I have known some people who get pretty worked up over taking the Bible out of context. And I can understand it ... to a point.
There is no doubt that man has twisted and used Scripture for his own means, misinterpreting the Word to back up their own cause. And I believe it is also true that there are some things in Scripture we will never fully understand unless we understand the culture and time period in which it was written. Often when we try to apply those things to the 21st century and our life today, we will misunderstand a lot of things and miss powerful works of God. So yes, context is important.
But.
I would suggest that context is not always
critical. The reason is God is
sovereign. A friend pointed out the Word of God is multidimensional. When understanding literal meaning begins to blind us from other aspects of Scripture, I think we can miss some vital things the Lord is trying to show us.
For instance, this past week I was reading through a set of Scripture I have grown up reading whenever I needed encouragement, and I realized my whole life I was totally misunderstanding the original meaning of the verse. It was like God opened my eyes to the real meaning, and to what was going on during that time, and I learned something so completely different than ever before. That doesn't negate the work God did in my through that verse, does it?
Similarly, we are all at different places in our lives, with different wiring, and different understanding. If a person is completely off-base, we should pray for wisdom to humbly and lovingly speak truth to that person - but while I think it is good to have knowledge and understanding of the original texts and the translation of the Greek and Hebrew and what the traditions were and so forth - I think it is also important not to be tied to the knowledge of man so much that we miss what else God is saying to us and perhaps even, getting in the way of how God is moving in someone's life in a way they will understand.
Do you think it is important to understand the context in which Scripture is written?
Comments (2)
my only problems with taking the Bible out of context...
-if you did that with nearly any other piece of literature, your conclusions would be considered wrong.
-if Christianity is, objectively, for everyone... then the Bible should have once central message that everyone can agree upon and see. if personalized interpretation is the way to go, the message cannot be centralized. if there is nothing theologically or spiritually wrong with you understanding the Bible differently than the individuals who wrote it, then it's just as correct for someone else to look at a passage and arrive at a completely different conclusion as you. or, for a non-believer, to look at the Bible as a whole and say there's no message, period.
-if it's all about personal interpretation, how do you plan to determine when someone is "completely off-base"? for example... i think any Christian who cites Leviticus as proof that homosexuality as a sin... but at the same time, eats shellfish... is off-base. if you're going to quote one part of Jewish law as authoritative, then all of it should be authoritative.
@too_pretty_to_die@xanga - I tried to explain it a little in my post, but perhaps you and I mean two different things when we say 'taking it out of context'. I believe the Bible to be true, so if I were to try to interpret what I am reading to back up my case I would be "completely off-base".
I guess what I'm talking about here in this post goes back to a conversation I had with some people and as we were reading through a passage of Scripture together the person kept stopping in the middle of reading to explain the exact scenario, the traditions of that culture, and sort of looked at people a little funny if we related it to something different. But if you and I were having a conversation and something you said reminded me of something else going on in my life and helped me, chances are you would not stop me in the middle of telling you that to correct me back to the topic we were on. Perhaps context isn't the right word for this post? Because I don't mean one's personal interpretation of Scripture, I am talking more about gleaning multiple lessons from one particular passage, but ultimately understanding the real concept. I hope I am making sense.