Some people familiar with John Piper's ministry have heard him mention, on and off throughout the years, something called "arcing." Piper says that he used to see Scripture passages like a string of pearls--beautiful pieces, all one following the other. It was revolutionary for him to learn in seminary that Scripture contains not a string of pearls, but chains of arguments. The biblical authors put together detailed arguments to make their case and to persuade their readers. "Arcing" is a visual method for discovering and following the argument of the text. Piper has written: "Its principles undergird my whole approach to Biblical interpretation."
If you want to learn this method of study, I'd encourage you to check out Jim Hamilton's online chapter, The Nature of the Bible and How to Study It. This will give you an excellent overview of "arcing," or tracing the argument.
Then to go deeper, you may want to consider getting John Piper's booklet, Biblical Exegesis: Discovering the Meaning of Scriptural Texts, or Tom Schreiner's textbook, Interpreting the Pauline Epistles.
