Last month we wrapped up our series on the “Six W’s of Reading the Bible.” Our final two W’s were why and whatfor. In case you were wondering, whatfor is just a w-word for “so what?” The title of this series would have sounded pretty dumb if we had called it “5 W’s and So What?” Answering these questions won’t typically require much except your trusty Bible and your notes from the last four questions.
Why is the questions that tends to encourage the most speculation of any of the six questions. When we are trying to determine why the author decided to say what he did or why God encouraged the author to include it, we are trying to put ourselves in the shoes of the author. It helps me to make my own outline of the text in order to get a good overview of what all is happening. While Bible outlines are readily available, making your own forces you to reconsider the whole book as a single cohesive work instead of several distinct sections.
Whatfor is by far the most difficult question to ask because it forces us to relate the passages to our own lives. As we consider how the stories and teachings of the Bible affect us, it may make us happy, sad, or even a little nervous. But what’s important is that we are allowing the Bible to teach us more and more about God and how we can be more like Him.
