Context: around the passage and the whole book

Where a verse lives

Observation asks what is in a passage; the next question is where it sits. The chapter and verse numbers in our Bibles were added long afterwards, to help us find our way. The biblical writers did not write verses one by one. They wrote sentences, paragraphs and books, and a verse takes its meaning from the place it stands in. That place is its context.

We look at context in three rings. The first is the literary context: the sentences just before and after, the paragraph, the story or argument it belongs to, and the purpose of the book as a whole. The Bible Overview course has a lesson for each book that sets out its purpose. The second is the historical context: who wrote to whom, when, in what circumstances and why. The third is the context of the whole Bible: where the verse stands in the one story that runs from creation to new creation (the first lesson of Bible Overview).

The three verses below are loved by many Christians, learned by heart and hung on walls. Reading them in context does not take away their comfort. It finds the ground that comfort was always standing on.

Three verses in their places

First, Philippians 4. Instead of taking verse 13 alone, read it with the two verses before it:

I am not saying this out of need, for I have learned to be content regardless of my circumstances. I know how to live humbly, and I know how to abound. In any and every situation I have learned the secret of being filled and being hungry, of having plenty and having need. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:11-13

What ‘all things’ means, the verse before tells us: being filled and being hungry, having plenty and having need. Verse 13 is not a promise that Christ will help us win a match or pass an exam. It is a confession of the strength Christ gives to be content in any circumstances. The historical context makes it weightier still. Paul was "in chains for Christ" (Philippians 1:13), and he is thanking the Philippians for the gifts they sent with Epaphroditus (Philippians 4:18). The English minister Matthew Henry writes, "The apostle was often in bonds, imprisonments, and necessities; but in all, he learned to be content, to bring his mind to his condition, and make the best of it" Matthew Henry, Philippians 4:11. The letter as a whole is introduced in Philippians: the letter of joy.

Next, Jeremiah 29. The chapter is a letter Jeremiah sent to the exiles in Babylon (Jeremiah 29:1). God tells them to build houses there, to settle down, and to seek the prosperity of the city and pray for it; and he warns them against the prophets who promise a quick return. Then he says:

For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:10-11

In Hebrew the ‘you’ is plural: the promise is to the whole people in exile, and it looks seventy years ahead. Many who first heard it would likely not live to see the return. It does not promise quick success; it says that through a long waiting God's plans for his people are for their good. The book is introduced in Jeremiah: the weeping prophet and the new covenant.

Last, Matthew 18. When only a few turn up to a prayer meeting, we often remember these words: "For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them" (Matthew 18:20). But the paragraph around them is about a brother who sins. First go to him alone; if he will not listen, take one or two others, so that every matter may be established "by the testimony of two or three witnesses" (Matthew 18:16); and if he still refuses, tell it to the church. The ‘two or three’ of verse 20 echo the witnesses of verse 16. Before the paragraph comes the shepherd who seeks one lost sheep; after it, the call to forgive seventy-seven times. So the promise speaks first of the Lord's presence when the church gathers humbly to win a brother back. But if someone has abused or hurt you badly, do not go to them alone. Verse 15 does not ask you to carry that by yourself: find people you trust, and trained help.

In the whole Bible

The widest ring is the whole Bible. As the Westminster Confession of the Presbyterian churches puts it, the sense of a passage is to be known ‘by other places that speak more clearly’ ch. 1.9, a rule we met in Reading with the church. Jeremiah's promise was kept seventy years on. The book of Ezra opens: "In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom" (Ezra 1:1). And Paul writes that every one of God's promises is Yes in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). The strength of Philippians 4:13 is the power of Christ that "is perfected in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). The promise of Matthew 18:20 rests inside the Lord's last promise in that Gospel: "And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).

Read like this, a verse does not shrink; it finds its proper weight. A verse cut loose is easily made to say what we want to hear. A verse in its place lets us hear what God said.

Try it

Open Philippians 4 on the map. In the map under the Jesus tab, open Philippians and tap chapter 4: it has a ‘One-line summary’ and ‘Notes’. ‘Read Philippians 4’ opens the text.

Read verses 10 to 20, and write the context in Notes. Find out who is writing, in what circumstances, to whom and why; open chapter 1, verse 13, as well. Write it simply: ‘writer: Paul, in chains’, ‘why: the gifts they sent (v. 18)’.

Write a line each on verses 13 and 19, in context. What are the ‘all things’ of verse 13? To whom was the promise of verse 19 given, and why? Then put verses 10 to 20 into a one-line summary.

Practice