When reading the Bible, don’t be surprised if certain topics jump out at you. Often the writer of a given book wanted to highlight a given topic. Paul obviously had freedom in mind when he wrote the book of Galatians. In writing the Philippian church he repeatedly refers to joy or rejoicing.
To do a topical study first select the topic and then collect all of the references in a given portion or book that mention the topic. If you want to do a more extensive study use a concordance and list all the references on that topic in the Bible.
After each reference, write an explanation of what that reference says about the topic. For example in Philippians 1:4 Paul reflects on the Philippians’ faithful partnership with him. It brought him great joy and led him to pray for them.
Second, once you do this with each reference, correlate the material by grouping similar thoughts together. Give each group a descriptive title and put the titles into a logical order. What you have is an outline.
Third, based on this outline, crystallize some conclusions or applications showing how the topic relates to your life experience.
In the book of Philippians the words joy or rejoice are mentioned in at least 13 verses. In your notebook give a brief statement about what is said in each reference regarding joy or rejoicing. You will see that some references naturally go together. This is the beginning of developing an outline. We’ll do that in our next visit.
