Context Is King

A major principle of accurate Bible interpretation is summed up in the phrase “context is king.”

Vital Clues

Context is vital to our understanding of God’s revealed truth. Although the meaning of the individual words is important (see “Meaningful Words,” Answers, April–June 2013, page 80), we cannot stop there in our search for the meaning of God’s Word. We must understand how the surrounding text influences the words used.

Here is an illustration of the importance of immediate context. The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew. Written Hebrew did not use vowels but only consonants. Later Jewish scholars added vowel points, but the original text has no vowels! If you had only consonants to work with in English, what would the word “hr” be? It could be hair, hear, her, hour, or here. Without the surrounding context you couldn’t know which word was intended. Most of us don’t read the Bible in Hebrew, but you get the point. As people interpret and translate the Bible from the Hebrew for us to read, they must allow context to guide them.

We apply this principle all the time, even in English. Some words sound alike or are spelled the same but have different meanings. For example if I say, “I cannot bear another day” or if I say, “The bear was after me,” you know by the context which word I mean.

The Wrong Message

Some time ago our local newspaper printed a picture of the beautiful Grand Teton Mountains with the headline, “I look to the hills from whence comes my strength!” This verse comes from a psalm of David. But what a misuse of that verse!

When we quote Scripture out of context, we can completely miss the truth or sometimes even assert the opposite.

The text actually says, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1–2). In context, the verse gives a completely different meaning than the newspaper headline.

When we quote Scripture out of context, we can completely miss the truth or, as our local newspaper did, assert the opposite!

When Paul says in Romans 9:3, “For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,” is he saying that he could actually expect God to trade his eternal inheritance for the souls of lost Jews? Of course not! We realize Paul was showing us the depth of love he had for his countrymen. The theology of the New Testament and the context of Romans 10:1 show that Paul is stating his heart’s desire, not an actual possibility.

Absurd Extremes

Often people take one phrase or verse and run with it to an absurd extreme. For example, 1 John 3:9 states, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God” (ESV). Some Christians may claim this verse means they never sin! But the context includes the statement, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Which verse are we to believe? The key concept here is “practicing sin.” When we follow the desires of our old flesh, we sin—that is fact. But when we are allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us, we will not continually practice sin. He says this clearly also in 1 John 1:6, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth [emphasis added].”

Careful Study

Sometimes we can destroy the meaning of a text by an incomplete study of the context or by imposing our own ideas on it. A great example is Paul’s instruction, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22). Some argue that verse 21, “submitting to one another in the fear of God,” mitigates or voids the instruction for a wife to submit to her husband. But closer inspection shows that verse 21 is speaking of submission within the body of Christ as brothers and sisters; and verse 22 speaks of the husband-and-wife relationship in the home.

How can we be sure we are interpreting Scripture properly in context? First, identify the theme of the passage. Then look for illustrations in the context that help make the teaching clear. Search the passage for other similar or contrasting words to help understand God’s point.

The Bible is the Word of a perfect God who perfectly communicated His inerrant truth. But we must fight our tendency toward error and work to understand that truth. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).