Studying the Bible in context is vital to grasp God’s original meaning and avoid misinterpretation. Taking verses out of context distorts Scripture, which leads to false teachings and harmful practices.
Context is essential in studying the Bible because it helps us understand God’s original intent and prevents misinterpretation. Both the Old and New Testaments emphasize the importance of knowing Scripture within its covenantal and unified story centered on Christ. Taking verses out of context can lead to false doctrines, misapplication, and confusion, which contradict God’s desire for accurate understanding and faithful living. Misusing Scripture by ignoring context can justify harmful practices, as seen historically with slavery, which the Bible addresses differently when properly understood. Therefore, studying the full counsel of God and rightly handling the word of truth is crucial for accurate teaching and living.
Theologian D.A. Carson stated that, “A text without context is pretext for a prooftext.” We must study the Bible in its literary, historical, and cultural contexts to correctly understand it. Misunderstanding a portion of the Bible can lead to misapplying it in our lives as well as passing false teaching to others. But God's desire for our lives is to know His Word accurately, apply it in our own lives, and teach it to others.
Another concern is the temptation to make the Bible say what we want rather than what it originally meant. Those who take this misguided approach have used Scripture to "prove" a wide variety of practices as "biblical." However, a practice is only biblical if it is based on an accurate understanding of Scripture, which includes studying the context surrounding a passage.
For example, some have taught that slavery was biblical since this practice can be found in the Bible. However, while it is true slavery is found in the Bible, the New Testament did not teach Christians to enslave one another. On the contrary, in Paul's most personal letter regarding this issue, he entreated Philemon to free his runaway slave Onesimus (Philemon 1). In another letter to Timothy, Paul lists “enslavers” along with types of “ungodly and sinners” (1 Timothy 1:9-10). Besides Genesis 1:27 speaks of men and women being created in God's image. Christians are called to love their neighbors as themselves (Mark 12:31), a practice that would certainly contradict modern slavery. Further, a close examination of slavery and servanthood in first century times shows that it often differed widely in application from modern slavery. A doulos (Greek word for servant) could have a servant of his or her own and held much responsibility. While there were certainly masters who treated their servants poorly in that time, slavery then was not practiced exactly as slavery has been in modern times.
As that example shows, without studying the context of biblical passages on that and other topics, Scripture has been and still can be used to support the most tragic of interpretations.