Understand the Context

A word on its own doesn't really mean anything.  A word can only have a sensible meaning in a sentence.  Further, the sentences before and after will clear up the meaning of a particular sentence.  This is the reason we are encouraged to study a passage (several verses) not a single verse if we intend to get the real message the original author intended.  This is also known as reading in context.

Generally speaking, when the author wrote the book he had a particular theme or message in mind.  As the reader, it is important to follow the authors flow of thought.  You first must see the main theme of the book, then the theme found within each chapters.  Lastly, you must decipher the theme of each passage.  The smaller section's theme must compliment the bigger section's theme.  To understand the context you must first read the whole book that you are studying and find the units of thought that make up the book.  This is not really hard to do since most of the Bible has titles for each passage and an outline at the beginning of the book.  But it is a good habit to make a simple outline of your own after you have read the book.

Example: The Book of Hebrews was written to a group of people that were being pressured to either keep going with their Christianity or to go back to Judaism.  In order to address the issue, the author started by establishing the completeness of Jesus Christ and His ministry and how he is much better than the angels, Moses and Aaron the high priest.  You can also trace warnings about falling away.  As you can see, if you began to gain this kind of information after reading the book of Hebrews, it would be so much easier to get in the author's flow of thought as you focus in on studying the book in smaller sections.

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