Context is KEY

I think something that's hard for many Christians is reading the Bible on a regular basis. Many of us use excuses such as "not having enough time." But I think a major reason many people don't read the Bible is it can be difficult to understand.

I used to feel very unsure of myself and my Bible knowledge. I can remember attending Bible study in college and feeling so intimated. These people could quote scripture or remember a specific passage that said something related to the discussion. They could read and understand things that were confusing to me. I grew up in church, why couldn't I do that?

Well, I figured out one thing...I didn't read my Bible enough on my own. College is when I got more serious about my own personal Bible study. I started off using books to guide me. I'd read about certain people from the Bible or through certain stories.

A few years ago, a book called By His Wounds You are Healed was recommended to me. I decided to use it and it changed the way I view my Bible reading. This book took me through Ephesians. It was like a light bulb went off in my head. It all came together and made sense. I experienced how much easier it is to understand the Bible when you read a book in its entirety. After using that book as a guide through Ephesians, I started reading through other books of the Bible on my own. I was reading through them and understanding them. Please don't think I'm saying I'm a Bible expert. I know I still have much to learn even from the books I've read. I also use a study Bible so there are notes for me to use. But overall...things were just making more sense. We also attend a church now where the pastors preach through entire books of the Bible. I love this model.

Through this, God has shown me that CONTEXT IS KEY. So often verses are taken out of context and used by people to serve their own purposes. Often times, this is done very innocently. I would guess that many times people don't mean to misquote the Bible or to mislead people. Unfortunately, there are even pastors who do this. Any time I see someone quote a verse, especially one I'm unfamiliar with, I always try to look it up and read around it to see what the verse is truly saying.

 This particularly irks me on Facebook. People share things all the time from certain famous pastors and speakers who promote what's known as the "prosperity gospel." People also love to share articles and blog posts that contain the words "Christian" or "Christlike." I read these articles sometimes and see where the authors use verses out of context. This bugs me because it makes me wonder how well people who claim to be Christians actually know God's word. I'm not writing these things to try and say I'm perfect and know everything and have massive amounts of Bible knowledge.

What I am saying is know God's word for yourself. Don't readily accept everything someone else tells you. Hold what pastors and teachers say against God's word. It's okay to disagree with what a pastor or teacher says if you've read God's word for yourself and prayed for understanding for yourself and that's not the way you understand something. Many of the most famous verses people quote aren't used in the correct way. Please note, though, there's a difference between disagreeing with something because it's your personal belief and disagreeing with something because it doesn't match up with God's word. We're not going to like everything we read in God's word. Some of the stuff in the Bible is hard to accept. Some of it we don't want to do.

This is something I've felt very strongly about for a while now and I have wanted to write a blog series on it. Maybe one day when I don't feel so overwhelmed and can put the time into it I will.