How to Use Commentaries

There are two ways to fall off the horse when it comes to commentaries. The first is to ignore them entirely — “just me, the Holy Spirit, and my Bible.” The second is to reach for them first and never really think for yourself at all.

Both errors are real. But for most serious students of Scripture, the greater danger is the second one.

The danger of the second-hander

John Piper describes a “second-hander” as someone who can never say anything with confidence from the Bible because they have never actually seen it for themselves. They are always echoing what someone else has said about the text. As Piper puts it:

“Second-handers are like ambassadors of a king who are never sure what he says. They're never able to say, ‘Thus saith the sovereign king…’ Instead, they're always saying, ‘Well, my commentary says that the king says…’”

— John Piper

This is the person whose lessons and sermons are essentially a tour through what commentators have concluded. The problem is not the commentaries — it is the order. When you go to a commentary before you have wrestled with the text yourself, you borrow someone else's conclusions without doing the thinking that makes those conclusions meaningful. The result is teaching that feels hollow — because it is.

Scripture first — always

Only Scripture is inspired. Every commentary, however excellent, is one fallible person's attempt to explain what God has said. That asymmetry matters enormously when it comes to sequencing your study.

The Bible itself is explicit that personal engagement with the text is not optional:

• 2 Timothy 2:7 — “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”
• 1 Corinthians 14:20 — “In your thinking be mature.”
• Romans 12:2 — “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”
• Luke 12:57 — “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?”

The existence of a written Bible does not reduce the need for hard thinking — it creates it. Jesus said to the most well-read Bible scholars of his day, “Have you not read?” — not because they hadn't read the words, but because they hadn't thought rightly about what they read. Reading Scripture is an obligation to think carefully about Scripture.

The right order

A simple rule of thumb: read the text before you read about the text. Most serious students find the following sequence produces the deepest, most durable understanding:

1. Observe.Read the passage slowly and repeatedly. Note what is actually there — the words, the structure, the repeated ideas, the questions the text raises. Don't skip this. Most interpretive errors happen because people miss what the text plainly says.
2. Question.Write down every question you have about the passage. What does this word mean? Why does the author make this move here? What is the “therefore” pointing back to? Good questions are the engine of understanding. The deeper your questions, the deeper your eventual insight.
3. Interpret. Try to answer your own questions from the text first — from context, from the surrounding chapters, from parallel passages elsewhere in Scripture. Let Scripture interpret Scripture before you bring in outside voices.
4. Consult.Now reach for the commentary. Not to get the answer, but to check your thinking, find what you missed, and hear arguments you haven't considered.
5. Apply. Having done your own thinking and tested it against trusted voices, draw your conclusions and apply the passage to life.

Read for arguments, not conclusions

This is perhaps the most practically important piece of advice for using commentaries well. Piper credits it to the best teacher he ever had:

“Don't read commentaries for their conclusions. Read them for their arguments.”

— John Piper

A conclusion without its argument is just an assertion. When you read a commentary for its conclusion alone — “this word means X”, “this passage teaches Y” — you have no ability to evaluate whether the commentator is right. You simply borrow their answer. But when you follow the argument — when you trace how they got there from the text — you are doing theology. You can agree, disagree, or be persuaded. You remain a first-hander.

A good commentary does not replace your thinking. It sharpens it.

What commentaries are good for

Used at the right moment and in the right way, commentaries are genuinely one of God's gifts to his church. Ephesians 4:11 says God gave teachers to the church — not just a Bible, but Bible teachers. No one person will see everything the Spirit has put in a passage. Good commentaries represent centuries of careful thinking by men and women who gave their lives to understanding Scripture. That is worth engaging.

Specifically, commentaries are most valuable for:

• Checking your interpretation.After you've worked through the passage yourself, a commentary helps you see if you've missed something significant or misread the original language.
• Historical and cultural context. What was happening in Corinth? What did this word mean in first-century Greek? What Old Testament passage is the author alluding to? Good commentaries give you context you simply cannot reconstruct on your own.
• Alternative interpretations. When a passage is genuinely difficult, a commentary shows you the range of serious views and the arguments for each. This guards against false confidence in your own reading.
• Getting unstuck. Sometimes you have spent real time on a passage and are genuinely stuck. Reaching for a commentary at that point is not laziness — it is wisdom.

A word on balance

If you have limited time to prepare a lesson or sermon, the principle is straightforward: spend most of your study time in the text itself. Piper puts it bluntly — if you have four hours to study, use almost all of them thinking about, praying over, and looking at the passage directly. The commentary is the final check, not the starting point.

The goal is to be a person who can say, from direct engagement with Scripture, “This is what the text says, and here is why.” Commentaries help you do that better. They do not do it for you.

How Skopeo supports this approach

Skopeo is built to keep you in the text first. The Study Panel and Bible Panel put the passage front and center. Word Study lets you examine the original Greek and Hebrew directly, so you can see for yourself what a word means rather than simply trusting a translation.

The Commentary Panel is deliberately positioned as a companion tool — something you open after you have spent time in the passage. When you do open it, you can read Matthew Henry, John Calvin, or Adam Clarke alongside the verse you have already been thinking about. Their arguments sharpen what you have already seen. That is exactly the right relationship between a student and a commentary.