1. Using commentaries exclusively or too quickly in the process. Preachers, we’ve got to do our own exegetical work in the text first! I don’t consult commentaries until late in the process. It’s only after hours of reading, re-reading, observing, doing mechanical layouts or plot analysis, looking at grammatical issues, doing word studies, and exploring the context that I consult commentaries.

2. Using too many commentaries. There is a point of no return! Can a preacher really benefit from looking at 12 or 15 or 20 commentaries? I have a hunch that this either results from or contributes to mistake #1. When studying a text, I use 2-3 main commentaries and 2-3 secondary commentaries. I read the ‘main’ ones entirely, and I’ll check the ‘secondary’ ones on key issues or difficulties.

3. Using sub-standard commentaries. It’s critical to use the best commentaries available. By ‘sub-standard,’ I don’t mean ‘bad.’ I simply mean that Peter O’Brien and Harold Hoehner have raised the bar for Ephesians, and Daniel Block and K. Lawson Younger have set the standard of excellence for Judges. No amount of older or devotional or popular level commentaries will take you to the level to which the best commentaries take you! For recommendations, I suggest starting with Old Testament Commentary Survey by Tremper Longman III and New Testament Commentary Survey by D. A. Carson. Both are published by Baker, and both have been revised for 2007.

4. Using commentaries to the neglect of prayer and meditation. This is related to mistake #1. We preachers will all do well to follow the practice of the late William Lane. In the preface to his commentary on Mark, Lane describes his practice of laying his material before the Lord on his knees. Maybe that’s why Lane’s commentary is one of my all-time favorites! Our study of the text, including our forays into commentaries, must be bathed in prayer and meditation.

5. Refusing to use commentaries. This may result from an over-reaction to one of the above mistakes or to naivete or to arrogance! I own a set of Keil and Delitzsch commentaries on the O.T. because of the misdirected zeal of a young theological student! He put his set up for sale, announcing that he was going to do his own work and not rely on the work of others. It seems to me that this misses one of the implications of Ephesians 4:11-12! We need to listen to the godly teachers of Scripture – both past and present – which God has given to the church!