The first rule you teach a new Christian about Bible study is that context is everything; that is, if one is to properly interpret the scriptures. Sad to say, many are not taught this most important truth about life. Life also is to be interpreted in its context, if we are to understand its meaning. The word interpret comes from the Latin, and means, “to weave together.” You know, like Romans eight twenty eight tells us.
When interpreting life, it’s dangerous to divorce individual events and incidents from their over-all setting. If we do, we will turn exceptions into rules, the temporal into the permanent, the fanciful into reality, and fiction into fact. We are told, as long as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night, will also. But no one of these is life as a whole; they are only parts of it, making up the whole.
And so, whether our lot is joy or sadness, little or much, sickness or health, victory or defeat, let us remind ourselves that like the seasons, each will change, giving way to the other. Life is always changing. Only God is unchangeable! Therefore, when attempting to understand life, don’t take things out of their context. And remember, God is not part of that context, He is the context. Or as the Apostle tells us, “He is our life.”
No comments:
Post a Comment