Utumishi Blog

Sammy shared this with us at the last Ministry Training on How (or When) to use a commentary:

When I learnt that there are certain writings known to us as commentaries, I was kind of, “Mmmh alright no more struggles in preparing sermons! I can copy-paste.” That meant I could simply ride on other people’s ideas. No more good and hard thinking. After all the commentary will do it for me. That was really bad thinking and bad practise too. Because with that kind of thinking, I never read the passage thoroughly – I just read once and went to open the commentary.  That made me lazy. I did not need a lot of time to prepare a sermon. What do you make of that?

Even worse, it’s very easy to read others sermons on internet and then copy-paste, pray and preach. That’s not good at all, is it?  There is no short cut to faithful preaching!

David Cook in Teaching Acts, has some very helpful wisdom:

Too often as preachers we let the commentaries do our thinking for us. Under pressure, we immediately go to the commentaries, without first thoughtfully reading the text itself. If that is our ‘method’, our preaching is likely to be a regurgitation of the commentator’s thoughts on a passage. The result is powerless preaching. Read the text thoroughly and thoughtfully, using different translations, and only then consult the commentaries for extra insights, clarification etc. (p10)

Listening to the text is the right kind of engagement with biblical text. It is a careful and methodical activity, but never a forensic exercise! In his book, Working the Angles, Eugene Peterson reminds us that we approach the inspired Word of God, not as cool analysts, but as passionate hearers! The former approach will have us taking a tool kit to the text; the latter (and right approach) will first find us prayerfully meditating on the text (Ps. 1) and then, appropriately and sensitively, picking up our analytical tools. In human interaction, we learn most by asking the right questions and listening patiently to the answers. The careful reader of Scripture will ask questions like:

• What is the author saying?
• Why does he say it like this?
• Why does he say it like this in this context?
• What did it mean to the first readers?
• What does it mean now?
• What should I do about it?
• What pictures is he using?

All these are useful questions to guide reflection. Your own personal discoveries will lead to a more passionate presentation and a renewed freshness in your preaching.

Having engaged with the text in this way, it would then be appropriate to consult the commentaries. (p. 35)

So the first answer to how to use a commentary is – not until you’ve done many hours of passionate, prayerful listening.