Embed from Getty Images “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Psalm 119: 105
This article may pinch. But that is okay. This article is for the Christian reader who professes they read God’s word, yet can not put any context around what they read or quote.
Most Christian’s if they are reading their bible’s at all, only read the surface stuff and do not take the time to really dive into the Word of God. Which is exactly what we should be doing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The world is not getting answers from state and health officials, the President or anyone for that matter.
Yet, God has the answers because God is The answer. So how then can bible verses have more context? How then can Christ Followers be peace in the storm? Understanding God’s word would begin to answer those questions.
Let’s look at a simple bible verses most Christian’s know “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16. There it is in it’s surface appearance.
Now it is time to put some context around it so it has the deep meaning the timeless verse should have.
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4: 9-10. Now we are starting to build a body.
Let’s continue, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will He not also with him graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32, now not only do we have some body but we now have a question to ponder.
“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” 1 Timothy 1: 15-16, Now we begin to get the entire gospel of Jesus and all we are doing is checking the concordance in the bible.
Finally we get the redemption of Jesus’s mission “and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood” Revelation 1:5.
There are many more verses that would bring even more fullness to John 3:16. I used only four bible verses that bring into light just how weighty the famous bible verse as an example.
If you profess to be a Christian, then I think for the sake of your walk with God, as well as having answers for a world looking for them, then really get into God’s word.