When I was a kid, I was exposed to a lot of memory verses.  We memorized a portion of scripture at youth camp every summer.  In Sunday school, we often focused on one verse at a time to memorize or understand the significance thereof.

What a great practice for children–freshly children and spiritual children alike! 

But I’m neither anymore.  And one thing that has really woken the Bible for me is reading these verses in context.  No verse is meant to stand alone–not even the very popular John 3.16!  The Bible is best viewed as a crocheted blanket; if one part of the string is taken away, the rest of it will unravel and fall apart.  And that one part of the string? It won’t keep you warm for very long.

I think this ties into the concept spoken of in the New Testament.  In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul wrote that he had to address the Corinthians as though they were babies when it came to Christ.  They knew very little and had experienced very little.  In Hebrews 5, the author proclaims that solid food is for the mature; spiritually speaking, this means people who have practiced discerning good and evil.

I love milk.

But I want some meat!

As I’ve clawed and worked my way toward maybe possibly being a mature Christian, I have found that a memory verse, while inspirational and important–they don’t sustain me as much as digging into the context of the verse, finding out the meaning and how the verse relates to the Gospel.

I believe the Bible is true.  Completely!  So, that means I have to dig to figure out what the heck some of these seemingly cryptic sentences mean.

Enter: Context.

Just like any story, every sentence has a context.  If I pull a random sentence from a random book in my room– wait, I’m going to do that right now:

That is the farthest thing from Paul’s (and God’s) mind.

Well, I promise that was random; it just happened to be on Seth’s shelf.

But, anyway, based on the verse, what do you think that book is about? The thoughts of Paul? The thoughts of God? This sentence, when taken away from the rest of the book means absolutely nothing.

The book is about marriage, by the way.  The paragraph? It was about the importance of husbands not taking advantage of their wives’ respect for them.  I didn’t look further than that in the context, but you get my point.

#iheartBible Posts

So, as we begin reading our verses for the #iheartBible challenge posts, don’t forget the context.  The context will help us develop more–grow into more mature Christians–and make us stronger in Christ as we defend the faith.

Please consider joining me on this one-month journey of accountability and growth.  We start Saturday!

Love,