We’re talking about ways to understand sentences from the Bible by looking at their contexts. Yesterday we talked about looking at the book around the sentence and the other books by the same writer. Today we’ll look at a couple other contexts.

Third, look at the sentence in the context of the rest of the Bible. Many ideas are talked about in more than one place. The image of marriage runs from the second chapter of Genesis to the next to the last chapter of Revelation. The image of “kingdom” runs almost as far, and with a variety of settings. Jesus talks about the law being distilled in two commands, but there are many laws and is much conversation about what counts. So put the sentence you are considering into this larger context. Trace the development of thought, the implications for different groups in different times. Consider the way the story unfolds.

Fourth, look at the sentence in the context of the larger picture of God’s work with humans.  The Bible talks about a chronology from before time until after time. It’s written, however, within a much shorter time. And as we watch cultures changed, we can consider what is time-bound and what is time-less.

I understand. This gets complicated. But when I look, for example at the “obey, rebel, repent, return” cycle that I read throughout Exodus and 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings, I begin to look for that pattern across time since then. And begin to see it in my own life.

What I know is that these contexts don’t answer all my questions about Bible sentences. But they invite me to think carefully and slowly before I jump to conclusions about what a sentence means to me. My boss says to use “observation, then interpretation, then application.”

I agree.