Out of Context

Anyone can make the Bible say whatever they want it to say. We see this practice in debates and discussions all the time. Someone lifts a verse out of its context and makes it seem as though the Bible and God are anything but good and Holy. Whenever someone quotes you a Bible verse that seems contrary to the goodness of God or seems to contradict another part of the Bible, read the paragraph in its entirety, never read just the verse. Read what comes before the verse and what comes after it. The numbers in front of verses are some what illusory. They might lead you to think that the verses stand alone in their meaning. The numbers were added hundreds of years later and are not in the original manuscripts. So ignore the numbers, in order to get the big picture. This works because of one of the basic rules of communication. Meaning always flows from the top down, not the other way around. The key to the meaning of any Bible quotation comes from the paragraph, not just the individual words. You also have to consider: Who was speaking? Who was being addressed? What was the cultural and historical context within which the verse was given? What idea is being developed?

A Bible verse lifted from the Scriptures which does not convey the message of the text lacks Biblical authority even when the quote comes right out of the Bible. Only when you are properly informed by God's Word, in its context, can you be transformed by it.