Six Honest Serving Men

An Simple Tool To Help You Study Your Bible

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2nd Timothy 2:15)

Contained within this poem by Rudyard Kipling is a simple and very effective way of discovering some of both the simple, and the deeper things that God has for us. When most people set out to study the Bible they begin by reading. But many do not achieve as complete an understanding of the Bible, of the Word of God, as they desire just by reading it. However, our precious Lord has provided us with a teacher who is available to us 24 hours a day. This is the wonderful Holy Spirit himself. He is here with us right now, and He is here as a guide who will show us the way, God’s way, of doing things and of living this life the way that He intended from the beginning.

The Holy Spirit is also our Counselor, and a counsellor is someone to whom we can ask questions and who will advise us and teach us how to use all the gifts that have been given to us to enable us to walk in God’s way. However, we should remember, be very aware, that the Holy Spirit is the most gentle, kind and loving person who has nothing but our welfare in mind. Unlike some sports coaches, He never screams at us, He never gets angry at us, nor does He ever barge His way into a conversation. He will never interfere, never disrespect our choices, and never gives advice unless He is invited to do so. But, He is always waiting to help you. All you have to do is call upon Him and He truly will be with you, immediately. So, specifically with regard to studying the Bible, wouldn’t it make sense to ask Him to be your teacher? Someone of whom you can ask questions and who will never put you down for not knowing the answers. Someone with endless patience who will continue explaining and teaching you things until you truly, and fully, understand? That would be a good decision to make!

By taking the first few lines of Kipling’s poem we can learn how to ask pertinent questions of the Holy Spirit to explain any Scripture, situation, or word within the Bible and, even more so, to give us the best Scripture(s) to apply to any situation. This is of great value when we are involved in any kind of warfare, especially of a spiritual nature:

I KEEP six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When 
And How and Where and Who.

What,  Why,  When,  How,  Where  and  Who

So, if we take a Scripture, we first read it in order to get a basic understanding, and then we can begin to open it up by analyzing it using these six words. To give you an example of this, we are going to use part of the story of the fig tree from the book of Mark:

(Mark 11:13) And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.

(Mark 11:20) And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.
(Mar 11:21) And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.
(Mar 11:22) And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

So, let’s begin to apply Kipling’s poetic words…..

WHO is giving the account here? – Mark (obviously).

WHO was present to witness this? – The Disciples.

WHERE were they at this time? – On the road from Bethany to Jerusalem.

WHAT is Mark telling us about? – He is telling the story of when Jesus saw a fig tree and was hungry, that He saw the tree had leaves on it and expected it to have figs on it, so that He could eat.

WHY then did Jesus curse the tree? – Because the tree bore no fruit.

WHAT reason was there to curse the tree? – In order to understand the significance of this and the initial basic teaching, we have to know a little more about the fig tree itself…… This is an example of where the depth of a study should become much more in-depth so that the student is better able to understand what went on, why it went on, and the lesson(s) contained within Scripture(s)…..

The fig trees of Israel actually bear fruit before they bear leaves! Therefore, when Jesus saw the fig tree with leaves, He had every expectation that it would also be bearing fruit. When He saw that it had none He cursed it. 

HOW is this a lesson to us? – review this first verse (11:!3)……  (Note that we are turning the questions towards ourselves so that we begin to learn the meaning or interpretation of the Scripture)  

The curse was laid upon the tree by Jesus’ spoken word!

(James 3:10) Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing……..

(Proverbs 18:21) Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

What are the lessons contained here? Why are they so important?  

There are a large number of lessons that can be taken from just these few Scriptures, and it is important that we learn them, from them. You have seen one of the major lessons here in that words, and more especially Jesus’ words, hold both an authority and a power. The main lesson in this should be that everyone can speak both blessings and curses. The caution is to all because the fig tree DIED from the words spoken over it, to it.

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You should now be able to see that by using Six Honest Serving Men, the Scriptures will open up to you, or, in the very least, encourage you to question their meaning and help you study them. As you do, you will begin to, and continually discover that the Word of God is complete in everything that you will ever need to know. The answers are there and, just as importantly, you have both written examples of “how” together with the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit to lean on. So, lean on Him, He is waiting to help…. always!

This is an example of how we teach within our Systematic Discipleship Program which we invite you to become a part of. Just click here to learn more:   LEARN MORE

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Further Studies – The Fig Tree.   This is a separate teaching taking the same Scriptures and expanding on some other lessons contained within them.