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It’s Okay to Struggle With the Bible

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I appreciate Scott Sauls’s piece, “Sometimes I Struggle With the Bible,” because I certainly have similar moments.

When I read Scripture, potential distractions abound. So many things seem more urgent and alluring—things like email, text messages, social media, the day’s news cycle, to-do lists, the latest Netflix series or music release, or opportunities to connect with actual, in the flesh human beings.

Boredom can set in…

I also find the Bible perplexing…

But in the end, Sauls shows it’s all worth it. Check it out!

The Surprising Glory of Small Group Bible Studies

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Small group Bible studies are not flashy, but then God’s majestic glory is typically not very flashy either. Of course, there was once a fiery typhoon on sinners dwelling in a plain (Genesis 19). And there was the blast of divine nostrils that blew a sea apart through the night watches (Exodus 14). And, of course, there was the traumatic thundercloud on the mountain (Exodus 19). But some of the shock value of those happenings was on account of their extraordinary rarity.

All that glory was bottled up, after a fashion, into a vessel that could be seen without burning out people’s retinas (John 1:14). And it continues to reside within the fragile clay pots known as the redeemed (2 Cor 4:5-12). The glory has become such that eyes of faith are required to see it at all.

Photo by Vlada Karpovich

So with such eyes of faith, you may perceive the imperceptible glory of gathering with a handful of people in someone’s living room—or a factory’s break room—opening this holy book, reading what’s on the page, and discussing how God might use it to change the world. His immeasurable glory, his majestic name in all the earth, is best seen when babies and infants declare his praise (Ps 8:1-2). When that happens, the “important” people learn to shut up (Matt 21:14-17).

How much more is God’s majestic glory present when sinners confess their sin and turn to trust Jesus (Ps 19:14). It may take place in your living room. It may take place in a coffee shop. It may take place in the unlikeliest of places. All you have to do is open your Bibles and get people talking about it. Such is the surprising glory of small group Bible studies.

If you’d like to learn more about how to leverage the glorious power of interactive small group Bible studies, you may be interested in my newest book: Sowable Word: Helping Ordinary People Learn to Lead Bible Studies.

3 Ways We Weasel Out of Obedience

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The chief question we ask when we apply the Bible is “how should I change?” (Please don’t ask “what does it mean to me?” as that gives people entirely the wrong idea.) Yet even when we pursue an answer to that chief question, it is not difficult to find ways to weasel out of obeying what God has said. Alan Shlemon lists three ways people tend to do just that:

  1. Claim personal divine revelation that supersedes Scripture. (“God told me to…”)
  2. Claim the Bible is corrupted and/or add other divine revelations. (“Other holy books get it right when they say…”)
  3. Pick and choose which parts of Scripture you’ll uphold. (“We know better today than they did back then…”)

Shlemon concludes:

Though it’s easy to see these erroneous approaches, we can’t be so naïve as to think we can’t also be blinded by the temptation to circumvent the Bible’s instruction. Jesus knew that following him would be difficult. He explained that if we want to be his disciples, we need to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him (Matt 16:24). None of those steps is easy. That, however, is what we’re called to do.

It would be much easier to dismiss divine commands, but in dismissing them, we dismiss him. He, however, is worthy of our trust. Let us be true to his word and his commands.

Shlemon’s brief piece is well worth your time. Check it out!

Ephesians: Uniting All Things in Christ, Part 2

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The first half of Ephesians lays out God’s plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth (Eph 1:10). Paul’s doctrine of unity can be summarized in the shape of a capital “I” (in a font with bars across top and bottom). The top horizontal bar represents the unity God has with himself, among the persons of the Trinity. The vertical bar represents the unity between God and his people, brought about by grace through faith. The bottom horizontal bar represents the unity among God’s people that ought to result.

Having followed Paul’s argument in Ephesians 1-3 in the previous post, let’s now walk through Paul’s application of the doctrine of unity within the life of the church.

Photo by cottonbro

Diversity Shouldn’t Divide the Church

Paul transitions to application with the urging to walk in a manner worthy of the calling described in the first three chapters (Eph 4:1). And what exactly is a manner of life worthy of the call to unity, in light of God’s plan to unite all things in Christ? It requires humble, gentle, and patient forbearance toward fellow church members (Eph 4:2). Such character arises only from an eager commitment to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:3).

Paul roots the unity of the church, explicitly, to the unity of the Trinity (Eph 4:4-6), which includes a victorious Christ ascending to take his throne while dishing out good gifts to his people. Psalm 68, quoted in Eph 4:8, likens the ascension of the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem to the arrival of God’s glory-cloud on Sinai. And Paul capitalizes on the image to explain how Jesus, the true ark, has entered heaven, the true sanctuary. This king cares enough about the unity of his body that he provides the church with leaders tasked with equipping members to serve one another—all so the community can grow together to maturity, according to the image of Jesus himself (Eph 4:9-14). That theological truth plays out in real life as people speak the truth to one another with love and build up one another in love (Eph 4:15-16).

In short, Eph 4:1-16 teaches that every church member is not required to be the same thing, do the same thing, or think the same thing. It assumes that there are differences among people, requiring patience and loving speech toward one another. In other words, diversity shouldn’t divide the church. But sadly, it often does, so the rest of the letter tells us what to do about that. We must give attention to four key areas, each marked with a renewed exhortation to walk (or, in the last case, to stand — Eph 4:17, 5:1, 5:15, 6:10-13).

Four Areas With Potential for Divisive Behaviors

The first area that requires attention in pursuit of unity is purity (Eph 4:17-32). However, notice that the chief problem of impurity is that it makes people like those who are alienated from—not unified with—God (Eph 4:18). The opposite of building up others in love is to serve oneself in sensuality and greed (Eph 4:19). This is not how you learned Christ! (Eph 4:20). A pure life according to the truth in Jesus requires each church member to do three things with their divisive behaviors:

  1. Put off the old self, with its divisive and selfish desires (Eph 4:22).
  2. Get a new way of thinking about how the calling to unity ought to drive your behavior (Eph 4:23).
  3. Put on the new self, which is like God—fully unified with himself and with his body (Eph 4:24).

Paul gives four case studies to show practically how the three-step change process works. The first (Eph 4:25) is about overcoming the divisive power of lies: put off falsehood, start thinking about yourself and other Christians as fellow members of one another, and put on the speaking of truth. The second: Put off sinful anger, recognize it as an opportunity for the devil to rip relationships apart, and put on godly indignation (Eph 4:26-27). Theft (Eph 4:28) and rotten speech (Eph 4:29) round out the case studies, along with a concluding summary of the process (Eph 4:30-32).

Second, Paul highlights the role of love in the pursuit of unity (Eph 5:1-14). He introduced the topic in Eph 4:15-16, but he expands on it in Eph 5:1-14. Such love draws its power and motivation from the love of Christ for his people (Eph 5:1-2). The challenging work of love requires an extensive putting off (Eph 5:3-4), mind renewal (Eph 5:5-6), and putting on (Eph 5:7-14). The walk of love is a walk that will occupy us for the rest of our lives, and will take every bit of attention we can give to it. Since the Lord Jesus gave himself for us, it is worth it to give all we have to develop love in this walk with one another.

Third, Paul turns to the need for wisdom in the application of unity (Eph 5:15-6:9). Wisdom catalyzes unity by recognizing the times (Eph 5:16), knowing God’s will (Eph 5:17), and seeking the Spirit’s filling (Eph 5:18). The marks of those filled with God’s unifying Spirit include Scripture-filled speech (Eph 4:19a), song-filled thought-lives (Eph 4:19b), thanksgiving-filled attitudes toward everything (Eph 4:20), and reverence-filled submission within hierarchical relationships (Eph 4:21).

Submission is both complex and so easy to get wrong; frequently, we obey the wrong authorities, and we rebel against the right authorities. All such behaviors are divisive within the body of Christ, so Paul expands on this demonstration of Spirit-filling (submission) by exploring three pairs of hierarchical human relationships: wives and husbands (Eph 5:22-33), children and fathers (Eph 6:1-4), and slaves and masters (Eph 6:5-9). In each pair, Paul showcases the vertical unity between believers and God as both model and motivation for the horizontal unity among human relationships.

The fourth and final area that requires particular attention when pursuing unity in the church is that of spiritual warfare (Eph 6:10-20). As I’ve written elsewhere, we are in great danger of getting this text wrong when we read it in isolation from the argument Paul has been making all through the letter. True and lasting unity is one of the most difficult tasks facing the church of Jesus Christ. Look around, and it’s not difficult to find abundant examples of the evil one’s flaming darts (Eph 6:16) leveraging the opportunity granted him by our sinful anger toward one another (Eph 4:26-27), seeking to retain his dominion as the great power of the air (Eph 2:2). God called Paul to proclaim the astounding unity of people from all nations who believe, right in the face of the spiritual authorities in the heavenly places (Eph 3:8-10). Because they’re not pleased with this plan, they do all they can to break up that unity. Therefore, our fight for unity is never against one another within the church. It is always against those spiritual forces seeking to turn us against one another (Eph 6:12). And we cannot win unless we are strengthened by the Lord (Eph 6:10) by means of taking up his own armor (Eph 6:14-20).

Closing Greeting

Paul closes the letter with a reminder of his desire for unity with the letter’s recipients. This desire has led him to send Tychicus as his agent to share all the news and encourage their hearts. Finally, Paul wishes for peace in the church and grace toward all who love the Lord Jesus.

Conclusion

Because the unified God has united believers to himself, the church ought now walk worthy of its calling by pursuing a full-orbed unity. This unity does not require uniformity, but it presumes a diversity of opinions, personalities, social roles, and people groups. Because diversity naturally produces friction, the church ought to give particular attention to humble and patient purity, love, wisdom, and spiritual warfare in its pursuit of unity. This is the sort of walk worthy of the calling of the one God, who is Father, Son, and Spirit.

Interpretive Outline

  1. Grace and peace to the saints – Eph 1:1-2
  2. Doctrine: The unity to which you’ve been called – Eph 1:3-3:21
    • Praise to a unified and unifying God – Eph 1:3-14
      • Prayer for eyes to see what that God is doing – Eph 1:15-23
        • The gift of grace that unifies people with God – Eph 2:1-10
          • The unity of the new humanity in the peace of Christ – Eph 2:11-22
        • The gift of grace that revealed and now preaches the unity of people with God and with each other – Eph 3:1-13
      • Prayer for supernatural strength to comprehend such divine, unifying love – Eph 3:14-19
    • Praise to an astonishing God who empowers unity in ways we could never imagine – Eph 3:20-21
  3. Application: Walk in a manner worthy of this calling to unity – Eph 4:1-6:20
    • Diversity shouldn’t divide – Eph 4:1-16
    • Areas to address when diversity threatens to divide – Eph 4:17-6:20
      1. Purity – Eph 4:17-32
      2. Love – Eph 5:1-13
      3. Wisdom – Eph 5:14-6:9
      4. Spiritual warfare – Eph 6:10-20
  4. Final greeting of peace, love, and grace – Eph 6:21-24

This post is part of a series of interpretive overviews of the books of the Bible.

How to Find Time to Read the Bible

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Barbara Harper took some advice from Elisabeth Elliot, that she’d never find the time for something that matters unless she made time for it. In this blog post, she provides some very practical suggestions for how to do just that.

As Ryan has written before on this blog, you have enough time to study the Bible. Barbara argues the same conclusion, along with much specific guidance to help you make the most of that time.

Check it out!

Ephesians: Uniting All Things in Christ, Part 1

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The blessed God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation by grace through faith. Knowing the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. Equipping the saints for the work of ministry. Speaking the truth in love. Putting off the old self. Walking in love. Making best use of the time. Loving wives as Christ loved the church. The whole armor of God.

Despite its brevity, the letter of Ephesians has a remarkably high concentration of beloved verses and memorable sayings. But how do they all fit together? What is Paul’s chief argument in this theological masterpiece?

Literary Markers

Ephesians marks its main sections through logical connector phrases and major shifts in topic. As with many of Paul’s letters, a salutation (Eph 1:1-2) and benediction (Eph 6:21-24) bookend doctrine (Eph 1:3-3:21) and application (Eph 4:1-6:20).

Paul begins to transition from doctrine to application in Eph 3:1, but breaks off mid-sentence to discuss the gracious nature of his ministry. He completes the transition in Eph 4:1, which labels the two main sections of the letter as “the calling to which you have been called” and “the urging to walk in a manner worthy of that calling.”

  1. Greeting of grace and peace to the saints – Eph 1:1-2
  2. Doctrine: The calling to which you’ve been called – Eph 1:3-3:21
  3. Application: Walk in a manner worthy of this calling – Eph 4:1-6:20
  4. Final greeting of peace, love, and grace – Eph 6:21-24
Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay

Part 1 Walkthrough

The apostle of Christ is so by the will of God, and the saints in Christ are so through faith. There is much harmony between the will of God and the people of God in this opening. In addition, “grace” and “peace” become more than a simple greeting in this letter, as both words play major roles in the rest of the letter.

Part 2 Walkthrough

Paul begins with an extended doxology (word of praise) to “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:3-14). Why is this God blessed? Because the Father is a God who blesses, by choosing in Christ and predestining through Christ, according to grace (Eph 1:3-6). Christ the Beloved is both redemption and inheritance of grace for those who hope in him (Eph 1:7-12). And the Holy Spirit seals and guarantees the inheritance, that is Christ, for believers who will one day possess him fully. In short, Paul blesses the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each person working in perfect harmony with the others to accomplish the plan he set for the fullness of time—that toward which all history is moving—”to unite all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph 1:10). Since verse 10 tells us what these tremendous blessings are all for, we must not miss its crucial role as a thesis statement for the letter.

Paul’s first prayer, then, is for God to grant his readers to know him (Eph 1:17), which requires heart-perception of his hopeful calling, his rich inheritance, and his great power (Eph 1:18-19). This very power overturned death and reunited heaven and earth in the person of Jesus Christ (Eph 1:20-23). Therefore, in Jesus Christ, the church on earth now has an unimpeachable head of state. All things are now poised to be united in him—but we desperately need God to answer the prayer that we might see with our hearts that it is so.

Next Paul discusses the glorious transfer from death to life, from earth to heaven, undergone not only by Jesus himself (Eph 1:20-23) but also by all who trust him (Eph 2:1-10). So uniting all things to Christ requires the overturning-of-death and the reunion-of-heaven-and-earth to become the experience of all of Christ’s body, not solely that of the head. What a gift (Eph 2:8)! And that gift comes with expectations of good works, prepared for us well in advance (Eph 2:10).

If all things will be united in Christ, the process must begin in the church, where people of all nationalities are being remade into a single new humanity by faith (Eph 2:11-22). Jesus, who preached peace to those near and far, is himself our peace. All are now fellow citizens and members of the family. All are part of his new temple. We have access to the Spirit, so true unity in Christ is not only possible but expected.

This causes Paul to reflect on the gift of grace given to him, not only in his redemption but in his apostleship (Eph 3:1-13). Grace was given to reveal that Gentiles are now fellow heirs (Eph 3:1-6). And grace was given to preach this eternal purpose—and thereby to offer bold access to people from all nations—in full view of the spiritual powers of heaven (Eph 3:7-13).

And such reflection on the grace of Paul’s apostleship leads him into his second prayer (Eph 3:14-19) and doxology (Eph 3:20-21). He knows better than his readers—who otherwise wouldn’t even know to ask—that they’ll require supernatural strength to comprehend that which would otherwise be incomprehensible: the unifying love of Christ for his church.

First Half Conclusion—The Church’s Calling

The God who is fully unified with himself has a glorious plan for the future: to imprint his unity on the rest of the universe by graciously uniting all of heaven and earth under one head, Jesus Christ. To get there, he first unites a new humanity with himself through faith in Christ. And that new humanity is now called to live in unity with itself in Christ. In other words, the church’s calling is to walk in true unity. The power for that unity originates from the unity the church already has with the fully unified Trinity. And that present unity anticipates the coming unity of all heaven and earth in Christ.

To violate the church’s unity, therefore, is to tell lies about who God is and what he is doing in the cosmos. Disunity in the church—which is disobedience to the church’s calling—is a path to surrender to the course of this world, to the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2), and to his demonic authorities in the heavenly places, who want nothing more than to thwart the manifold wisdom of God to unite all things in Christ (Eph 3:9-10).

I’ll save for next week’s post the letter’s second half, which provides the practical instruction for how the church can walk in a manner worthy of this calling to unity.

Interpretive Outline

  1. Grace and peace to the saints – Eph 1:1-2
  2. Doctrine: The unity to which you’ve been called – Eph 1:3-3:21
    • Praise to a unified and unifying God – Eph 1:3-14
      • Prayer for eyes to see what that God is doing – Eph 1:15-23
        • The gift of grace that unifies people with God – Eph 2:1-10
          • The unity of the new humanity in the peace of Christ – Eph 2:11-22
        • The gift of grace that revealed and now preaches the unity of people with God and with each other – Eph 3:1-13
      • Prayer for supernatural strength to comprehend such divine, unifying love – Eph 3:14-19
    • Praise to an astonishing God who empowers unity in ways we could never imagine – Eph 3:20-21

This post is part of a series of interpretive overviews of the books of the Bible.

Why Greek is Not Like a Precise Code

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The Logos Word by Word blog has a fabulous piece about how the ancient Greek language works, contrary to urban legend.

There is an idea which floats around in pulpits and Bible studies, and it goes something like this: “Greek is a perfectly precise language which clearly conveys its meaning, and this is the reason why God used Greek for the New Testament.” I do not pretend to know the mind of God regarding why the New Testament is in Greek. But there are some substantial problems in the assertion that Greek is “perfectly precise.” Uncovering these problems…will actually help us interpret the Bible more accurately.

I have heard this folk tale many times, typically espoused by people who do not themselves know Greek. But armed with a Strong’s Concordance, they believe they can get themselves to “the real meaning” of the words of the New Testament, which are “more precise” than English words could ever be.

The same myth is often espoused regarding the Hebrew language of the Old Testament. Such myths simply need to be blown to bits and scattered to the wind. Biblical Hebrew and Greek were human languages that function very much like the human languages that are still spoken today. There are differences, of course, in how the grammar works. But the fact remains that they function like languages and not like computer code. So this article is well worth your time.

Check it out!

Context Matters: The Whole Armor of God

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Perhaps you’ve heard of the Christian’s armor that must be worn to serve God faithfully. The key passage in Ephesians 6 is famous enough that you may have even handed out coloring pages to children (or colored a few yourself in days gone by). This passage is worthy of its fame among Bible students and Sunday school programs. But what is real point of it? To what end does the apostle employ his extended metaphor in light of his argument in the letter to the Ephesians?

Context matters. If we learn to read the Bible for what it is—and not simply as a collection of vibrant metaphors for vague spiritual truths—we’ll discover that some of our most familiar passages may have far more usefulness than we’d previously assumed.

Image by Judith Meyer from Pixabay

Immediate Context

When Paul instructs his readers to “put on” (Eph 6:11) and “take up” (Eph 6:13) the whole armor of God, he does this to elaborate on his chief command: “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (Eph 6:10). That first overarching command governs the paragraph and ought to guide our understanding of the armor.

But what does it mean to be strong in the Lord and in his might? Does it mean we need to do more spiritual pushups and sit ups to increase our godly muscle mass and stay in shape for some sort of invisible battle?

Most commentaries will quickly reveal that the Greek verb translated as “be strong” is in the passive voice. That means it is not primarily something we do but something that is done to us. The CSB makes the passive voice more evident by translating it as “be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength” (Eph 6:10, CSB). Interestingly, Paul uses the same syntax in 2 Tim 2:1, and the ESV translators chose to keep the passive voice explicit in that verse: “You, therefore, my son, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

The point is simply this: Paul’s instructions to put on and take up the whole armor of God explains, or fleshes out, what it looks like for the Christian to become strong by receiving God’s own strength. By putting on God’s own armor. And Paul did not invent this idea of God’s strength, God’s armor, because Paul knows his Bible.

Biblical Context

While Paul’s language draws in part on the vocabulary of the Roman military (after all, he likely dictated this letter while chained to one such soldier – Eph 6:20), he synthesizes the Roman imagery with that of the prophet Isaiah.

Observe Isaiah 59:17, speaking of what God does when he perceives both injustice and a lack of heroes to help:

He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
and a helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.

And observe Isaiah 11:5 and Isaiah 49:2, speaking of God’s Chosen One (the Messiah) who will serve him by ushering in an age of peace:

Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins…

He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
in his quiver he hid me away.

So when Paul instructs his readers to put on and take up the whole armor of God, he speaks not of armor one wears only in honor of God. He speaks of borrowing God’s own armor, having been tailored to fit the Messiah, and now also on loan to all who follow him. “Be strengthened by the Lord and by the strength of his might.” But why do Christians require such strength? What sort of battles should they expect to face, battles that cannot be won without the empowerment of him whose mighty strength is far above all rule and authority and every name that is named (Eph 1:19-21)?

Larger Context

I believe the main idea of Ephesians is best summed up in the words of Ephesians 1:10. What is God’s plan from before the foundation of the world, for the fullness of time? “To unite all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth.” This letter is a letter for unity.

Paul’s framework for unity begins with the foundation of God’s unity within himself, among the persons of the Trinity, who work together in perfect harmony to execute this plan for the ages (Eph 1:3-14, 4:4-6). The Lord, our God, the Lord is one (Deut 6:4). And that one God consists of one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph 4:4-6).

The unity of all things then proceeds to encompass a cosmic unity between this one God and his people (Eph 2:1-10). God raised his son from the dead and seated him in the heavenly places (Eph 1:20). So also those who are “in Christ Jesus” have been raised with him and seated with him in those same heavenly places (Eph 2:5-6). Because none of this is granted as payment for works, but is only a gift of grace, it is available to all who simply believe (Eph 2:4-5, 8-9).

But that’s not all. God is one with himself. God is also one with his people. By implication, then, it must also be true that his people are to be one with each other. This is why the church of Jesus Christ is made up of not only Jews but also Gentiles from all nations (Eph 2:11-22). The great mystery has now been revealed through special revelation to Paul, that Gentiles are fellow heirs and members of the same body as Jews (Eph 3:1-6). Paul’s ministry is a gift of God’s grace to make this Jew/Gentile unity take place, in full sight of all the spiritual forces and powers of the universe (Eph 3:7-13).

For this reason, it requires supernatural strength from God to even fathom the depth of this uniting love of Christ (Eph 3:14-21). And it is of great importance that particular local churches now walk in the very unity to which they’ve been called (Eph 4:1-6:9). To highlight just one moment in the argument: Anger toward others is a particularly effective disunifier. We must give it special attention, lest we give the devil an opportunity to rip apart the unity God seeks to build in his church (Eph 4:26-27).

I won’t walk through all of chapters 4 through 6, but suffice it to say that Paul concludes his practical application with three pairs of hierarchical human relationships where unity is often rare to find and comes at a premium: Wives and husbands, children and fathers, slaves and masters (Eph 5:22-6:9).

Conclusion

So in the argument of Ephesians (with reference to Isaiah), what is the chief spiritual battle for which the church of Jesus Christ requires supernatural strength and God-granted armor? It is the fight to maintain unity among God’s people, of all nations and flavors (Eph 4:1-3). To maintain the unity that ought to flow from their inseparable unity with God, and from God’s own unity within himself. The very unity that threatens the dominion of darkness in the heavenly places.

Because the devil employs the full weight of his resources to disrupt the unity of the church, it is of chief importance that we recognize who our real enemy is. It is never the fellow church member who disagrees with you, annoys you, or offends you (Eph 6:12). The real enemy can be defeated only with the unifying strength of God through Christ. Real unity will therefore require truth, righteousness, and a readiness to preach peace (Eph 6:14-15). Real unity will not be maintained without faith, salvation, Scripture, or prayer (Eph 6:16-20).

Next time you get in a fight with a brother or sister in Christ—perhaps even within your own household—please let the whole armor of God strengthen you to the ends of peace and victory over the devil’s divisive schemes.

Context matters.

For more examples of why context matters, such as the widow’s mite, the love chapter, and all things work together for good, click here.

Seeing Jesus in the Proverbs

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Because the book of Proverbs is full of practical wisdom, it has been a popular favorite through the ages. Even unbelievers attempt to pilfer its riches for self-help advice in business, finance, and influence. But for those who trust Jesus’ words—that the entire Old Testament was about him (Luke 24:44-47)—Proverbs presents quite a challenge. What does this book teach us about the Lord Jesus?

Here is an article from Nicholas Batzig that provides much help. Batzig discusses numerous strategies by which we may draw legitimate connections between the revelation in Proverbs and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here is a taste:

When I was in seminary I read through a chapter of Proverbs every day. At some point I realized that many of the Proverbs were couched in the same language as the Ten Commandments. In fact, one could argue that the Proverbs are a commentary on how the Ten Commandments work themselves out in the lives of God’s people and the world at large. If we understand the different uses of the Law in redemptive-history, we begin to understand the relationship between the Proverbs and the believer’s need for Christ. While the Proverbs will function exclusively in a pedagogical manner for unbelievers (i.e. driving them to Christ for forgiveness), they will also continue to do so in the life of the believer.

I believe Batzig is sometimes a little hasty in going to Christ, without first explaining how the original Old Covenant audience would have understood the book. For example, I would not agree that whenever Proverbs speaks of “the righteous person,” it is speaking always and only about the Messiah Jesus (since none of us can be truly righteous). Scholar Bruce Waltke has helpfully shown that the concept of “the righteous” in the Proverbs simply refers to one who is willing to disadvantage themselves in order to advantage others; it did not originally refer to forensic righteousness in the sense that Paul uses the term.

But with that said, Batzig’s strategies and examples remain very helpful for drawing helpful and legitimate connections to the person and work of Christ. If you wish to read Proverbs like a Christian, I highly commend the article.

Check it out!

Check the Context Before and After

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As we’ve sought to demonstrate that literary context matters, we’ve focused primarily on specific verses or short segments of text that are commonly used without regard for the author’s argument to his original audience. But there is another way to make use of literary context in our Bible study, which is simply to pay attention to the texts immediately before and after the text under study. This practice aids interpretation by helping us identify not only what a passage says but also what it is doing to assist the author’s larger argument.

Here are some examples.

Photo by Vladimír Sládek

Help from the Preceding Text

2 Kings 2 tells the story of Elijah’s ascension into heaven and Elisha’s taking up the prophetic mantle from his mentor. A quick look at what comes immediately before reveals a king who died without a son (2 Kings 1:17-18). That setup (that King Ahaziah has no heir) introduces the chief concern that chapter 2 takes up: What will happen when Elijah goes? Will Israel be left without a prophetic voice?

The armor of God passage in Ephesians 6 begins with an overarching command that governs the rest of the passage: “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (Eph 6:10). We ought to ask: How does one do that? What does it look like for someone to draw strength / be strengthened by the Lord and his strength? Perhaps help can be found immediately prior? In Paul’s command to masters, he suggests that the power to do good to their servants and cease with threatening comes from “knowing that he who is both their Master and your is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him” (Eph 6:9). So a spiritual battle requires heavenly strength, which will come from trusting that Jesus is seated in heaven, far above all rule and authority (Eph 1:19-21), and giving good gifts to men (Eph 4:7-14).

Help from the Following Text

Genesis 38 tells a dark and tragic story about Judah, his sons, a daughter-in-law, and his eventual heir. Besides the dark content, it is especially strange for having been inserted right in the midst of a larger narrative that is supposed to be about Joseph. In fact, Gen 37:36 and Gen 39:1 repeat the same information in order to signal the fact that the main story line is being put on hold just to narrate Judah’s situation (which took place not all at once but over many years). Just keep reading into chapter 39 to see a number of clear contrasts between the half-brothers Judah and Joseph: experience of power, figurative use of garments, perspective toward God’s moral commands.

In Matthew 4:12-25, Jesus begins his public ministry, and Matthew describes it in a way that parallels Isaiah’s prophecy of a dawning light (Matt 4:15-16): beginning in Zebulun and Naphtali (Matt 4:12-17), passing by the way of the sea (Matt 4:18-22), and going beyond the Jordan (Matt 4:23-25). The next passage informs us that the light is here (speaking with the authority of God from the mountaintop – Matt 5:1-12) and is infecting the new people of God (Matt 5:13-16).

Help from both Before and After

Revelation 4 describes a magnificent scene of the vigorous worship offered in heaven to the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. Immediately prior to this scene, Jesus comes knocking on the door and inviting those who persevere in bearing witness to him to join him on his throne, just as he joined his Father on his throne (Rev 3:20-21). That highlights the significance of Jesus’ own invitation to witness the scene of heavenly worship (Rev 4:1). In addition, the following scene (Rev 5) shows Jesus himself as the only one worthy to receive authority from the Father to execute judgment on the earth. He acquired such authority through his death and resurrection (Rev 5:6). Noticing the flow of thought helps us to preach the gospel very specifically from each text. In chapter 4, the gospel is not one of death and resurrection, particularly, but of Jesus opening the way to the Father. In chapter 5, this gospel is fleshed out by showing how Jesus opened that way and became qualified to receive all authority in heaven and on earth.

Matthew 8:23-9:8 contains three brief narratives of Jesus performing great miracles. The stories hang together as a unity to explain Jesus’ great authority, on both heaven (Matt 8:28-34) and earth (Matt 8:23-27), to forgive sins (Matt 9:1-8). So much, so good, but look at how much more the surrounding context adds. Immediately before, we have would-be followers of Jesus confronted with the great cost of following Jesus (Matt 8:18-22); the question of whether they are willing to pay that cost is left hanging and unanswered. And immediately after, we see not a “would-be” but an actual follower of Jesus responding immediately to the call (Matt 9:9-12). Perhaps the chain of three miracles is there to explain what makes the difference. To explain the chief reason why it is worth paying the cost to follow Jesus. Can sick sinners find authority like this anywhere else?

Conclusion

Whenever you study a passage, one simple discipline to develop is to look at what happens immediately before and after. As you do, consider how those surrounding texts help you to understand what your passage is doing in the larger argument. In just a few minutes of effort, you may get significant help toward interpreting the main point of your passage.