The Bible is such a beautiful and complex book. Written within its pages are the answers to life, the message of salvation, love, and forgiveness, but also warnings of judgment and consequence for sin and disobedience.
It is the inspired word of God a love letter of sorts, written from the God of all creation to his children (2 Timothy 3:16). Albeit, the Holy Bible is one of the most misquoted, misinterpreted, and misused books on the planet.
I once heard a minister say that “in no other book in the world do we pull out a sentence and create a whole doctrine except the Bible.”
But why is that? Let me start by stating the obvious, there is an evil enemy of God (and us), the devil. His goal is to keep God’s creation from ever being reconnected with our heavenly Father. (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Therefore, he must distort and pervert the words of God, as he did with Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-5) and when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4:5-6).
Misquoting scripture and taking verses out of context is also a tactic used by atheists and unbelievers to attempt to justify their unbelief (Psalm 14:1). Unfortunately, misquoting scripture can also be found in the local church assembly.
The danger of reading a passage of scripture as a stand-alone verse is that it will not bring clear meaning and understanding of what is being said.
Take for instance 3 John 1:2
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
This scripture is often used by word of faith teachers to validate their claims of the prosperity gospel. They use this verse to say that we should never be poor or sick and that God only wants us to be rich and healthy.
However, let’s look at the verse in context:
3 John 1:1-3 – The elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. 2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. 3 For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.
In context, we can see that this is not God speaking to us but rather John speaking to Gaius. This verse is a blessing that John spoke in his greeting at the beginning of his letter to Gaius.
Many people have bought into the idea that God wants us rich and healthy because of this verse. But this inaccurate interpretation could cause someone to become angry at God or abandon their faith altogether because they didn’t receive their healing, or because they are not wealthy when God never promised either.
Let’s look at one more:
Matthew 7:1 – Judge not, that ye be not judged.
This scripture is usually just quoted as “judge not!” and in most cases, it is being used by someone trying to defend their sinful lifestyle. This one is tricky because I believe it’s a scheme from the enemy to silence believers from speaking out against moral depravity and sin.
Now let’s look at the scripture in context:
Matthew 7:1-5 – Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
This scripture is not saying that we cannot speak out against sin (judge). Instead, it is saying that we must deal with the sin in our own lives before we try to address the sins of others. Jesus warns that if we take a critical approach to judging someone else, we will be judged by that same critical measure.
This is damaging to the kingdom of God because we are silenced into believing we can’t speak out against sin. After all, it’s judging and that’s mean. However if we don’t speak out when we see our brother or sister in error they may continue in sin and possibly end up lost forever, in hell.
So why is context important for us to understand? Because this how cults are formed, false doctrines are spread, and false ideas about God are made.
Please understand, I am not saying that everyone who misquotes scripture is a false teacher, most of the time I think we are just repeating what we have heard.
However, a missing word or misquoted verse can change the whole meaning of the message, so we must be very careful and very diligent to make sure that we are rightly dividing the word of truth.
Here are a few suggestions for reading the bible in context:
1. Pray
Before reading the Bible we must pray and ask for the aide of the Holy Spirit to give us the understanding of God’s word. There is only one interpretation of scripture that is God’s interpretation.
Our goal is to find out what message God is trying to convey to us in the text. (2 Peter 1:20-21) He has given us the Holy Spirit along with Pastor/Teachers to better help us understand, but remember, there is only 1 interpretation, that’s God’s.
2. Read the summary of the book
In most bibles (even online) there will be a summary at the beginning of the book you are about to read. The summary will usually give the author of the book, the date it was written, and the audience it was written to. It may also provide specifics such as the purpose the book was written, the cultural setting, and the theme. Reading this first will give you a good overview of what you are to expect in the book and how each verse works to support a common message.
3. Read an entire chapter
Instead of starting in the middle of a chapter or pulling out one verse, start reading at the beginning of the chapter and read to the end of the chapter. It may be necessary sometimes to read the chapter before and after so that you can grasp the full meaning of the whole conversation, or thought.
4. Ask questions
What can I learn about the character of God? Who is the author speaking to and why? What lesson can I learn from this and how can I apply this verse to me? Asking questions helps us to interact with God’s word as we think about what we have read and how it can apply to us today.
Finally, remember God’s word has power, and we want to receive with gladness everything that God has purposed for us through his word. Therefore we must desire to seek his word and understand it with clarity, and learning to read the bible in context will get us off to a healthy start.