Commentaries are good for seeing what other great
thinkers thought about the scripture. But there is a
warning: they are all biased.
Writing your own commentary will have your own bias.
Understand their bias before you start to read.
Use a commentary only after you have already studied
the passage and have come to your own conclusion –
even if it is a list of different conclusions. Sometimes,
commentaries will give you an idea of how far off
you are.
Other times you will realize the writer of the
commentary has just as much trouble as you.
Commentaries are useful. But they are not scripture.
They are fallible. Commentaries should be used as
a reference of what the writer or denomination
concludes. They should not be your doctrinal
answer book.
For your edification,
Justin Curtis Johnson