Reading Scripture in context, How?

[dizzy_dave]

I keep hearing all these biblical experts telling us to read the bible in context. What exactly do they mean. For example I was reading 1 TIM. 3:15 That says the chuch is the pillar and bulwork of the truth. Then reading on to 1 Tim. 4:1-2 we read "…in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils: speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron. These verses (1 tim. 3:15 and 1 Tim 4: 1-2 really seems to hold up the church, then in 1 Tim. 4:3 “… and commanding to abstain from meats, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving…” then that verse seems to me to say no one can command one they can’t eat meat (abstain), which the church does during lent. S we have the earlier verses which prop up the chuch and then the last one I mentioned that seems to say that the church doesn’t have the right. so how do we read verses of scripture in context? Thanks, God bless.

 

[FuzzyBunny116]

It means the exact opposite of what it seems.

1Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 2Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

3Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. 

4For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: 

5For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

Although we DO abstain from meat at sometimes during Lent, I thought, and forbidding to marry…interesting…

 

[Grace_and_Glory]

Most likely 1 Timothy 4:3 is speaking of the Gnostics, who believed that the physical world imprisoned the spirit. As a result, many of them declared that the body was evil and that marriage was evil because it created new bodies to imprison spirits. It is evident that this is not speaking about our current Church because of the reasoning behind the sect telling people to abstain from meat and from marriage. The sect discussed here is saying that meat and marriage should be abstained from because they are bad. The Church asks that we abstain from meat only occasionally and does not ask the vast majority of its members to abstain from marriage, and in the cases when it does ask us to abstain from either of these, its reasoning is very different. We abstain from meat not because it is bad, but because it is good, and we want to forgo some good thing in order to sacrifice for love of God. It would not be a sacrifice if we were giving up something bad. The Church speaks of those who renounce marriage for the sake of the Kingdom as “men and women who have renounced the great good of marriage to follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (CCC 1618). Given that Paul speaks against those who condemn meat and marriage as bad things and that the Catholic Church does not think meat is bad and thinks that marriage is a great good, the people Paul speaks against cannot be said to represent the Catholic Church.

 

[Kevan]

dizzy_dave:

so how do we read verses of scripture in context?

Reading a verse in context is not the only thing necessary to understand the verse. Sometimes the key lies in the historical setting, sometimes in the grammar, sometimes in another passage elsewhere that sheds light on the passage you’re studying. But context is an important part of the understanding process.

To read in context, it is necessary to catch the writer’s flow of thought. If Paul is following a topic or a logical argument, it is unlikely that he will change the topic for one sentence before returning to the original idea.

Identifying the writer’s topic, his argument, his key ideas, etc. is a process called “inductive Bible study.” Some good books have been written on it.

Pray for wisdom.

 

[Christy_Beth]

Context is very important. Take 1Cor 13. Many take this verse and apply it to married people. But that isn’t what it’s about. The preceeding chapter talks about the gifts of the Spirit. The love talked about in chapter 13 refers back to that. Basically, Paul is saying that we may have all sorts of gifts, but without love, it’s meaningless.

 

[puzzleannie]

the best book I know of to answer your question about how to read scripture in context is, Making Sense out of Scripture: Reading as the First Christians did, by I think Mark O’Shea.