I recently heard a pastor say “Don’t get so caught up in what the Bible says that you miss what it means”. I love that statement because it well sums up a very important sentiment, which, in a nutshell, is that Scripture must be taken in context in order to be properly understood.
A key part of studying God’s Word is actually studying God’s Word. You have to get to know God. Who is He? What is He really like? Why does He say what He says? Don’t just proof text. In so doing, though well intentioned, what you “prove”, may be wrong.
Let’s say someone holds up a can of Diet Coke and says “I don’t like this”. Let’s assume that they are being truthful. That statement is true but what can you tell about them from that single statement? Do they not like diet drinks? Do they not like carbonated drinks? Do they not like caffeinated drinks? Do they not like cold drinks? Do they not like canned drinks? Do they only drink water? From that single statement, which is assumed to be true, you can’t tell much at all about what the person thinks about beverages and you certainly can’t tell anything about them in general as a person. Trying to get to know them from that single statement would be ridiculous. And yet, we do this all of the time with God. We take a single verse or small set of verses and don’t even try to consider them in the overall context of His Word and who that Word tells us He is. If we want to really know Him and help others to know Him, that won’t work.
For example, Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” This verse is very often quoted out of context, to comfort someone going through a hard time, to tell them that it will be OK. When God said this, the people of Judah were about to be conquered by Babylon and carried away into captivity that would last for 70 years. This was God’s punishment for the idolatry they had fallen into and His way of curing them of that idolatry. Remember that this was under the old Covenant, the point of which was to demonstrate the need for the New Covenant, the need for grace. They ended up coming back to a right relationship with God but it took time. God did bring them back out of captivity, after 70 years, once His purposes had been accomplished. But how do you suppose it felt during that 70 years? It ended up being OK but it took a long time for it to be OK. God often works on a longer time table than we would like. He has reasons for doing things the way He does, to make everything work out for our good (Romans 8:28), in the long term. God never promises that what you’re going through right now will be OK right now. My point is that just quoting a verse like this, without taking into account the overall story that is being told, can be very misleading. It can cause people to mistrust Scripture, when things don’t work out the way the Scripture would seem to indicate, and they can end up discouraged rather than encouraged. Context very much matters.
I just mentioned grace. This brings me to another verse of Scripture that could be misleading, if not taken in the proper context.
Look at 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 and 10.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
Here we have this big list of characteristics of the kinds of people who will not inherit the Kingdom of God. This list is summed up in one word, unrighteous. That includes me and everyone reading this, as Romans 3:10 tells us that no one is righteous. Paul had this fact in mind when he wrote this. Look at the next verse, verse 11.
And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
If we just look at 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 and 10, God looks judgmental and vengeful. But when we add in verse 11, we see His grace. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). The wages are real and we must be honest about that but the gift is just as real and we must not forget that, lest we distort the Gospel itself. Sin is wrong and has consequences. That is a fact that we must not shy away from. Repentance is the very first thing Jesus preached about (Mark 1:15). However, the message of the Gospel, the overall message of the entire Bible, when taken as a whole, is one of grace and hope. It is not a message of judgement and condemnation. When we talk about Scripture, we must be careful to convey that overall message.
We should offer encouragement that is rooted in a relationship with Christ but we must be careful to do that in the overall context of how He sometimes allows bad things to persist for our ultimate good. We should talk about the Perils of and repentance of sin but we must be careful to talk about that in the overall context of His forgiveness of that sin, of His love and grace. We could talk about many other examples. Going back to my original example, we must go beyond the coke can. When you look at God’s character and His heart and when you seek to convey that to others, don’t focus on one particular fact which “proves” your point, “supported” by a cherry picked Scripture or two. Take the time to really get to know God. Reflect Who He really is to this lost and hurting world. In order to fully get to know Him (understand His character and His heart), you must first KNOW Him (have a relationship with Him). For more about that, check out the “The Most Important Thing” section of this website.
