An Elder at our new church, Pillar Jacksonville, made a comment that surprised me. He urged the congregation to steer away from the "Verse of the Day" options that some bible apps provide. We are working through Philippians and chapter 4, vs. 3 was used as an example.
Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me".
This is a very familiar verse to many. And if one were to read only this verse and not the preceding verses he might do things like paint it under his eyes before a football game insinuating God is going to strengthen him to win the game. (Tim Tebow) What Paul is really saying however is that he is able to be content in times of prosperity and in times of trial because of the strength that God gives him. He is able to be both humble and resilient. What Paul clearly is not talking about is God strengthening our physical capabilities in order to allow us to achieve material gain. How often is this verse misused and taken out of context?
Not only can we use verses wrongly, but when not reading in context we can also miss entire aspects of scripture that are not explicitly stated in verses. Genesis 3 is a prime example. What was the Sin Adam committed? Without reading the chapter all the way through, and the context found elsewhere in scripture, you would miss completely that it was Passivity. And later when Paul says in Timothy that he does not "permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence." It is often missed that this eludes also the sin of the passivity of man. If women are leading in the church, that means that men are not. If men are not leading in the church, they are likely being passive not only in the church, but at home and in all other areas of their lives. That is how we came to this mess in the first place.
At Pulpit speeds it only takes 15 minutes to read Philippians, 16 minutes to read 1 Timothy, and even less to read the first 4 chapters of Genesis. Context matter's, we should be very diligent in seeking to understand it.
yes! i often encourage people to understand paragraphs, not merely verses. memorizing verses is fine assuming you have them contextualized by the verses preceding and following. the goal overall being to understand God's Word not just some sound bytes.
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