{"id":8733,"date":"2026-04-21T06:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T10:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/learn\/?p=8733"},"modified":"2026-04-17T11:32:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:32:43","slug":"questions-when-stuck-on-hard-passage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/learn\/bible-101\/bible-study-tips\/questions-when-stuck-on-hard-passage\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Offbeat Questions for When You\u2019re Stuck on a Hard Bible Passage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What do you do when you get stuck on a difficult Bible passage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God wants to be known and he wants his word to be understood, so it makes sense that most of the Bible is pretty accessible even for a first-time reader. There are layers upon layers of depth to even the simplest parts of Scripture, but the basics of most passages are pretty straightforward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, there are a few parts of the Bible that are incredibly challenging even for the seasoned student of Scripture. This is certainly a feature, not a bug<\/a>, because when we run into these hard parts, we’re reminded of the magnitude of God, how much we depend on Him, and how much we have to learn from His Word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s great to pause and reflect on such things, but at some point we have to get down to the challenging business of wrestling through those difficult passages. This article is meant to help with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, I’m going to share five offbeat questions for getting unstuck when studying the hard parts of the Bible. <\/strong>This list is anything but comprehensive. There are plenty of excellent, well-known techniques for sorting out tough passages (e.g., context, language study, keywords, related verses), but these questions are great for stepping back and taking a fresh angle when you\u2019re really stuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before we get into the questions, we need to pick a hard part of the Bible to try this out on. We\u2019re going with Romans 13:1-8<\/a>, where the Apostle Paul exhorts his readers to respond rightly to governmental authorities. This passage has been a point of debate and consternation for Christians since the earliest days of the church, and should be tough enough to practice on together. Please take a moment to read the passage before moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. What is the author trying to get his audience to think or do?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is usually going to be the easiest question of the five, and it certainly is in this case. Clearly, Paul is urging Christians (at least Christians in Rome in the first century, but maybe all Christians for all time) to submit themselves to governing authorities and to understand that God establishes all authority. He tells them to do so out of fear of possible punishment and also out of conscience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Trusted<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In verses 7 and 8, he broadens the question of how Christians relate to government to the larger question of how they treat everyone else in society. He wants Christians to generously give what is owed to others, and most of all, to love one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romans 13 is still a tough passage to fully apply, but because we started by asking what the author is trying to get the audience to think or do, we now have clarity as to why Paul is writing this and what his top priority is. His first concern here is not to issue a treatise on government, but to urge Christians to live rightly. This tells us that if we\u2019re looking to Romans 13 for the complete and final word on the relationship between Christians and the state, we\u2019re going to be disappointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. What pressure is the author responding to that caused him to write this passage?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nothing in the Bible is just there. Every author wrote for a reason and under certain circumstances. Some because God showed up and literally told them to write down what he was saying, others to impart wisdom, and still others to persuade readers toward belief. The larger context of Romans shows Paul wrote to strengthen the Roman Christians’ understanding of the gospel and challenge them to live that out in their daily lives. Other parts of the Bible reveal that Paul wanted to visit Rome at the time of this letter, but had to go east to visit the Jerusalem church instead. Paul knew great things were happening with the gospel, but he also knew trouble was brewing in the form of persecution, and that Rome was a potential hotbed of such troubles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul and the Roman Christians both knew the Emperor Claudius had recently expelled the Jews from the Eternal City, presumably because of conflict about Jesus (Acts 18:2<\/a>). Nero had been emperor in Rome for about three years as Paul penned this letter, and he was already behaving dangerously and erratically. Enemies of Christianity had a habit of accusing Christians of being lawbreakers in order to weaponize the Roman government against the early Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul knows he’s writing a public letter that could easily be handed to Nero himself. With that in mind, Romans 13:1-8 reads as a forthright exhortation to Roman Christians, but also as a discreet signal to Nero and his administration that Christians are law-abiding citizens who pose no threat to the state and who should not be lumped in with the expelled Jews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. What can’t <\/em>it mean, must <\/em>it mean, and might <\/em>it mean?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

These three inter-related questions are incredibly potent when used together. Sometimes figuring out what can’t<\/em> be the case and what might<\/em> be the case can help us nail down what must<\/em> be the case. Let’s try it out on this passage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n