In high school I was a grammar nerd; I REALLY enjoyed English class. I even remember what an indirect object is! Because I was (and still am) a visually oriented learner, I especially liked diagramming sentences because the diagram was a good analysis that helped me see and understand the relationships the words in a sentence had with each other.
Verse analysis is not as involved as sentence diagramming
The same type of analysis can help us in our Bible study through what I call a verse analysis. The verse analysis is not as in-depth as the sentence diagram, but useful nonetheless to help us see the relationship of the words in the verse to one another.
I believe that not only did God inspire EVERY word of the Bible, but He also inspired EACH word is. Words matter and their relationship to one another in a given passage reveal the truth that God wants us to know about Him, His precepts, and His purposes for us.
At the end of this blog, I have included a video tutorial demonstrating how I do a verse analysis, and I invite you to watch it and let me know if it is helpful to you.
A Working Example
Let’s consider as an example Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.
My first step is to isolate the main verbs in a passage. Once I’ve isolated those verbs, I study their context and meanings. I use many of the tools I mentioned in the “Tools Blog” to help with this task.