This lesson is part of Mel Lawrenz’ “How to Study the Bible” series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.

When my children were young my wife and I tried to go as a family to a different national park every summer. Since my wife and I had not traveled when we were growing up, these trips were first-time discoveries for four eager sets of eyes and ears and noses—those of the two children in the car, and the oldest “children,” my wife and I.

Here are two ways of exploring the treasures of a national park: you can drive through and discover whatever wonderful things come along the way, taking a hike here and there, lingering wherever you want. Or you can go looking for something specific. For us, sometimes we went looking for waterfalls, or mountain peaks, or (for my wife) birds and wildflowers.

Sometimes we read the Bible progressively, driving through the landscape, discovering its perspective of world history, its chronicles of catastrophes, its spiritual principles. Other times we go looking for specific themes or topics.

So how do we do a thematic or topical study of Scripture? How do we find between the front cover and the back cover the key teachings on particular topics which can form a cohesive picture of reality?

We can describe this process different ways, but let’s keep it to 5 steps for now: 1) finding the passages; 2) comprehending the topic in context; 3) comparing the various settings; 4) synthesizing the core concepts; and 5) drawing conclusions.

Let’s use a topical study of baptism as an example.

1. Finding the passages. Here we want to find and make note of the biblical references to our topic, baptism. In this case we can just search for the word baptism in a concordance or in a digital search function at a site like Biblegateway.com or in Bible software. We find 21 uses of baptism (in the NIV, anyway). But we need to think of other forms of the word, like baptize. Searching that word yields 50 verses. We can make a list of all the passages, or filter out those which, at a glance, appear not to get at the core meaning of baptism, so that we have a reasonable number of passages to study.

2. Comprehending the topic in context. If you’re exploring a national park for waterfalls, you don’t just find them, take a quick glance, and then get in the car and drive off. You study each one, walking around, sitting in the mist, closing your eyes and listening to the roar of water. So also, it is not enough to find the passages related to a given topic. Once found, you have to linger in them and comprehend the meaning in context. Baptism appears in Romans 6:4, but you can’t just read the verse on your screen, you have to read the verses around it, probably the whole chapter or more. Then you make some provisional conclusions about the meaning of the concept in that particular passage. You make some notes. You look up the passage in a commentary if you have time. You go on in this way, passage by passage.

3. Comparing the various settings. Once you have looked up the list of passages and tried your best to understand the meaning in context, you now compare the idea in the various settings. You note where “baptism” refers to the use of water in association with conversion and faith, in distinction from the passages where “baptism” is used as a metaphor.

4. Synthesizing the core concepts. Bible study at its highest form is synthesis, which means to put ideas together. This is where we exercise deep and prayerful thought, taking our time, looking for flashes of insight were we see connections we never saw before. Here is where we cluster passages according to type. “Baptism” mentioned in the book of Acts is very important to our understanding as it describes what happened in the early Christian community, but looking at the cluster of passages in the epistles of Paul or in other epistles, unveils the theology of baptism. Synthesis means comparing passages in similar contexts. At this step we make more notes, now about the main sub-themes emphasized on the topic. We note ideas that are repeated, and take note of ideas that come up only once which will not figure centrally into our conclusions (for instance “baptize for the dead” in 1 Cor. 15:29). This step should enthuse us, as we are able to say: I never saw that before.

5. Drawing conclusions. When you begin a topical study you have some kind of question. It could be “what does baptism mean?”; or “how did believers in the first generation practice baptism?”; or “what is the enduring theology of baptism?” Your conclusions are your answers to these questions. At this point you may also look up your topic in a Bible dictionary or encyclopedia. You may be surprised how much of the core concept you noted in your own study, but learn other aspects that specialists are able to describe. Or you may realize you’ve misread and misunderstood your topic. It is all part of the process.

Getting clarity on the big ideas of Scripture, especially as we look at the Bible cover to cover, is a deeply satisfying and faith-building exercise. But we will often feel like getting answers to one question raises all kinds of other questions. That is not a problem—it shows that discovering the truth of God is a life-long journey.

Mel Lawrenz trains an international network of Christian leaders, ministry pioneers, and thought-leaders. He served as senior pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, for ten years and now serves as Elmbrook’s minister at large. He has a Ph.D. in the history of Christian thought and is on the adjunct faculty of Trinity International University. Mel is the author of 18 books, the latest, How to Understand the Bible—A Simple Guide and Spiritual Influence: the Hidden Power Behind Leadership (Zondervan, 2012). See more of Mel’s writing at WordWay.