{"id":2387,"date":"2016-08-21T12:23:12","date_gmt":"2016-08-21T17:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedisciplemaker.org\/?p=2387"},"modified":"2023-06-28T16:59:55","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T16:59:55","slug":"does-the-bible-really-say-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2016\/08\/does-the-bible-really-say-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the Bible Really Say That?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When I was a young Christian, the Holy Spirit put in my heart such a yearning for Scripture that I began reading through the New Testament every week. By the end of my second week, I was astonished at what I was beginning to discover: Most of the verses I had memorized and was quoting meant something different in context!<\/strong>
\nI saw that I had been treating much of the Bible as a collection of memory verses with irrelevant text in between. Yet God inspired every line of the Bible for a reason\u2014this includes the many verses that we rarely teach from or apply to our lives, perhaps because we don\u2019t understand them. As part of a larger context, they make sense. Even when we get the basic sense of verses right, we would go so much deeper with context.
\nTo illustrate how much more attention to context is needed, let\u2019s examine a few of the passages we often use without thinking of their surrounding text.<\/p>\n

The Thief (Jn. 10:10)<\/h3>\n

When I ask my students who the thief is who \u201ccomes only to steal and kill and destroy,\u201d most instantly reply, \u201cThe devil.\u201d That assumption is natural: The devil does, after all, steal, kill, and destroy. But when I ask the same students to read the passage in context, they all independently come to an identical conclusion: The thief represents false teachers.\u00a0Whoever tries to get to the sheep without coming through Jesus (the gate) is a thief and a robber (Jn. 10:1). Thieves, robbers, and wolves seek the sheep to devour them. By contrast, the Good Shepherd died at the hands of such thieves to protect His sheep (vv. 11-15) and ensure them life.
\nIf we read the context further, we see that Jesus was confronting the Pharisees, who claimed to be Israel\u2019s shepherds. They had expelled from their religious community a man whom Jesus had healed, but Jesus welcomed the man as one of His sheep (see John 9).\"?\"
\nThe principle remains the same today: Those who seek to lead us away from Jesus are thieves. Is this true of the devil? Certainly. But if we apply the verse only to the devil, we miss how it applies to thousands of the devil\u2019s agents in the world today.<\/p>\n

Exalt Him? (Jn. 12:32)<\/h3>\n

We often sing the song, \u201cLift Jesus Higher.\u201d Part of the lyrics are taken from Jesus\u2019 words in Jn. 12:32: \u201cIf I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me\u201d (KJV ). It is biblical to \u201clift Jesus up\u201d\u2014Scripture summons us to \u201cexalt\u201d the Lord. But is that what Jn. 12:32 means? The passage itself leaves us no room for doubt as to its meaning.
\nVerse 33 explains, \u201cThis [Jesus] said, signifying by what death He would die\u201d (NKJV ). In the ancient world, \u201clifting\u201d could mean exaltation (Is. 52:13), but it could also mean hanging (Gen. 40:20-22), including by crucifixion. (This is why Jesus earlier told His enemies that they would lift Him up. See Jn. 8:28).
\nIn John 12, Jesus predicts that He will draw the world to Himself through His death on the cross. If we meant the song the way John meant the verse, we would be singing, \u201cCrucify Him! Crucify Him!\u201d Of course, God knows what we mean. But we would do well to look up verses in context before quoting them in a song.<\/p>\n

A Special Day (Ps. 118:24)<\/h3>\n

Many churches quote or sing, \u201cThis is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it\u201d every Sunday morning, but most members do not catch the full import of this verse. We think it means we should rejoice in every day God has created. While it is true that we should rejoice in the Lord always (Phil. 4:4), the psalmist had a specific day in mind.
\nThe psalm refers to a day of God\u2019s triumph, when God made a stone rejected by the builders into the chief cornerstone (Ps. 118:22). This was the day in which we should rejoice (vv. 23-24). The New Testament applies this rejection and triumph to Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection (Acts 4:10-11)\u2014the ultimate cause for celebration. When I sing this verse, I remember the greatest gift God has given us: the death and resurrection of His Son.<\/p>\n

Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38)<\/h3>\n

Context is not just the verses immediately before and after a verse. God gave us the Bible one book at a time, and context invites us to read each passage in light of the entire flow of thought within the book to which it belongs.
\nOne writer attacked the story of Judah and Tamar as \u201ca filthy, dirty story.\u201d This story narrates how Judah went in to a woman he thought was a prostitute, not knowing that she was his daughter-in-law, and got her pregnant. But this passage\u2019s detractor would have done better to read the chapters surrounding this story before complaining.
\nThe account of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38 is sandwiched between two accounts about Joseph. In the first, Joseph\u2019s brothers, led by Judah, sell Joseph into slavery. In chapter 38 then, we see that bad behavior catches up with those who practice it: The same brother who sells Joseph is now exposed in a sin he cannot deny (vv. 23-26).
\nIn the account about Joseph that follows Judah\u2019s sexual sin, Joseph rejects the advances of his master\u2019s wife (39:7-10). Taken together, these chapters offer a deliberate contrast between the sexual behavior of Judah and Joseph and, thus, challenge the double standards of their day.
\nMost cultures in the ancient world punished women who were immoral but allowed men to \u201cplay the field\u201d so long as they did not do it with another man\u2019s wife. Judah behaves like other men, but Joseph, who is righteous, refuses to sin even when threatened with punishment for that refusal.
\nNor does the contrast between Joseph and Judah end there. Judah degraded himself by surrendering his marks of personal identity\u2014including a ring and a chain\u2014to a woman he thought was a prostitute (38:18). God\u2019s reward for Joseph\u2019s virtue, however, offers a stark contrast: Pharaoh gave Joseph the same kind of identity\u00a0markers\u2014a ring, robe, and chain\u2014as symbols of his exaltation (41:42).
\nThree chapters later, we find that Judah is willing to become a slave himself rather than let his younger brother be enslaved (44:33). Judah is no longer the wicked young man he was when he sold Joseph into slavery. What constituted the turning point in his life? The best clue the narrative offers is that God used Tamar to confront Judah with his sin.
\nIn context, then, the story of Judah and Tamar is not a \u201cfilthy, dirty story.\u201d It belongs, instead, to a tale of virtue, repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation.<\/p>\n

The Great Commission (Mt. 28:18-20)<\/h3>\n

I like to teach from passages that pull together many of the themes of the books in which they occur. One such example is the Great Commission in Matthew\u2019s gospel. The rest of Matthew prepares the way for this rousing conclusion.
\nEven though our classes will probably not let us read the entire Gospel of Matthew to them before we teach its conclusion, we can simulate the effect by summarizing the themes that climax there. To explain this passage fully, I could use each of the themes in this commission (such as Jesus\u2019 authority, making disciples, or Jesus\u2019 teachings) as topics in my presentation. Then I could fill in each of those topics with what Matthew says about the subject earlier. In this way, I invite my listeners to hear afresh the gospel\u2019s message the way God\u2019s Spirit first inspired it.
\nI will illustrate this approach with one of the themes in this commission: the command to disciple \u201cthe nations\u201d (v. 19). Although Matthew wrote this gospel especially for Jewish Christians (in his day the majority of believers), this conclusion would not have taken them by surprise because Matthew prepares them for it through<\/p>\n