Guidelines for selecting a passage

I preach verse-by-verse through biblical books; very rarely do I preach topically. Right now I'm preaching through Matthew, and I'm starting Matthew 14 this coming Sunday. As I plan a few weeks at a time, I simply read the text and note how the narrative unfolds. 

I see Matthew 14 as comprising three specific, related narratives.

• 14:1-12 - the account of John the Baptist's execution
• 14:13-21 - the feeding of the 5,000
• 14:22-33 - Jesus walks on the water

I see 14:12-13 linking the account of John's death and Jesus, whose response is to go away by Himself, only to be followed by a crowd.

14:22-23 indicates that the feeding of the 5,000 interrupted, but did not prevent, Jesus from going away to pray by Himself. 

Finally, I see 14:34-36 as belonging to the text that follows in chapter 15 and would preach it as part of what follows.

Whether or not each DIY pericope is covered in a single sermon is determined by my study. I might devote a sermon to 14:22-23 and Jesus' prayer life, or include it as part of the larger passage. But if I do break it out as a separate message it will be within the context of the larger passage. 

I tend to follow Second Timothy 3:16 and the work the Word does in and for us as a guide: teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. I have the advantage of 15 or 20 hours of study; my congregation doesn't. So I'm very happy to take a couple of weeks on a single passage to patiently and carefully explore rather than trying to cram everything into a single message.

Thank you, Hamilton. My question was intended to be much more specific

Is one has done inductive study, then notes on important themes can be used.

The looking into other sources is to make sure you do not leave anything out.

In the end you have to decide the limit for passages to consider what is relevant.

Double checking with other traditions allows you to see if common conclusions on certain themes point to a more universal principle being involved.

So if one was to study commands of Christ, how would one go about it?

Perhaps:

"A. DIDACTIC UTTERANCES.—1. The moral teaching of Christ concerned itself with general principles rather than with precepts. The Sermon on the Mount, which contains the chief elements of His ethical teaching, is not a code of injunctions, but a declaration of the fundamental principles that underlie His Kingdom; and the particular instances of right conduct mentioned in that discourse are not commandments, but illustrations of these principles. When He teaches His disciples regarding righteousness and sin, He avoids laying down laws regarding special acts, but goes at once to the very heart of moral distinctions, revealing the general principles which rule all special cases. Thus He solved all questions of meat by a single sentence, which ‘made all meats clean’ (Mk 7:19 RV); and He answered all questions of casuistry regarding Sabbath observance by pointing out the beneficent principle which led to its institution. In a word, He reduced all right action, whether towards God or towards man, to a fulfilling, and all wrong action to an outraging, of the one all-embracing commandment of Love. And thus His teaching finds its application in every act in every age.

There is but one exception recorded in our Gospels,—that in reference to divorce (Mk 10:11, 12, cf. Mt 5:32, 19:9). In this case He gives a concise and direct precept; but a precept, obedience to which purifies the human race at its source."

Grierson, C. T. P. (1906). Prophet. In J. Hastings (Ed.), A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels: Aaron–Zion (Vol. 2, p. 435). Edinburgh; New York: T&T Clark; Charles Scribner’s Sons.

[bold added for emphasis].

So in a block of text, how many principles are contained? are they related? why? how would you break up the text block? why would you do it?

Resources may give you idea how others have done it, then by looking at their particular situations (context), you may get an idea of how it could apply to the particular context your are dealing with, maybe.

In the capture below, there is a warning of not leaving out relevant information, and not getting into a particular text some eisegesical notions.

So the micro pericope should be like a jigsaw puzzle piece of the larger group. 

So for a more specific example: rituals in the OT could be considered like a tutor that prepared persons for the actual fulfillment of God's promise of eventually coming down to teach them. (mobile ed on Hebraic thought explains more about rituals and their influence).

Progressively (diachronic) in the Bible, then we see the last messenger of God (Jesus), then giving universal principles that showed that love is where it is at, but the kind of love that requires discipline, sacrifice, right intent, mindset, etc. just like rituals before required.

I decide what I conclude about a passage, and strip it down to just the verses that lead to that conclusion. If I come to multiple conclusions, I decide if I will pick just one topic or more than one topic. If I pick multiple topics, then the range of verses must cover all the topics I chose.

This can be abused, obviously, if I were to start with a personal agenda and then choose just the verses to support MY thoughts. But if I truly start with the text and let it speak for itself, I am confident that it is acceptable to trust my judgement to choose the boundaries according to what I concluded. Especially if I took the time to write context summaries for the chapter and the book.

What are your favorite guidelines for determining the boundaries of an appropriate passage (pericope) to read, study, teach or pray?

Ones I already know:

• Windows on Jesus: Methods in Gospel Exegesis by Wim Weren 
• Dean B. Deppe, All Roads Lead to the Text: Eight Methods of Inquiry into the Bible
• David Alan Black and David S. Dockery, Interpreting the New Testament: Essays on Methods and Issues

I use the clause visualizations in Logos to make an initial outline without paying attention to the verses. I take the clauses, subjects, verbs to make an initial outline and I turn this outline in my initial sermon outline that follows the scripture. This practice chooses my boundaries for me. At some point I will check the passage analysis compare pericopes to make sure my outline is mostly following the bibles I own. I seldom change anything from this practice but it does have me question why some bibles differ. Original languages did not have verses so boundaries came by ideas and that's the purpose of using the clause visualizations.