At one of my less regular stops on the blogosphere this morning, I found an excellent example of how to interpret the Bible.
Romans 10:17 says:
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
what does that mean and what doesn’t it mean? how do you know? Go read John Samson’s article at the link for a full explanation, but here is the nub:
How can someone be sure of the correct interpretation of Romans 10:17? One of the keys – and as I understand it, the most important key to correct interpretation is to know the context. Context tells us what the subject is, what the background was, who was writing, who were the recipients, and so on and so forth. As I hear something being taught, or hear a verse being quoted in support of an argument, my mind naturally thinks of the immediate context of the verse. I train myself to mentally go through this process. This really helps me determine if what I am hearing is true. It helps me to ask questions such as “what was the original purpose of the passage? What was the author seeking to achieve in the passage being quoted?” Often times this process alone has saved me from many a misguided idea. The problem with this is that we all have our blind spots. It takes vigilance to be on guard for error. The most dangerous thing is to never ask questions concerning context, for this is the sure way to error. This is exactly what the cults do – lifting verses out of their setting to seek to deny the Deity of Christ, for example.