A Christian's 30 Day Challenge To Deeper Living

Day 11: Out of Context

Just as a warning, this coming devotional will more than likely pop your Christian bubble of comfort- it did mine.

So recently my churches youth group has been doing a morning Bible study on how to study the Bible (Yes, I realize that’s ironic.)  Anyway, a few weeks ago I had my bubble of happy obliviousness popped with a sharp needle of truth.  Let me start this off with an example.  What is your favorite verse?  Or what is the verse that would pop into your head the fastest?  What if I came to you and said that I want to be a missionary but things just don’t seem to be looking that way for me.  If I asked you for a Bible verse to help comfort me, what would you say?  More than likely one of the first verses that would pop into mind would be Philippians 4:13 “For I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Don’t try to deny it!  That’s more than likely what you would have said.

Well I’m not judging because I’m right there with you.  But here’s the thing: that promise is not for us.  We cannot claim that God told us that.  Now I’m sure right now your eyes are bugging out and you are trying to find my address so you can come with torches and pitchforks to stab me to death for my blasphemous statement, but hear me out.  That verse, like many others that we constantly quote, is out of context!  See, Paul was in jail when he wrote that verse.  He had just finished saying how even when he was poor on earth, he was rich in Heavenly ways and he was attributing it to Christ.  The “I” in that verse is referring to Paul, not to us.

Now, it’s not that it might not apply to us because Paul is no great saint or something that would have higher dibs on Heavenly rewards than us.  Paul was just as human and normal as us; he was just spreading the Gospel in great ways.  He was doing what God called him to do.  So, if Paul could claim that Christ strengthens him, we can probably assume we can too.  Here’s the problem, that tiny little phrase “all things” is a deal breaker.  What if we all starting using Philippians 4:13 in a totally literal way?  We would be jumping off building shouting “Christ will strengthen me!” and then we would promptly splat on the ground.

Is it that God couldn’t save us?  No!  He could if He chose to, and He just might.  Personally, I’m not going to try it.  Here’s the basic break-down.  God did not tell us that He will give us strength to do anything.  If He did say that, then how would our faith even survive?  What about that math test we just failed?  What about when we sin?  We would have a hard time not giving up on our faith if we were told that we should be superheroes because we are Christians.  So while God obviously has the ability to give us strength to complete tasks, that exact verse was spoken to Paul, not specifically us.

Philippians 4:13 is an easy example, but these famous, comforting, Christian verses are used out of context a ton.  For my graduation I had a few books given to me on various graduating topics.  On book, though, was on God’s promises.  It is thick little book packed full of scripture.  I used to find it very comforting to look up a verse and revel in the amazing promises Christians have.  Now I’m a bit more wary when I open the book.  I feel like I have to open my Bible and read the context on every single verse before I find comfort in it.  Is that a bad thing?  Not necessarily!  It’s good to open the Bible.  Our generation has serious issues with just Googling whatever we’re looking for and not bothering to do the research around it.

I will say that more than likely those promises could be applied to us.  I mean, I believe God strengthens me to do anything He calls me to do.  He will not give us a task larger than the strength  that He will give us to complete the task.  And here’s the other thing, we do not tend to look at disappointing texts out of context.  What if I walked up to you told you that the Lord said, “"I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”? (Genesis 6)  You would be a little freaked out because I just predicted your doom’s day.  In context, though, that verse is talking about the Flood which has already happened a long time ago. 

As you can see, it’s better to just read the Bible for yourself.  Find the promises on your own!  There are tons of promises in there for us; we don’t need to be stealing someone else’s.  Context is key! 

Although I have said all of that, there's the other side of it to look at: why would a verse that does not apply to us be in the Bible?  I think we can still be safe to say the verses can be applied to us, but they might not have been specifically given to us, such as with my Philippians example.  Either way, context is still very important because it can completely destroy the intent of a verse to just look at it without studying it's surroundings.

I hope you all will promise with me to start looking up the verse in context more often!  Until the next devotion, have a very merry Christmas and God bless!

-Aly :)