Twisted Scripture: Placing Misused Scripture into Their Proper Context

Week 1: “Context is King”

When it comes to reading and understanding God’s Word, it is always important to understand its context. If we do not understand its context, it becomes very easy to misunderstand and misuse that particular passage.

Unfortunately, that is what we see so much of in our world today; people using God’s Word outside of its proper context.

We must always beware of any Bible teacher who blatantly ignores the context of a verse: “A text without a context is a pretext”. Almost all false teaching is based on a disregard of context, the use of isolated, so-called “proof texts” to support an unscriptural view.

I. What is Context?

The Oxford Dictionary defines context as “the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.”

- the parts of something written or spoken that immediately precede and follow a word or passage and clarify its meaning.

Knowing this is important, because without it, you can make the Bible say anything you want it to say

Examples:

Psalm 14:1 “…There is no God...” If you blatantly ignore what is before and after this phrase, you could say that the Bible says that God is not real

John 3:7 “… Ye must be born again.” By ignoring the context, you could argue that Christ is supporting the theory of reincarnation

Exodus 20:13 “Thou shalt not kill.” By ignoring what the rest of the Bible says on the subject, you can use this verse to go against capital punishment. As a matter of fact there is an entire book that uses this book to “proof text” against capital punishment

2 Timothy 3:2 “for men shall be lovers of their own selves...” We use to joke about this one in college, but out of context you can use it to support living in any way that pleases you.

Matthew 4:6 Satan blatantly took a verse out of context when trying to tempt the Lord Jesus. The ironic part about it is the context of the verse speaks about the Devil’s destruction (Psalm 91:11-13)

II. The 3 Circles of Context

When it comes to properly understanding a verse or passage, one must always examine 3 different circles of context to grasp its complete meaning.

Immediate Context

These are the verses immediately surrounding the verse or passage.

We must remember that chapter and verse divisions are not divinely inspired and were placed in our Bibles to help us more easily find certain verses and help the Bible to read a little easier. However, sometimes, these chapter and verse breaks can disguise a verses true context.

An example of this is in Matthew 16:28 “Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.” And then the chapter ends. But Chapter 17 tells the story of the transfiguration where Peter, James, and John all saw Jesus in all of His glory, Moses and Elijah which represented the Law and the Prophets, and the disciples represented the church age. And the entire scene was a picture of the kingdom age when Christ, in all His glory, will be seen by all.

Context of the Book Itself

When trying to understand a verse we must understand the context of the entire book it is found in. Who is it written to? When was it written? Why was it written? Who wrote it? etc

A great example of this is the book of Ecclesiastes. Any text from the book of Ecclesiastes must be interpreted in the light of the scope and purpose of the book itself. Ecclesiastes gives us the viewpoint of man “under the sun” and underlines the frustrations and follies of the person whose whole life is dominated by this world.

Example: Jehovah’s Witnesses love to use Ecclesiastes 9:5 “ For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.” as a proof text. But Jesus said in Luke 16 that the dead actually know a great deal . What Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 9:5 is not a statement of fact, but from the perspective of someone who is backslidden and carnally minded.

The Book of Jonah. Looking at the context of the entire book of Jonah we can gain insight as to WHY he rebelled against God’s command to go to Nineveh. He knew God was going to use the Assyrians to eventually bring Israel into captivity. He loved his country, he was a patriot. He did not want to see the enemy of his people get saved and spared from the judgment of God because he knew that if they were spared, they would eventually bring Israel into captivity.

Context of the Entire Bible

Because truth has been revealed progressively, no one passage of scripture can be considered in isolation from other passages related to it. We should use the Bible to see what light cross-references shed on a subject.

For example: there are different kinds of baptism mentioned in the Bible. Any reference to Baptism should be examined to see what kind is being mentioned. Failure to differentiate between texts that refer to water baptism and spirit baptism can lead to all sorts of confusion.