Living in Context

Context determines meaning. The Bible says "there is no God," but in context it actually says "the fool in his heart says there is no God." Jesus quotes Psalm 22 on the cross, beginning with "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me" and finishing with ki asah, which can either be translated "it is finished," or "He has done it," depending on context. In the poetic context of the Psalm, Jesus is also referring to David's expression of anguish that he is a worm and not a man, which clearly does not mean Jesus or David are suggesting they are actual worms.

If you don't know scripture and its context, you won't know how to handle temptation.

God’s full command to Adam was “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17). When Satan tempted Eve, he questioned the first half of this command by separating it from the second: “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” When Satan tempts Jesus, he quotes Psalm 91:11-12 out of context to suppose that angels have authority on their own to keep feet from stumbling without God being the refuge, using angels to bring His people into that refuge. Unless we know both the messages of the Bible and the full context of where those messages originate, we will be easily led into misunderstandings.

Are you living a resurrected life?

 There were three days between the crucifixion and the resurrection but the two events can only be understood in the context of the other. We are not supposed to live in the three days of pause between crucifixion and resurrection. We are supposed to live a resurrected life. Our life should be lived in the full context of both the crucifixion and the resurrection. Our life should exhibit both a death to sin and a life of righteousness (Romans 6). We should live in the full context of the death and resurrection of Jesus not just a partial context. We cannot live in the crucifixion—simply trying to die to sin, but we also cannot simply live in the resurrection without the crucifixion. We cannot ignore the need to put to death sin, but we cannot stop at putting to death sin. We have to continue the whole in context putting on a new, resurrected life.

How are you convicted?

“And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” (John 16:8-10). If we are honest with ourselves, we will always feel convicted. We may feel convicted of righteousness and urged to do more of God’s work in the world. We may feel convicted of sin and work to remove sin from our life. We also may feel convicted of judgment and have a drastic call to change our life. A conviction of judgment will lead to a conviction of sin as God reveals to us which sin in our life He is calling us to root out, and a conviction of sin will lead to a conviction of righteousness as we continue to move in the calling God gives us. We have to live a life of full context: moving in transformation from judgment to sin to righteousness.