Why Context is Key
We know that Jesus will never lie to us. So when we read in John 14:13-14 “If you ask anything in my name, I will do it,” some may think we can get anything we pray for. So this afternoon, sit and pray for a Ferrari, a monster beach house, and 10 million in your bank account, and God will provide it, right?
When we study the Bible we need to know how to interpret it. There are several rules of interpretation for understanding Scripture. One of the biggest rules, like most areas of study, is understanding that context is key.
We live in a world where much is taken out of context. Many things are distorted by leaving out part of what someone said. This seems to be the status quo for the news and politicians.
As Christians we don’t want to do the same to God. So how can we fix this problem? One simple answer is to understand the context of the verse we are looking at. This means to read the surrounding verses. This may be the paragraph it’s found in, the chapter, or even the book of the Bible. Often it just means looking at one or two verses on each side, and we can have our explanation.
The same is true here in John 14. We really only need to go back one verse, and we will get a clear understanding of what Jesus is talking about. But if we read the entire passage, we will see that up until this point, John 14 is Jesus talking about Himself. It contains the famous, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the father but by me.”
We live in a world where much is taken out of context. Many things are distorted by leaving out part of what someone said.
This means that the passage is not centered around us. It’s not there for us to just pray for anything we want to bless us. But we only need to look one verse back to get a clearer picture here. Verse 12 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” The context clears this up for us.
Does the verse look like making a laundry list of wants and desires to spoil ourselves? No. On the contrary, the passage is about praying to be able to do the work of God. It’s about praying to be able to accomplish God’s mission for your life.
Even the mission itself is not first and foremost about us, but about God. It says in verse 13 God will work in us “that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” So we are praying for God to give us power to do the work He has called us to in order to glorify Him. In order to make Him known and famous.
This has to do with our vocation, how we love our spouse, our children, our parents. This has to do with how we are called to serve our neighbors, churches, and communities. It has to do with how we share the gospel of Jesus with others. It’s a prayer to bless others, so others know God is great.
Think About It
Are your prayers selfish, or selfless?
Do you look at God like some cosmic vending machine, just putting in coin prayers for everything you want? Or are you praying to be able to accomplish His mission?
When you hear Scripture, do you look at the context of everything you read, or just take a verse or two and run with it?
Thanks for taking time to read this Maddening Theology post. If you enjoyed this content you can find Pastor Tim’s sermons at www.cornerstoneforestcity.org. You can also join us at 520 Marion St. Browndale, PA 18421 on Sundays at 10 AM. To make following the blog easier you can also register. You can also join us on Facebook at Cornerstone Forest City. Also, don’t forget to download our APP on iTunes or Googleplay.