Let’s take a closer look at my main point summary of 1 Peter 1:22-25 and talk about the principles which went into writing it.
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for
'All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord remains forever.'
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
—1 Peter 1:22-25 ESV
My main point summary: Be fervent in brotherly love, since you actually have a new heart—brought to life by the very gospel of Christ and cleansed for genuine love.
Principles and strategies for writing a main point summary
1. Be sure you have clearly identified the main point and primary supports.
I have separated the text of 1 Peter 1:22-25 into three parts:
The main point in the middle: “love one another earnestly from a pure heart.”
The first primary support that precedes the main point: “Having (or, since you have) purified your souls…”
The second primary support which follows the main point: “...since you have been born again...through the… word of God.”
2. Ask the 5-w’s-plus-an-h questions.
If there is still some fog in clarifying what exactly the main point is, evaluate whether the central idea concerns a who, what, when, where, why, or how. Who and what stand out in this text, as the readers are commanded to “love one another earnestly from a pure heart.”
3. Determine what, if any, primary supporting points should be included in your summary.
Is this support essential to the main point?
Does leaving this support out open the door to a misunderstanding?
Does this support clarify the main point or add complexity?
In 1 Peter 1:22-25, both primary supports are vital to a proper understanding of the command. Without the two supports, the command could easily be misconstrued as self-improvement project disconnected from the life-giving, sanctifying power of the gospel operating in us.
4. Rearrange the pieces.
This is okay, and often times desirable. For example: a therefore b can easily be reversed to b because of a. Or, if a, then b may helpfully be restated as b, if a. The goal is to find an arrangement that aids in both clarity and brevity.
My main point summary rearranges the three pieces by moving the first primary support to the end:
Main Point: Be fervent in brotherly love
Second Primary Support: since you actually have a new heart—brought to life by the very gospel of Christ
First Primary Support: and cleansed for genuine love.
5. Borrow terms or phrases from your paraphrase, especially key words.
In this case, I reused the phrase, “since you actually have a new heart” from my paraphrase since it captures the core of this point of support.
6. Use complete sentences.
7. Maintain the same perspective as the author.
In other words, state the main point in the same way the author does, don’t merely describe it. In my example, the original text is stated as a command from Peter to his readers. I do not want to merely describe what Peter says in my summary and refer to Peter as “he” and his readers as “they.” Rather, I want to restate the main point like Peter does—as a direct command: “Be fervent in brotherly love…”
8. Keep it concise.
As a rule of thumb, try to keep your summary to one or two brief sentences. There is some flexibility here as, for example, you may need three or four sentences if you are summarizing an entire book. Even still, it is not a bad exercise to try to summarize even very large texts in only one sentence.
A testament in 10 minutes
Jason DeRouchie and Andy Naselli, both professors at Bethlehem College and Seminary, were assigned the task of summarizing the Old and New Testaments in ten minutes each. They use some of the time allotted to give brief descriptions of the various sections of the Bible, but they also provide one or two sentence summaries of every book of the Bible. Watch, enjoy, be edified by these videos… and be challenged to summarize well. (Note that both men state that they are providing summaries of the theological message of each book of the Bible. The result is that their summaries do not necessarily follow strategy #7 above.)