II Timothy 2:15 (NKJV)  15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Digging Around The purpose of our theme for 2016 has been to encourage us to dig deeper into God’s word There are certainly ways that are well within our power to dig deeper One of these ways involves the idea of context

Digging Around Context is always important in anything that we do or say Things can be taken out of context and used to hurt or harm someone or used as an excuse to do something We learn the idea of context early in life…

Digging Around We are taught to look for context clues to figure out the meaning of a word Ex. “row” or “bear” The context helps to provide the proper meaning of a certain word, phrase or sentence

Digging Around The same thing is true of the Bible There are many verses that can be, and have been, taken out of context Ex. “Curse God” – Job 2:9 This verse, if taken out of context, can have disastrous effects

Digging Around It’s been said, “A text without a context is just a pretext for what you want it to mean” If we are going to dig deeper into God’s word, we must have good study habits This includes studying the context

What is Context? The context is so very important to properly understanding God’s word There are some important questions we should ask in this regard: Who is speaking? To whom are they speaking? What are they speaking about?

What is Context? We need to look first at the book we are studying Get background information on the author, the city or town that might be it’s backdrop and the purpose of the writing This can help in our understanding

What is Context? Remember that chapter and verse divisions were not in the original text They were added later to help with breaking down books Sometimes they break up thoughts that should go together (Ex. I Cor. 12 & 13)

Context Missing There are passages in the Bible that are often taken out of context One of the most common examples that we hear today is from Matthew 7:1… “Judge not, that you be not judged”

Context Missing Another involves the idea of Christ being present when “two or three are gathered together in My name…” This comes from Matthew 18:20 The context of that verse reveals that Jesus isn’t speaking about a worship service or devotional

Context Missing Another that is common in the denominational world is the idea of calling on the name of the Lord Acts 2:21 & Romans 10:11 These passages, in their context, are simply stating that salvation is for all, not just the Jews

Remember the Context Our goal moving forward in our Christian lives should be to follow God’s will as closely as we can That means understanding His will even better This is one way that we can become better at “Digging Deeper”