HOW TO MAKE A CHART OF A BIBLE SCRIPTURE PASSAGE

(From: Living by the Book; Howard & William Hendricks)

 

As you study a text, assign titles and labels to the content in a way that summarizes the material. Be creative, make the text your own. Place your own titles on the verses, paragraphs, sections, and books of the Bible is one way to do that. They help you retain your insights in neat packages.

 

As you visualize your chart, ask: What are the relationships? What am I trying to show? what’s this chart all about? When I’ve finished it, how am I going to use it?

 

Keep your charts simple. You can always add detail; the challenge is to trim away the clutter. What key ideas, characters, themes, verses, terms, and other data from the text ought to take priority? What is the big idea? What structure needs to be shown? What material do you want to see at a glance?

 

If you find that you’ve got too much material to include in a chart, chop it up and make several charts. By the way, too much unrelated data may be a signal that you need to go back to the text and do some more observing.

 

Be creative! I’ve only shown a handful of possibilities. There are dozens of other ways to show relationships in the text. Let your imagination flow. Draw illustrations or symbols if they help. It’s your chart, so make it work for you.

 

Revise your charts in light of your study. No chart can summarize everything in a text. And as you continue to study a passage, you’ll gain new insights that should cause you to revise or even redo your chart. Remember, charts are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. They have use only to the extent that they accurately represent what is in the biblical text. 

 

If you can’t think of a particular verse, consider one of the following scripture passages:

 

Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

 

James 1:2-8 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”

 

2 Peter 1:-11 “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

 

 You may also wish to consider purchasing the following book which can help you improve your skills in diagramming scripture passages: