It's dangerous and deceptive to take anything out of context. But it's done all the time to promote false beliefs in our culture. And it's especially damaging when it's done to misrepresent a Bible passage.
Or they could say Jesus encourages us to be annoying because He said, "Blessed are you when people insult you."(2)
These are not actual examples, and you can see how ridiculous they sound, but the real examples are just as absurd.
Perhaps the most popular is pulling "Judge not" out of the context of Matthew 7:1-5, claiming we should never judge.
Then there are the self-esteem advocates who pull a phrase out of the KJV translation of Proverbs 23:7, claiming we become what we think so we should think highly or ourselves.
And what about all the Bible studies that use Proverbs 22:6 to claim Christians are responsible for their adult children's choices.
There are many more examples and they're based on taking Scriptures out of context. If we want to accurately understand God's Word and avoid being deceived by half-truths, we must put things in the context of the passage and in the context of all that Scripture teaches.
I know you'll appreciate my latest book Lies in Disguise. It comes out in October, and offers easy-to-understand explanations of popular half-truths so we can avoid them and help others avoid them.
💙💙💙
See:
Good post Gail. I hear so many people take this particular Scripture out of context all the time, including my own daughter. It is unfortunate, but sometimes some people don't want to accept that there is a certain way to interpret Scripture. It doesn't stop me from trying to explain it though. Thanks for posting this. It is so needed in today's society......Linda E.
ReplyDeleteExactly,Gail.Context is everything! Scripture taken out of context is useless at it's best and dangerous at it's worst!
ReplyDelete