Words can get misconstrued easily. Remember the last misunderstanding you had with someone? It was probably because someone heard something you did not say. Or you said something that you did not mean. Understanding communication takes a tremendous amount of effort.

When it comes to understanding the communication from God, we must take it seriously and painstakingly work to understand it. We should want to do this because we want to make sure to obey God’s commands and live in a way that pleases Him. The Holy Scriptures communicate everything we need to know to live godly lives. Peter says, “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3).

A significant amount of effort needs to go into thorough and accurate Biblical understanding and interpretation. Paul writes, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). To accurately handle the Word of God requires us to be able to rightly divide it for the purpose of understanding. As of matter of fact, another translation of this verse says that very thing. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (KJV).

One systematic method to help us accurately handle or rightly divide the word of God is to ask yourself these questions when studying a periscope of Scripture:

What is the age context? Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. This helps us to understand that God has used a variety of ways to communicate His will to man at different times. These ages are rightly divided into:

      • The Patriarchal Age: Creation to Mount Sinai. God communicated directly to men like Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses.
      • The Mosaic Age: Mount Sinai to the Cross of Jesus. God communicated through Moses to provide His laws as found in the ten commandments. Men like Moses, Joshua, David, Isaiah, and Jesus could look to God’s laws to know what was expected of them and what was God’s will.
      • The Christian Age: From the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) to the day of final judgment. All Christians live under the Christian age where we follow the teachings of Jesus and the Apostolic doctrine outlined in the New Testament to know what God expects of us now and how to follow His will.

What is the historical context? At this point, five other questions come into play in biblical interpretation. These questions are:

      • Who is speaking?
      • To whom is the speaking given?
      • From where is communication given? What city? What location? What culture?
      • When is the communication given?
      • Why is the communication given?

These questions require serious study and hard work. Sometimes the answers are not given in the text, and additional extra-biblical sources are required.

What is the textual context? When studying one verse, it is essential to see what is written around it. Do not just take one verse or paragraph and think that just because certain words are there, it must talk about this or that. We are guilty of this more than you know. Let me give you an example. 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 says, 

“Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

The key words in this passage are: leaven/unleavened, Christ, Passover, sacrificed, feast, and bread. However, this passage is NOT about the Lord’s supper, and it should not be read as a verse to help us prepare our minds for partaking in the Lord’s supper. The context around it is dealing with someone who is sleeping with his father’s wife. Paul is addressing immorality and further explains that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. He explains that the old leaven “immorality” needs to be cleaned out. Christ has been sacrificed, and we are to enjoy the feast of Christian fellowship but not with immorality surrounding us. Verse 9 seals the deal, “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;”

You see, context is everything. Therefore when you study, look at the verses around the passage you are studying. Ask:

      • What is happening in the presiding and following paragraphs?
      • What is happening in the chapter?
      • What is happening in the book, and what is the primary purpose of the book?
      • What does the writer seek to accomplish by writing this book?
      • How does this fit into the whole context of Scripture, and what does the Bible have to say on the topic?

I hope you take Bible study seriously and are willing to work hard to handle the word of truth accurately.

I love you,

Alex