What is Bible Study Fellowship?
The repository doesn't discuss any organisation by that name, so I can't tell you about its history or programme. What the writers do address at length is the thing behind the name: believers meeting to read and study the Bible together, and what makes such gatherings healthy or harmful.
The pattern in Acts
The earliest believers "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship" (Acts 2:42), and one writer reads that phrase as describing something very like a shared Bible study.
Raymond K. CampbellContinuing steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, spoken of in Acts 2:42, would imply that believers must have habitually and diligently sought the apostles' actual company, so that they might profit by the holy conversation of those who had been with Jesus… They must have listened to the Old Testament Scriptures and to the apostles' teaching in the New, and had holy conversation together, asking and answering questions — all enjoyed together in fellowship by those gathered to share the spiritual treasures.
Private study comes first
A group study is not a substitute for reading the Bible on your own. One writer argues the flow runs the other way: what you dig out alone is what you bring to the table.
Samuel RidoutThere is nothing which promotes fellowship so much as original, private study. We meet together to exchange what we have learned, and so we are a mutual help. This also greatly helps our enjoyment of ministry, whether written or spoken. If we are carrying on our own independent study, we will be able both to judge what we read or hear and to appreciate it.
The same principle explains why such a meeting reveals so much about a group of Christians.
Frederick W. GrantThe reading (Bible study) meeting is a great test of the state of an assembly, for it is there, if things are right, that the knowledge gathered during the week by the individual brothers is tested and made sure by discussion and comparison… while what has been learned by each is thrown into the common fund to enrich the whole. It would surprise even those who know the least to know how much their questions, suggested by their own need, help the very people who answer them.
Informal, and open to questions
Writers describe these gatherings as small, plain and unstructured, with no barrier between the ordinary Christian and the text.
Andrew MillerIn this way the word of God is closely read by small companies of twenty, thirty or more; and, since anyone is free to ask a question, difficulties are removed and the true meaning of the Scripture is more clearly seen. Such meetings being considered instruction meetings rather than church meetings, all are free to state what light the Lord may have given them on the portion being considered.
One writer notes that a reading meeting is not itself an assembly, and sees no scriptural objection to a woman asking or answering a question there. He also judges it very necessary to have someone present capable of giving the mind of God on the passage, otherwise much time is lost in guesswork — though he offers this as his judgment, not a rule.
The Teacher who must be present
Understanding is not a matter of cleverness. The writers are united that Scripture opens to those who depend on God for it.
James BoydIn the reading and study of this priceless revelation, we need to remind our hearts of our dependence on the One whose revelation it is for the understanding of the sacred text. We need not fear to dig deep into its wonderful depths — we are rather urged to do so (Prov. 2:1-9), and His Spirit is our Teacher (1 John 2:27). For the understanding of the great thoughts of God we are not dependent on our own natural ability.
Bring what you hear back to the text
Whatever group you join, the teaching in it is meant to be checked. The Bible was written, one writer says,
F. B. Holenot for the lazy, but for diligent searchers for truth and guidance like the Berean Jews (Acts 17:11), who read it in faith and dependence on God.
Luke describes those Bereans as men who "received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so."
Where such meetings go wrong
Freedom to speak is not freedom to say anything. And the writers are frank that these meetings can be spoiled — or exploited.
Raymond K. CampbellWhile liberty is given in such a meeting for any brother to take part, it should be remembered that liberty is not licence. The Bible Reading is not the place for someone to speak just to be heard, or to air his own peculiar ideas and talk about anything and everything… In such a meeting, individual, extravagant views and peculiarities of thought on the Scriptures need to be adjusted in humble, quiet discussion, with a willingness to learn from one another.
Another writer adds, with sorrow, that a carefully picked company can be assembled so that false teaching may be slipped in and then circulated widely by supporters taking notes.
What God makes of it
Two believers talking over Scripture may look like nothing. Malachi says otherwise: "Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them."
F. A. HughesIs it not a further source of joy to our hearts to realise that, while we enjoy these precious times of communion with one another, the blessed Lord Himself takes pleasure and joy in it too?
Summary
- Alone first. Private, prayerful study is what you carry into the room; without it you have nothing to exchange.
- Then together. Acts 2:42 shows teaching and fellowship joined — reading, questions, answers, treasures shared.
- The Spirit teaches. Understanding comes by dependence on God, not natural ability; His Spirit is the Teacher.
- Test it like a Berean. Whatever is said in the room goes back to the text, examined daily to see if these things are so.
- Guard it. Liberty is not licence; strong opinions get adjusted in humble discussion — and the Lord Himself listens in.