October 17 Context for the Birth of Jesus

The readings over the last three days are important. Although they are not Biblical, they are historical in nature (extra-Biblical) and provide a very needed context for the world in which Jesus was born into.

I always encourage people to thoroughly study the context for all Biblical study. Reading a chapter of the Bible is always good, but understanding its context (in the book), context (in the whole of the Bible), and context (in the history, culture, etc.) is best. Context helps us read the text as its 1st hearers heard or read it. Then we can understand the teaching as they did. From there, we can take the intended principle and apply it to our daily lives.

It is sometimes said that you can't go from the Bible directly to Hartford (or where ever you live) - you must 1st go through Jerusalem. What this means is that you will be misled at times if you don't understand the context and 1st hear things as the 1st hearers heard it.

For example, let's consider Paul's teachings to the Corinthians about the Lord's Supper in I Corinthian 11. Some of the wealthy people were getting drunk and eating while the poor were going hungry during the Lord's Supper. Paul told them that they were being punished for this. Upon a cursory reading, we might say that we aren't doing this, so I guess we (in our church) are ok - we aren't drunk and we don't serve food to some and not others. But I Corinthians is all about the disunity of the Corinthian church throughout the book in many ways. Then, in Chapter 11, Paul begins his teaching on the Lord's Supper with 1 Corinthians 11:17-19 "In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval."

Paul, is telling the people that they can't participate in the Lord's Supper if they are in disunity. Although the passage is talking about drunkenness and eating/not eating as THEIR disunity, we have to apply the warning against disunity in our context. Factions, unresolved conflicts, favoritism, cliques, racism, etc. in the church are all forms of disunity. A church that "celebrates" the Lord's Supper like this is doing so in an "unworthy manner." Context helps us get to our application.