Context is Everything

I know that growing up, often in Sunday School we were asked to learn Bible verses. We would only learn one or two from a large chunk of text and at the time that was sufficient. Now as I have grown up, I have read my Bible more and found those same verses in adulthood, I have found the importance of context.

I have spent a great deal of time with a few people that do not see the context behind the verses they often throw in other faces. I have never wanted to be the kind of Christian to push or belittle someone because they are not at the same place in their faith journey as me, it benefits no one and is the opposite of showing God's love. It always bothered me with those individuals how they used their Bible as a weapon against me, when I only wanted to be on their side. It frustrated me even more when I would ask where the verse was found in the Bible or the context and they could never give me that answer. So this is where I get to my point...

The Bible is one big story, but a true one, if that wasn't clear. There is power in the whole and when we remove verses and fail to consider their context, we fail to appreciate the full message of those words. Even when a preacher chooses to focus on only a few verses, they still often read the full passage because the context IS important.

Many years ago when terrorist attacks began to become a regular occurrence and they would use their religious word for justification there was some backlash brought against the Bible. What would often be said is that they were following their text, but that Christians had no right to be scrutinizing them as the Bible contained the words "kill," "punish," and "hate" more than theirs. I have not gone through my Bible intentionally to count, but what I have learned by reading it is that yes those words are repeated a lot. They are seen most in the Old Testament and Revelation. So consider the context, the Old Testament looks at the beginning, at the Israelites and the foundational laws that would later be covered by the blood of Christ. Yes, there is frequent talk of killing animals and punishing those who broke moral laws that we don't even blink at breaking in the days we live in now. Without those laws and rules that God laid out and the punishment for disobeying them, He would have never set us, as Christians, apart as different from everyone else. To be Christian is to be different, to believe and act different than the sinful of this world. That being said, I am not God and it is not my job to judge.

The goal of me sharing this is two fold. Firstly, there are certain verses that have the power to stand alone, but remember they have even greater power when shared in context, with the whole passage - consider John 3:16 as an example. The second message I wanted to make clear is that as Christian we were meant to be set apart, we were not meant to be God and pass judgement and we were not made to use His beautiful word as a weapon to belittle others. Yes, the Bible cites itself as a weapon against your enemies (Ephesians 6:17). What I am encouraging is that we be conscious of using the word in a way that makes our enemies want to seek after God, not run away because of how as Christians we are acting. Use the word wisely, God gave it as a gift and you represent Him, be an example, not a deterrent.

One last thing, I never got a chance to set straight those people who continuously used the Bible out of context against me. If you know people doing the same thing, take that opportunity, you never know how that might create a chance at salvation for someone who is struggling in this broken world.