….”But God did not give the Bible as a collection of aphorisms—short, pithy, helpful statements—to be applied piecemeal to our lives. He gave historical accounts, descriptions of events, biographies, poems, sermons, letters, and the like. The meaning of the parts of a passage is connected to the meaning of the whole.” ~G. Koukl
These two articles are well done and should help us all correct our thinking and more importantly our application of what I call one hit wonder verses in our lives. I agree with the author on all points, except his statement:
“I would like to rescue you from a mistake virtually every Christian makes now and then when they go to the Bible that prevents you from knowing what God is saying to you personally in His Word.”
I don’t think that it’s a “mistake most Christians make every now and then”, I think it’s rampant among believers to quote one verse or even a partial verse as a cure all for what is happening in their lives or the lives of others. Not realizing that the verse they “claim” or “stand” on is not on solid ground spiritually because it is taken out of it’s context and misused. The “Christian meme’s” on facebook prove that. Perhaps much of what we see today, concerning this, comes from, decades, of many churches who will throw up one verse on the big screen and never tie it into the context it was taken from, and create a story of how it applies to our lives today. At the end of the day ……..still no one to blame but ourselves.
https://www.str.org/publications/misquoting-god-solid-ground-january-2015#.Wpp1pujwaUl
https://www.str.org/publications/misquoting-god-part-2-march-2015#.Wpp6_ujwaUn
Well said! I love that first quote by Koukl.