Observation: Context!
Context of scripture is so important.
When reading through these verses this morning I really saw a lot of
context. We use so many of these verses
out of context. “When two or three are
gathered”. We use this a lot of times to
mean that when we come together to pray God is there, but the context of these
verses is in the matter of disputes. I’m
not saying God is not in the midst of us when we get together to pray, but this
particular verse falls right in the midst of several paragraphs talking about
how to deal with conflict - conflict with your fellow man (chapter 18) and
conflict within marriage (chapter 19).
When reading Scripture we read verses
and chapters, but in the original text it was not written like this. We divide the Scripture into segments and we
group certain Scriptures into “titled sections”, but again this was not how the
original text was written. This is how
the translators decided to organize the passages.
The fact that the section on “letting
the children come to Jesus” falling in line with the passage on marriage and
divorce is no accident! Family is
important to Jesus. Our children are
important to Jesus! We only get this
understanding by reading it in the context.
Application: Today’s application is not so much of a personal
one to me as much as it is a reminder that when we read our passages today’s
reading teaches me to read in context.
If we want to understand the fullness of the message the Father is
trying to communicate to us we must read the passage as a whole.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for the Word of
God. Thank you for this love letter that
was put in writing by the hands of men through the power and influence of Your
Holy Spirit. Help us to gain the best
and fullest understanding of the things that we read and to learn to read the
passages before and after the verses we are studying so we can understand the
fullest meaning of what we are reading.
May Your Holy Spirit guide us and teach us as we read and study. Through Christ our Teacher I pray, Amen &
Amen.
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