Reading and understanding the Bible in proper context matters. First and most importantly, only regenerated Believers can properly understand Scripture. We can all read the Bible and gain knowledge of facts (Notitia). We can find agreement with what the Bible states (Assensus). It takes true trust in Christ for us to obtain true, saving faith (Fiducia).

Even so, understanding verses in proper context is important. A number of verses are commonly misunderstood.

Philippians 4:13 – “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (NASB)

This doesn't mean that we can slam dunk a basketball, score touchdowns or get that big promotion that we've been waiting for. Paul knew he would soon be going to prison and was reflecting on how he had been taken care of through all of his circumstances and that he was content through it all.

Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

This one is often quoted when we meet some unexpected hurdle in our life.
The book of Jeremiah leading up to chapter 29 is about Israel’s disobedience and God’s punishment. In fact, chapter 29 is written to the exiles in Babylon, who were there because of disobedience. Verse 11 is speaking of how God would eventually restore them.

Matthew 18:20 -- "For where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I with them.”

Although God IS in small gatherings, this is not what the verse conveys in its context. In the previous verses of chapter 18, the subject of church discipline is being taught. "If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. ’If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector." Although these are some uncomfortable actions to take, its what the Bible commands us to do.

Overall, sitting under leadership, within the church, that has Scripturally-sound doctrine is vitally important. A Pastor that exposits the Scripture verse-by-verse, word-by-word is superior to topical sermons that focus on a couple of particular verses and are sprinkled with opinion.

This is exactly how I’ve studied for years
Good post

Yes and amen! When one is born again the Holy Spirit helps the believer understand Scripture. We may not understand clearly immediately as a new born in Christ but our Lord teaches His children and corrects them as we grow in maturity moving on from milk to meat. One of the great lessons is that Scripture will verify Scripture; that is, it will not contradict itself.

So many “Bible teachers” today appeal to the human case of feelings and emotions and in many cases self greed and preservation that lends to misunderstanding the true meaning of Scriptures…these are the ones who claim that all one needs to do is name a passage of Scripture and claim it and God will do for you as if He is a genie in heaven attending to your very desire. And then there are those who pick and choose which Scriptures are unimportant to them. For instance a pastor preaches on tithing and the response of the unknowing states “that is Old Testament and therefore does not apply” and they go further to state “Jesus never taught on tithing.” However they miss Matthew 23:23.

Verse by verse teaching that is expository is very important for the believer. Topical teaching generally misses so very much in that it lends itself many times to the personal objective of a teacher that appeals many times to the feelings, emotions, and felt needs of a hearer or for the motivated outcome for the presenter. Thus things like Critical Race Theory and Social Justice can be elevated in a congregation and such for instance by using topical teaching.

Great thread !!!

Just when I thought I was ready for the meat I find myself having to go back to milk on certain topics/scriptures. My immaturity I guess.

We're all still sinners in a sin-filled world. But our salvation as Christians that have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior is what allows us to grow our relationship with a Loving All-Knowing GOD.
In His time we will understand the things He wants to reveal to us through scripture, PRAYER, and life events.

91 yr. old father diagnosed last week with congestive heart failure, tired and seems like he's giving up. You better believe I'm leaning on my Heavenly Father right now. Hard as lighter stump to watch your last parent leave this life.

Standing on Romans 6:23 with both feet.

Mark, you are spot on. Man can twist and justify most things when taken out of context. When reading as a whole with proper hermeneutics, we then see scripture properly. When read with the Holy Spirit assisting us a a believer, we can properly understand. While God might not have revealed everything we would like, He revealed exactly what we need.

Why can genius level IQ men not understand scripture? The third part of the trinity hasn’t revealed it to them.

Why is scripture taken out of context? Ignorance of scripture and to justify a position contrary to scripture.

One of the biggest issues in the religious world is reading the bible outside of context - hammer meet nail. As far as who can understand the word, anyone can read and understand the will of God. Does it take faith to accept what you read and put it into practice in your life... absolutely!. However, there's not hidden information in the bible that's "unlocked" when a person becomes a believer.

Maybe the catholic church was on to something pre-1600. You cant mislead... if you cant read. Or was that OJs lawyer?

I start each day reading. Usually a chapter. Sometimes more. When I finish I start over. Only book I have ever read cover to cover besides The Old Man and the Sea.

I took a 13 week class on Inductive Bible Study. One thing that I learned is how often scripture is manipulated to make us sinners feel better. The instructor had calendars from Lifeway with scripture completely out of context. Jeremiah 29:11 is a popular one.

Awesome thread!!!

Context comes into play in multiple areas. The first is the background of the message- understanding where the passage was building from. Another that is often overlooked is the original language that the scripture was written in. A lot can be lost or changed in translation if the original language isn’t considered. It’s common for words in any language to have different meanings depending on how and where it is used. I think if someone is truly studying for understanding then other tools like a concordance, study bible and commentary from scholars is very useful. I like a study bible because it incorporates multiple tools to help with the study for understanding.

While i do agree about reading the Bible , as a true story, in context, there are occasions when the Lord might speak to you personally through a verse and it be about you and your life and have nothing at all to do with the verses part of the Bible story.

Biblical truths:

Only the book of Acts contains actual examples of conversion. Not a single alien sinner is ever told to pray for the forgiveness of sins. Not a single one is ever told to just accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Every single example has one thing in common, only one. The epistles were written to Christians instructing them how to live, not how to become Christians. To know how to become a Christian, study the book of Acts and do what they did. Once you are a Christian, live like the epistles instruct.

Biblical faith includes obedience. Heb 11:30 tells how the walls of Jericho fell. When you understand that, you understand biblical faith.

Faith only (belief) does not save - Jas 2:14-26 (see Jas 2:24)

Man cannot be saved by works - Eph 2:9

Man becomes a child of God by faith (biblical faith) when he obeys what God says - Gal 3:26-27

Only those who are obedient will be saved - Heb 5:9, 2 Thess 1:8

Once saved always saved is false doctrine - I Cor 15:1-2, Gal 5:4, 2 Pet 2:20-22, James 5:19-20 (there are many of conditional statements in scripture showing that man can turn away from God and be lost.

There is only one faith and it was delivered once for all time - Jude 3, Eph 4:5

People will turn away from the truth and find teachers that will tell them what they want to hear - 2 Tim 4:3

If you have to do mental gymnastics to "explain away" clear teaching, like say, Mark 16:16, then you probably aren't interested in truth.

The bible does not contradict itself. Each passage agrees with every other passage. One passage does not negate another. The bible only has to say something once for it to be true. Mark 16:16 and Acts 2:38 are in perfect agreement and those two passages are in perfect harmony with Eph 2:8-10 and Rom 10:9-10.

I could go on and on, but I won't

Those are some good thoughts and passages to study. Thanks for sharing.

As far as who can understand the scriptures, anyone who is seeking the truth can understand them. But those who aren't ultimately interested in the truth will not understand the scriptures, because they'll either twist them to fit preference or ignored when convenient.

mman, i dont agree with all you said but most of it. I wouldnt dare argue it with you. Its plain to see you have done your studying and your opinions are grounded in your understanding of the scriptures. That my friend i do respect, about as much as its possible for me to respect anything on this earth. Peace be unto you.

Dan, some questions cant be answered. I can tell you something from a personal experience. When i was 14yo i begged the Lord for my grandmother's life when she was in the hospital dying. I got really mad at God about all that and that lead to the worst 15 years of my life. I dont know why your dad is going through all he is. I can say im sorry and i will pray fro him and you. I watched my daddy die a few years ago and i know how hard that is. If there was any way i could help you or your dad, i would.

This might be a little monkey wrench in the conversation. I respect people that believe every word in the bible is literal and historical from Genesis to Revelation. However, I starting listening to some Jordab B Peterson lectures on the book of Genesis. He kind of does a psycho-cultural analysis of the stories in Genesis and they are great. He doesn't feel like historical accuracy is important, he looks at the cultural signficance of the stories. It is agreed Genesis is full of stories that grandfathers and grandmothers thought were important enought to tell over and over to the young ones over a camp fire for generations until we had writing and Moses (probably) had the stories written down. Secular people tend to dismiss these stories as "Christian Mythology" but they will sit for 2 hours and watch the latest Comic Book Superhero movie as soon as it comes out.

You can find his series on Genesis on Youtube. It really added a depth to my faith and those stories for me. It also makes it moot to me whether some of those things actually happened. Many people lose their faith over questions about the historical accuracy of the bible and dismiss the great wisdom there.

Personally, I think everything after the book of John has to be looked at in a different context. I've seen those letters in the NT used to justify everything by everyone. The truth is those were letters written from one person to another that the early church found great to keep until Constantine made them "Holy". I pretty sure the Council of Nicea was a political move by a Roman emperor trying to capitalize on the early Christian movement.

Many will disagree with me, but the older I get the more I feel this way. The weird thing is it does not weaken my faith at all.

“Don’t believe everything you feel. Our emotions are the greatest liars we know. Preach the truth to your emotions and the truth will begin to change your emotions by the power of the Spirit.” Buck Parsons

Emotions will send more church people to hell than adultery. Sadly, a lot of churches prey on peoples emotions. From some modern worship songs to smoke machines to skits and on and on. God only speaks through His word and not anything else. Find a church (there’s still a few left) that the man of God stands up and preaches line by line and chapter by chapter. For me it’s Grace Life Church of the Shoals.

We do have to remember that the bible was written by the stroke of a pen from a man, but it was God that put the words onto the paper. The Bible was written over 1,600 years, and it has been factually proven. The Bible, even though it took so long to be written, does not have any place in it the contradicts itself. Would anyone like for their doctor to be using surgery techniques from the 18th or 19th century? Are we still under the exact same Science that was even taught to us in the 60's and 70's in school? Yet, the Bible, is still there.

Jesus talks to his apostles about being able to understand, because God allowed it. So, when I start to read the Bible, I first go to the Father and ask him to allow the Holy Spirit to come into me to allow me to understand what is being read. I want the Holy Spirit to reveal the "nuggets" to me and not just let me read "stories." My understanding of most anything is very limited, but the one that wrote the book knows all it's intricacies. People spend a lot of money to travel to different cities and vast amounts of time to hear an author speak about his latest book or even past books he has written. All we have to do is get ask him to reveal himself and His Word to us.

On the deaths that have been mentioned, I am truly sorry gentlemen, I can relate. We, in all our money or all our prayer or all of the doctor's knowledge can not add one second to a life without the Father granting it. We have to understand that our ways are not His ways, he knows. Does it hurt to loose one? It hurts immeasurably. Does it cause some to turn from God and curse Him, nope, the devil has been allowed into your heart. You allowed the devil a seat at your table. We all have allowed him to take a seat, but it is through Jesus's power that we can tell him to get up and leave. We have to recognize this first.

Amen Mark.

I’ve been truly saved since 19 years old, but it took me about another decade to finally figure out that once I stopped reading the Bible with a man-centered perspective and started asking “how does this point to Christ” in everything I read in Scripture, the Bible came alive to me in a new way. Asking “what does this mean to me” is a dangerous way to read the Bible. It doesn’t matter what it means to me, but what God means by what is written. We should pray that God would align our hearts and minds with His to have a proper understanding of His Word.