the cross-references
Scripture interprets Scripture. I track where else the passage’s themes, quotations, or images appear — Old Testament roots, parallel teachings, later developments. I always include the full verse text rather than just citations, so the reader doesn’t have to flip back and forth.
6 Identify the structural backbone
Most biblical writers are careful structural builders. I look for the argument’s spine — the turning points, the parallel sections, the rhetorical pattern. A chapter often becomes much clearer once you see how its parts relate.
7 Synthesize the themes
After all the detail, I step back and ask: what is the passage doing? What is the central argument? What does it call us to? The synthesis section keeps the trees from hiding the forest.
8 Build it into a usable document
Finally I assemble it as a clean HTML page you can open in a browser, read on a phone or tablet, share, print, or come back to anytime. Font size and screen brightness controls are built in. No software to install. The file is yours to keep.
An Example: Colossians 2
To make this concrete rather than abstract, here’s an actual recent example. A Sunday School class is studying Colossians. Last Sunday was about Colossians 2 — a chapter dense with theological vocabulary that’s easy to read past without really hearing.
The challenge: Colossians 2 is the most concentrated theological warning in any of Paul’s letters. He addresses three different errors simultaneously — philosophical speculation, Jewish ceremonial legalism, and ascetic mysticism — and his answer to all three is the same: the all-sufficiency of Christ. You don’t need to add anything to the story. But the chapter is packed with rare, technical, sometimes invented vocabulary. Without help, most of it slips past the modern reader.
Here’s a sample of what the word study uncovered:
- Verse 8 — “takes you captive.” Paul uses a rare word, sylagōgōn, found nowhere else in the New Testament. It means “to plunder” or “to kidnap into slavery.” Paul does not view false teaching as a peaceful disagreement — he sees it as an enemy raid carrying Christians off as spoils of war.
- Verse 9 — “the fullness of deity dwells bodily.” Paul deliberately uses the strongest possible Greek word for divinity (theotēs, the very essence of being God) and adds the word “bodily” — a direct strike against any teaching that denigrates physical reality or denies the true Incarnation.
- Verse 14 — “nailing it to the cross.” The “record of debt” is cheirographon, a handwritten promissory note — your signed IOU listing every violation. Paul’s image is staggering: God did not just dismiss the debt; He cancelled it (literally erased it) and nailed the cancelled IOU to the cross. There may even be an allusion to the Roman practice of nailing the criminal’s charge above the cross — Pilate’s “King of the Jews” being one example.
- Verse 15 — “triumphing over them.” Paul invokes a specific Roman cultural image: the triumph, the public victory parade granted to a conquering general. The general rode in his chariot through Rome; behind him marched the captured enemy kings, stripped of weapons, paraded in chains before jeering crowds. Paul says the cross itself was Christ’s triumph parade — what looked like Caesar’s victory over a Galilean was in fact the King of kings’ public dethronement of every hostile power.
- Verse 23 — “self-made religion.” Paul appears to have coined the word — ethelothrēskia, “will-worship,” religion designed by the worshipper rather than received from God. The word is found nowhere in earlier Greek literature.
The full study runs through every verse, every key word, every cross-reference (with full text), and ends with a synthesis identifying the five Christological pillars of the chapter and the way Paul’s syn- (“with”) compound verbs drive home the believer’s union with Christ. It includes font-size and dimming controls so it’s readable on any device or in any lighting.
The result is a document you can use for personal study, hand to a small group, or return to a year from now and still get something fresh out of. That’s the kind of tool I’m offering to prepare for anyone who asks.
One More Thing
These tools are living documents. If you read through what I prepare and want it adjusted — more depth in one section, more cross-references, an added topic, a focus shift toward application — just say so. We can enhance it together. The goal is to serve your study, not to produce a finished monument.
So if there’s a passage you’ve been meaning to dig into — or one that’s been bothering you for years — let me know. I’d be glad to help.
Click here to see Colossians Chapter 2 Preparation
Can I Help You Study the Bible?
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