CONTEXT-IMPORTANT?

[Rest]

Hey there,

I am curious about context when quoting Bible verses and developing doctrine.  Example:

Eph 5:21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

This verse is used to teach that husbands and wives should mutually submit to each other.  Is the context of this verse important or should Christians simply stand on the correctness of one phrase from an epistle?

Thanks

[Tibby]

Naturally, yes. The chapters and verses, as you know, were added later, the books were written as one text, in most cases, letters to brothers and sister in Christ in other Cities. Emagine if this post was split up into verses and chapters, we someone wanted a quote, they could say:

Tibby 1:1 "Naturally, yes"

Now lets traslate it into a forieng langauge, and see how much more jumbled the Verse would get. You would have to read it in context to know what I meant by "yes"! If not, someone could easily misquote me, like this:

Person 1: Is the moon made of cheese?
Person 2: Tibby 1:1 says "Naturally, yes"

Now, this is a pretty silly example, but think about how easy it would be to is misunderstand if we didn't read the context! Personally, I don't think you have to post the verse in context, if they want to, they can look it up for them selves! Just as long as YOU read the verse in context before quoting, to make sure you udnerstand it, and you arn't misquoting.

[Rest]

Thanks Tibby.  Must not be important to most Christians.

What a shame.  Wonder why we have so many denominations...

[Tibby]

Now, let’s give everyone the benefit of the doubt, I’m sure they all agreed with me, and just didn’t want to clog up the post repeating the same thing. Or many them had the same question. Either way, no problem, glad I could help you.

[doc]

Hey, resting one

A long time has passed since this thread had action, but "context" is a favorite subject of mine.

The word is from the Latin meaning "with weaving."  Con = with and text = weaving, as in textiles.

Scripture, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, is all connected.  Some context is immediate and some has to be sought out.

Here is my classic example of a close context ignored.

1 Corinthians 10:13

13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Great promises, aren't they, but everyone ignores the next verse:


14 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.


My experience with verse 13 was disappointing until I dealt with idolatry in my life.

I believe God has no obligation to keep His promises unless we abide by His conditions.  In fact, I have found no promises of God that do not have conditions - either in close context or distant.

We all must take all of Scripture and absorb it before we can understand some of this.

Your verse is precede by:

17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 

18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,

19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,

20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,  (NKJV)

Submitting under these conditions in a congregation should be a pleasure and it is.

Paul uses these thoughts to demonstrate what an ideal relationship should be like between husband and wife.  The conclusion of these thoughts is in verse 25 "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her..."

How could any relationship be difficult if each partner was willing to die for the other?

doc