The Importance of Context

Andrew Rappaport's Rapp Report

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Welcome to The Wrap Up Book, Daily Edition, where we provide a quick Biblical interpretations and applications.

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This is a ministry of striving for eternity. On this week's Wrap Up, what we're doing this week was looking at passages of Scripture that sometimes people have difficulty with understanding, all because they don't look at the context.

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I want to show you the importance of looking at context, both in English, but sometimes even within the

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Greek, to help with the understanding of a passage. And you're going to see with some of them where people make applications that, well, they don't always have to deal with the way people apply it.

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We're going to deal with head coverings, for example, and people apply that when we're going to see from the context what the real issue is, authority.

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And so check that out right now. This week we're going to take a look at some passages that people misunderstand because they don't look at the context.

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Context makes it clear. The first one we're going to look at is 1 Corinthians 11, 5, and 6.

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This is dealing with head coverings. And it says, But since it is a disgrace for a wife to cut her hair short or shave her head, let her cover her head.

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What is this talking about? Well, it makes it very clear that this is dealing with hair, as far as the hair being short or shaved.

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It was a practice at the time for women to shave their head, to say, or cut it short, as if they are a man in rebellion to culture and male authority.

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Now this could also refer to a veil. We do see that this is used, this word for covering, is used as a veil in other places.

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However, not everywhere. Other places it just means to cover. But it is sometimes used as a veil.

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Now what we end up seeing here is that from the context, this is talking about authority.

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That's the clear thing. It is what is honorable or dishonorable. What is graceful or really a disgrace.

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And it is a disgrace for a woman to not have the authority under a man and for a man not to have the authority over a woman in this text.

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That's the meaning of the text from the context. Context helps us understand its meaning.

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One of the most known verses by unbelievers is Matthew 7 verse 1. Judge not that you be not judged.

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But looking at the context just a little bit helps us to understand the meaning of this and it's not exactly the way most people use it.

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He is saying that we should judge not and that judge is a command. It's an imperative.

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But we see in the very next verse when he's saying that you be not judged, well the very next verse explains that.

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For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

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The issue is not about that we shouldn't judge. It is about how we judge.

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Why verse 3. Do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye and do not notice the log in your own eye?

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And so the point is that what he is addressing is the fact that here you have people who are calling others out for minor sins when they have major sins in their life.

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That is what this verse is talking about. That we judge not because in the same manner in which we judge, if we're going to judge people on outward things then we're going to be judged by outward things.

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And he ends up saying that it's being hypocritical. When we can see that there's a toothpick in someone's eye and not notice the log in our own eye.

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And that is the thing. That we do not have hypocritical judgment. He's not saying not to judge.

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He's saying not to judge hypocritically. Many times people wonder what it is I just have to ask for before God.

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Because they look at Matthew 7, 7 and it says, ask and it will be given to you.

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Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. And people look at that verse and say, so all

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I have to do is ask, seek, and knock and I'll get what I want. Well, that's not really what we're looking at because of the context that gives us more information.

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If we keep reading it says, for everyone who asks for C is great. That's what I want. Keep reading.

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And the one who seeks finds. Great. I want to find what I seek. Keep reading. And to the one who knocks, it'll be opened.

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Great. I want those doors opened for me. Keep reading. Verse 9. Or which one of you, if he has a son, asks him for bread, it will give him a stone.

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Or which one will ask for a fish will give him a serpent. If then you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your

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Father who is in heaven give you things to those who ask of him. And that's what we see is the context.

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It is about asking of the Father and that he is not going to give you something that is evil.

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In other words, a father doesn't always give you everything you want, but a father, when you ask for bread, isn't going to give you a stone, or when you ask for a fish, is going to give you a serpent.

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No, he's going to give good things, but a father doesn't always give what we think is good. The father gives what he knows is best.

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And sometimes we ask awry, but if we ask in God's will, then we get what he wants.

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A verse that is very often misunderstood because, well, people don't always look at the context, but more look at the

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Greek context. And so what do we have? In Matthew 28, verse 19 and 20, known as the

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Great Commission, it says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

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And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. So many people focus on that word go and make that the verb, as if that is the command of the

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Great Commission. And what they don't know is that that isn't actually the imperative.

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The imperative is the word make, disciples. And so what we have here, the word go is more of an adverb.

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The Great Commission is to make disciples because that is the imperative.

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Now sometimes when we look at context, we have to look at the context of the original languages.

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And that will help us to understand the meaning of the text. So we should go, but the actual way this should be translated, because it's an adverb, because of the way it is in the

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Greek, it should be going. It is an aorist present participle, and therefore it should say going, make disciples.

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In other words, as you go about your day, wherever you go, you should be making disciples. That's the

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Great Commission. It's not about us going, it's about us making disciples.

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Sometimes people will bring up John 7 because they'll say that this is a contradiction.

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You'll hear this from unbelievers. But the issue is, is here is a feast of booths at hand, and we see in verse 3 it says,

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So his brothers, speaking of Jesus' brothers, said to him, Leave and go to Judea, that your disciples may see the works that you are doing.

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For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.

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For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, My time has not yet come, your time is always here.

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Then you end up seeing, he says, after that, that in verse 10,

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But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then also he went up, not publicly, but in private.

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And people say that here he was saying he would not come, his time has not come, and therefore you see he somehow is not supposed to go, but yet he does go to Judea.

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And some think this is a contradiction, but what do we notice? We notice a key word.

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The idea is going in secret versus openly, or going publicly versus privately.

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That is what we see when we look at the context. So the issue is not whether he was going to go to Judea or not, the issue in the context is whether he is going to go openly to be known by all, or whether to go privately and be known only by his disciples.

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He went privately, not publicly, and that is the context. This podcast is part of the Striving for Eternity ministry.