Movie trailers and TV show previews are cleverly crafted to get us to think one thing when in reality it is something else. Snippets of scenes have been put in a different sequence and that sequence is exciting and creates the sense of doom or sense of victory or drama and we now want to see the whole thing. And then we watch the movie or show and see those snippets in their real context and realize it's a completely different story. Oh, but it was so exciting in the movie trailer!
And we see similar with politician versus politician--okay, and husband versus wife, sibling versus sibling, schoolmate versus schoolmate. It is so convenient to grab just a snippet of what the other said or present part of what happened, and present it as if it were the whole thing. If someone else showed up who knew the whole story, they might easily recognize how the snippet of info was misleading or inaccurate. Hey, it might be true--we'll give them that. But the reality is something different.
In this post, I take aim at "bible teaching" or "bible explanation" where someone is telling you something as a "truth" yet some of the details ain't right. But the risk is that you don't know that some of the details ain't right because you'd rather just hear their heart-warming, pleasant little speech and not put in your own effort and see for yourself, "Is that really what the bible says?" and "Is there a bigger context that suggests their speech has flaws?"
I set out to write a different post, one about "how to analyze specific words" in the bible so that YOU are not at risk of just running with whatever definition suits your personal agenda or running with whatever definition someone else threw at you and it turns out they're wrong and you don't know it. I felt the need to point out that there are many ways we can be deceived, and specific wording is one of those. Context is a really important one.
And so I'll pursue this "context" issue with this simple advice: Read the context, darn it! That's it. When someone quotes a phrase--whether that phrase creates a beautiful image or that phrase creates a scary image--you really should consider whether you know the context of that quote. If you have any question, just go read the context. If you are sitting in church listening, go read the context. (Hey, of all places to read the bible, they better not get mad at you for ignoring them while you go read the context!) And then either you will agree with the speaker that they used the phrase in an okay way OR you will discover that--whoa--they should not have put their spin on that phrase, that that's really not what that phrase is about, considering the context.
Even better is studying on your own. I appreciate this advice on reading and studying from a pastor: (1) Read the whole book (e.g. the book named "Galations") a few times. (2) In each rereading, work at grasping WHO was the audience and WHAT was going on for them at the time they received that information from the writer (well, "Galations" is a traditional title given to what was a letter, a letter written by a spiritual leader named Paul to a whole bunch of christians living in Galatia and then the letter was delivered to them somehow; they had some really messed up thinking about spiritual concepts). (3) Work at grasping WHAT did the author want for them to understand or change or whatever (Paul wished for them to grasp some key truths and see how they thought they were doing the right thing but were really far off and they really needed a huge shove by him in the right direction). (4) Think about whether the concepts that were aimed at that original audience have merit in your own life. Can their issues and solutions for them at that time be applied to you now? Is there insight for you, too? It's nice to be open to that idea that you, too, can benefit from that original purpose.
And finally, (5) When someone quotes a small portion from that book, you can remind yourself what the CONTEXT was at that time for that audience. This so totally depends on your having done 1 through 4, huh? Many of us have NO CLUE about the context. And when we have no clue, we're vulnerable to running with whatever point the speaker wishes to make. That's risky.
Point made. I could stop there. I'll finish with a story. I laughed (negatively, shaking my head) while hearing a radio teacher introducing the section of bible that tradition calls "the beatitudes". (I really, really like this teacher's teaching, so it's nice to say that he otherwise does an excellent job. ) The teacher introduced his teaching on "the beatitudes" by saying that "in the middle of that is the word 'attitudes'". He followed that thought for a bit, encouraging us to have the right attitudes. That sounds so heart-warming and spiritual and appropriate, doesn't it? But that was so incredibly wrong.
The listening audience would not so quickly catch the immediate error, that the real word starts with "beat" and not "beatt" and that the word "attitudes" is not part of the word at all. Those who are willing to do the work of looking up the meaning of "beatitudes" find out it simply means "blessings". (What the heck? Why do we keep referring to Jesus speech to the crown on the hillside as "the beatitudes"? Why not just call it "the blessings"? Heh, that's the stuff of tradition and fear--"oo, it would be 'wrong' to say anything other than the traditional 'beatitudes'!" Noooo, it wouldn't be wrong. Come on, people, relax and use normal english for your audience. Call it blessings. I dare you to cross out the title in your bible and write in blessings :)
Oo, that's a nice segue to my post Hey, that's not what the word means where I teach you how to dig into specific words on your own with a very cool, FREE online resource, something I often use right in the middle of church while listening to a speaker, just to see if he or she is saying things that match the words or conflict with the words.
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