Context?

   I know it probably is not something that bothers most believers, but when it comes to the Word of God, context is important to me.  Things preached, said, or believed out of context, bug me.  If you want to ignore context, you can make the Bible say about anything you want.  For example, how about the woman preacher sharing the platform with a group of male preachers, who thought little of women preachers and gave her a hard time. When she stepped up to preach, she took this as her text, "..I would not have you ignorant brethren...." Ro. 1:13.  So there, the Bible reaffirms prejudice against men, right?   How about affirming suicide? "Judas went and hanged himself...."  and "go thou and do likewise".   It must be true, the Bible says so, right?

     On a more serious note, how about things said, preached, or believed that are out of the context of the new covenant.  There is an old covenant and a new covenant we have with God.  The new one is better with better promises.  So, then why do we so often work hard to claim a promise from the old covenant. The work of the enemy has been so effective, many are those who do not even know that we have a new and better covenant.  Nearly all their information, nearly all the preaching and teaching that they hear, consist of things out of the context of the new covenant. Even though something may be true, out of context it becomes a weapon against us. If you really pay attention to what Paul dealt with in so much of his Holy Spirit inspired writings, he was trying to keep people in context of the new and set them free from the old. In the book of Galatians, he made it clear that a bewitching was going on, drawing people back into the Old and out of the new.

 

    You can preach about anything, with supporting Bible verses, and your words will be true, but still wrong.  For example, you can preach about the wrath of God falling suddenly, at any moment, on unsuspecting people with just any number of confirming Bible stories.  Of course, you are talking to the wrong people out of the wrong covenant using stories out of context.  You can even teach about some blessing promised to Old Testament saints if they do such and such.  Every word you teach being the absolute truth, but you are out of context.  The bewitching work of the devil, just as with the Galatians, is to use whatever means possible to lure you away from grace, from the Spirit and back into another covenant, every word of which is true.  The bewitching work of the devil lures people into just lumping all of the Bible, front to back, and calling it Christianity.  Be careful!   A lot of the Bible, true to the letter, was about what it took for God to bring Christianity into being.  Christianity is here now. What it took to get it here is history. 

   Thank God we have a new and better covenant. If it is new, if it is better - it is different.  Oh, and by the way, any blessing you find promised under the Old Covenant, know this, things are better now.  We are redeemed from God's wrath. We have been birthed into the God-family.  We have been given the daily companionship of God the Holy Ghost.  We are under the covering of the Lord of Lords, who from His exalted position has chosen to bestow upon us mercy and then grace upon grace upon grace.  Better yet, He now calls us friends.