What Is Context?
One of the most common causes of misunderstanding the Bible is taking a verse out of its context. A statement may be completely true, yet misunderstood when separated from the paragraph, chapter, or situation in which it was written. The Bible was not written as a collection of isolated verses. It was written as books, letters, histories, poems, and prophecies, each with a purpose and a flow of thought.
The word context simply means "that which surrounds." It includes the verses before and after a passage, the chapter in which it appears, the purpose of the book, the historical setting, and the people being addressed. All of these help us understand what the author intended to say.
Think of overhearing someone say, "That's impossible!" Without hearing the rest of the conversation, you have no idea what is impossible or why it was said. The words haven't changed, but the context gives them meaning. The same is true when reading Scripture.
Before deciding what a verse means, ask a simple question:
"What is the author talking about?"
Read the surrounding paragraph. Follow the author's line of thought. Very often the context answers the very question you're asking.
This is also why careful Bible students are slow to build an entire doctrine on a single verse. They first ask what the paragraph teaches, then the chapter, then the book, and finally how that passage fits into the rest of Scripture.
One of the best habits you can develop is simply to keep reading. Many difficult verses become clear when we read what comes before and after them. More often than not, the context is the best commentary on the text.
If you make context your first question every time you open your Bible, you'll avoid many common mistakes and become a much more careful student of God's Word.
GOING DEEPER
Context Is Bigger Than the Verses Before and After
We often hear good advice:
“Never take a verse out of context. Read the verses before and after it.”
That's a good beginning. But sometimes it isn't enough.
A passage has several layers of context. We may need to ask:
What is happening in the paragraph?
What argument is the writer making in the chapter or book?
Who was being addressed?
What circumstances caused these words to be written?
Where are we in the unfolding story of the Bible?
Does another biblical writer explain or apply this passage?
Sometimes the immediate paragraph answers our question. Sometimes we need the entire book. And sometimes the rest of Scripture gives us information we could never discover by reading that paragraph alone.
Start With the Immediate Context
Consider Romans 10:9:
“If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Suppose we isolate that verse and ask:
“What must a person do to be saved?”
We might conclude that Paul has given us a complete list: confess and believe.
But is Paul trying to give a complete list of everything involved in conversion?
Keep reading Romans—and also look backward.
Paul has already discussed repentance (Romans 2:4), justification by faith (Romans 5:1), and baptism into Christ and His death (Romans 6:3-4). In Romans 10 he is discussing Israel's failure to accept God's righteousness in Christ.
Romans 10:9 is true.
The mistake would be making it answer a larger question than Paul was answering and then using it to erase things Paul says elsewhere.
Context does not make a verse less true. It tells us what truth the verse is expressing.
Sometimes the Whole Book Is the Context
Consider James 2:24:
“You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.”
Now compare Paul:
“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
— Romans 3:28
At first glance, Paul and James can sound as though they contradict one another.
But before choosing one verse over the other, ask what each writer is discussing.
Paul is opposing reliance upon works as the basis for justification before God.
James is opposing a claim to faith that produces no obedient response.
James even asks:
“Can that faith save him?”
— James 2:14
The surrounding arguments show that Paul and James are confronting different errors.
That is why comparing isolated sentences can create a contradiction that disappears when we follow each author's argument.
Historical Context Can Change What We See
Consider Jeremiah 29:11 again:
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you...”
Who received those words?
Jeremiah 29:1 tells us that Jeremiah was writing to people who had been carried into exile in Babylon.
God told them to build houses, plant gardens, marry, have children, and seek the welfare of the city where they were living.
Then comes another important detail:
Seventy years would pass before their return.
Now Jeremiah 29:11 looks different.
God was not promising those people an immediate escape from hardship. Some of the original recipients might not even live to see the return from exile.
The promise was that their present circumstances had not defeated God's purpose.
Knowing the historical setting doesn't weaken God's promise.
It allows us to hear the promise as the original readers heard it.
Sometimes We Need to Know Where We Are in the Biblical Story
Consider the thief on the cross.
Jesus told him:
“Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
— Luke 23:43
The thief was not baptized after this conversation.
That fact is sometimes used to answer the question of whether baptism has any place in conversion.
But context includes when something happened.
The thief died while Jesus was still alive and before Jesus gave the Great Commission:
“Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them...”
— Matthew 28:19
The thief also lived before Peter preached:
“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ...”
— Acts 2:38
Whatever conclusions we eventually reach about baptism, we should recognize the contextual question:
Are we using an event that occurred before Christ's death, resurrection, and Great Commission to determine how people responded to the gospel after those events?
That question deserves to be answered before the thief is used to settle the issue.
Sometimes a Later Biblical Writer Gives Us More Context
This may be one of the most important principles in serious Bible study.
Consider Isaiah 7:14:
“Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son...”
If we read only Isaiah 7, we must begin with Isaiah's own historical setting. Judah is facing a political and military crisis. King Ahaz is afraid. Isaiah gives him a sign.
We should understand that setting first.
But we cannot stop there.
Matthew later quotes this very passage concerning the birth of Jesus:
“Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet...”
— Matthew 1:22
Matthew then quotes Isaiah 7:14.
That means our understanding of Isaiah 7 cannot simply ignore Matthew 1.
We did not invent the connection.
An inspired biblical writer made it for us.
This is an important distinction.
We must not search the Old Testament for secret predictions and connections of our own invention. But when the New Testament identifies a fulfillment, pattern, or connection, that becomes part of the biblical context we must consider.
Context Does Not Mean Forcing Every Verse to Say the Same Thing
There is another danger.
Sometimes people collect every verse containing the same word and assume they must all be discussing the same subject.
But words receive their meaning from context.
The word “save,” for example, does not automatically refer to eternal salvation every time it appears in Scripture. Someone can be saved from enemies, saved from physical danger, saved from sickness, or saved from sin.
The question is not merely:
“Where else does this word occur?”
The better question is:
“How is this writer using the word here?”
A concordance can show us where a word appears.
Context tells us what the writer means by it.
The Wider Context Must Never Destroy the Immediate Context
There is an important balance here.
We want the Bible to explain the Bible. But that does not give us permission to find another verse somewhere else and use it to make the passage in front of us mean something its author was not discussing.
Begin close to the text.
Paragraph.
Then widen the circle:
Chapter.
Book.
Historical setting.
Other writings by the same author.
The rest of Scripture.
And when a later inspired writer explains an earlier passage, pay very careful attention.
The farther we move from the immediate passage, the more careful we should be that the connection comes from Scripture rather than from us.
A Simple Habit That Can Change the Way You Study
The next time someone quotes a Bible verse to prove something—including something you already agree with—don't immediately ask:
“Is that verse in the Bible?”
Ask:
“What is happening around that verse?”
Then read.
Ask who is speaking.
Ask who is being addressed.
Ask what question or problem is being discussed.
Ask where the passage fits in the book.
Ask where it fits in the biblical story.
And then ask whether another biblical writer gives us additional information about it.
You may end up believing exactly what you believed before.
But now there is an important difference.
You know why you believe it.
Continue Your Study
Why is the author's purpose the key to understanding any passage of Scripture?
Related Studies
Can One Verse Build an Entire Doctrine?
What Happens When We Take Verses Out of Context?
Companion Video
What Is Context?
Read First. Conclude Later.