Reading to Understand Part 2: Context is King

Introduction

I want to begin with a little story that illustrates the importance of context.

A loving couple planned a vacation. The wife could not get away from her business trip for the first day, so her husband agreed to travel to the resort first and his wife would meet him the next day.

When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick email.

Unfortunately, when typing her address, autocorrect changed the address to an elderly preacher’s wife whose husband had passed away only the day before.

When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor in a dead faint. At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:

Dearest Wife,

Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Sure is hot down here.

There’s an old saying concerning Bible interpretation: “A text without context is a pretext.” Without proper context, a text of Scripture can be made to say almost anything. If you don’t, you can get into real trouble.

Examples abound:

Conservative: “God will protect you” passages become reason to swear off all medicine and medical expertise. John Hagee: “We have a vaccine; the name is Jesus Christ.”

Progressive: “Wear a mask or you don’t love God or neighbor!”

Progressive: “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Lev 19:34). Spin: Open borders!

Recently:

President Trump viewed as another Cyrus sent to deliver God’s people.

President Biden, paying tribute to the Soldiers killed in Afghanistan, quoted Isaiah 6:8, “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me.’”

Like I said...real trouble. How do we stay out of trouble?

There are some rules you should follow when reading your Bible. Remember your 5 Ws and H? Who, what, when, where, why, and how. Answering these questions of the text will give you the context required if you want to read to understand.

Who?

Who wrote it?

Who is speaking? Being spoken to?

To whom was it written?

Who was it written about? (Subject)

Who is mentioned?

Examples

“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come’” (Matt 3:7)?! It would be helpful to know that Sadducees were the illegitimate religious ruling class who cared only about political power and the Pharisees were self-righteous teachers of the law. That helps you understand why John is so angry.

Philemon. Paul wrote a letter to a Christian slave-master named Philemon concerning his slave, Onesimus. If you don’t have those identifications clear, you will misunderstand the book of Philemon.

Where?

Where did this happen?

Where were they going?

Examples

Abraham offered Isaac on Mt Moriah, the same location that David would choose to build the temple 800 years later. How does that color your interpretation of that passage?

Paul wrote the following from prison: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

When?

When did the events take place?

This is difficult because so many Christians know next to nothing about Bible history.

Examples

1 Samuel, and the institution of the monarchy, follows immediately on the heels of Judges, when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Lamentations. “Great is Thy faithfulness” hits different when you understand that the Temple and Jerusalem had just been destroyed.

Having even a loose grasp of OT history will change the way you understand the Bible.

What?

What is the literary genre?

Historical/Narrative

Poetic

Prophetic

Apocalyptic

What is the immediate context?

Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that you be not judged.”

Matthew 7:5, “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

What else does the Bible say about this?

Let the Bible interpret itself. Allow the places where the Bible is clear to interpret where the Bible is unclear.

The Bible is the best interpreter of the Bible.

Examples

Hate our parents or honor them? In Luke 14:26 Jesus commands us to hate our father and mother. Does God really want us to hate our parents? Since He commands that we honor them in the 5th Commandment, we know that cannot be the correct understanding.

Is Genesis to be taken literally? Many don’t believe so, claiming that the early history presented in the Bible’s beginning should be understood as mythology. But what did Jesus believe? When asked a question about marriage, Jesus said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’” (Matthew 19:4-5)? If Jesus took a literal understanding of Genesis, shouldn’t we?

“God is love,” (1 John 4:8). No matter what I do or how I live, God accepts me for who I am. But even the same letter (1 John 2:1) reveals that God’s desire is that we don’t live in sin.

Conclusion:

When understood in context, the Bible gives life.

Out of context, the Bible can be death.

Example: Satan quoted God while tempting Eve. Then he quoted Scripture when tempting Christ in the wilderness?

Reading your Bible isn’t enough. You must read to understand. Read it in context. Satan can use the very Word of God against you if you rip it out of context.

The Gospel, in its proper context, is this: God, the Creator of everything, made man to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. But Adam sinned, and passed that sin to you through Original Sin. Without salvation, you will endure the anguish of separation from God and the pains of hellfire for all eternity. But God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, the 2nd Person of the Trinity, who was born of a virgin so that He would not inherit Adam’s original sin. He then obeyed all of God’s laws for us, because we could not. And He died the death that we deserve to die. And He rose from the grave, defeating death once and for all, so that His disciples might live forever, glorifying God and enjoying Him for eternity.

If you believe this, you should repent of your sins and be forgiven.