If one just pulls individual verses or phrases out of the Bible and uses them as stand-alone instructions, one can pretty much make the Bible say anything one wants. For instance, if you take the words “he went and hanged himself” from Matthew 27:5 (speaking about Judas), and then you take the words, “And Jesus said to him, ‘You go, and do likewise.'” from Luke 10:37, you can make the Bible tell anyone to just go and commit suicide! However, obviously that’s not what either of those phrases is talking about.
When we read the Bible, we must seek to understand what the verses we are reading mean. Another example is found in Luke 14:26, where the Bible says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” We can read that and say; “Okay, we’re supposed to hate everyone!” However, if we have read the rest of the Bible, we know that Jesus commanded us to love everyone EVEN our enemies! So, obviously – what He is telling us in Luke 14 can’t mean to just hate everyone. What it means is that we must love Jesus MORE than anyone else, even more than our own lives, and IF anyone (even ourselves) comes between us and following Jesus, we must be so set on following Jesus that we will make the right choice of following Him no matter what the cost, even if we have to lose the friendship and approval of our own family.
You see, when we read the Bible, we can’t just pull verses out and know everything. We have to look at each command in God’s Word in light of all other Scripture. We have to seek to know the circumstances and surrounding passages of the verses we read. That is why it is so important to not just hurriedly read through a few verses and go on our way, without ever taking time to study and learn the Word of God.
Many people today take one verse or two and build an entire message or theology on what it “sounds like it means”. And if we don’t know the Word of God, we can easily fall into the trap of believing people like that, because they ARE quoting Scripture. However, we must be like the Jews mentioned in Acts 17:11, “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” When they heard someone teach something based on the Word of God, they examined the rest of God’s Word to see if what was being taught agreed with everything else the Bible teaches.
Proverbs 1:5 tells us, “Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,” And if you read something we don’t understand, ask God to guide you. He will give you the wisdom you need!