23. Context and Connection
Context and Connection
Chapter 22 As in any organism, no member or part, however minute, can be fully understood aside from its relation to the whole; so, in scripture, every paragraph and sentence are part of its totality, and must be studied in relation to all the rest. The text will be illumined by the context, or scripture immediately preceding and following. Every occurrence and utterance should be studied in its surroundings. How, why, when a word was spoken or an act done, helps to explain it, is its local coloring. Hidden relationships must be traced like underground roots and subterranean channels.
There is a law of the paragraph which concerns this contextual study. Punctuation, with all the arrangement and division into chapter, paragraph and verse, are foreign to the original scripture, and the work of uninspired men, mere devices of convenience of reference, and therefore open to criticism and modification. Punctuation points may often prove misleading, and these arbitrary divisions frequently interrupt continuity of thought and teaching, if they do not more seriously pervert the sense. It is only by much care that it is found where the pause occurs in the argument or narrative or discourse, and the paragraph is complete.
There is also a law of connection which demands that we observe words, sayings and sentences which are divinely linked together, since there can be no accidental or meaningless arrangement of terms or phrases when a divine Mind is at work. Patience will show both similarities and dissimilarities, unsuspected at first, and order of statement which significant and unalterable, because of a more important order of development in the truth set forth, or the experience of grace indicated.
Chapter divisions sometimes interrupt the progress of the narrative or discourse. A few prominent examples will illustrate this:
Matthew 9:38; Matthew 10:1, our Lord began to send forth laborers.
Matthew 16:28; Matthew 17:1; Mark 8:38; Mark 9:1, the Transfiguration fulfills the promise.
Matthew 19:30; Matthew 20:1, the parable illustrates the principle (comp.Matthew 20:16).
Mark 2:23-28; Mark 3:1-5, the miracle proves His lordship of the Sabbath.
Luke 20:45-47; Luke 21:1-4, note in both passages the prominence of the poor widow.
Acts 7:60; Acts 8:1, Stephen’s death led to Saul’s conversion.
1 Corinthians 10:33; 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul bids them follow him as an example of self-renunciation.
1 Corinthians 12:31; 1 Corinthians 13:1, Charity is the more excellent way.
2 Corinthians 4:18; 2 Corinthians 5:1, the argument about the unseen and eternal continues.
2 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Corinthians 7:1, this last verse sums up the previous argument.
Verse divisions often isolate a sentence from its surroundings, not only interrupting the sense, but very imperfectly presenting the truth. It is very unsafe to cite such broken and dismembered fragments of Scripture in support of any doctrinal position, as, so used, even “the devil can cite Scripture to his purpose,” as he did in the temptation of Christ. A text is only a sure guide when it is taken in its surroundings and as a whole utterance.
Biblical punctuation is a human device and not authoritative. Sometimes it is no doubt misleading. A question mark might sometimes well displace a period.
Possibly in Romans 8:33-34, we have a series of questions:
“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? Shall God, who justifieth? Who is he that condemneth? Shall Christ who died, yea, rather is risen again?”
A recent writer quite insists on reading Ephesians 4:26, “Can ye be angry and not sin?”
He feels a difficulty in reconciling a sanction of anger with the general tone of Scripture precepts, and especially with the command in Ephesians 4:31, “Let all anger be put away from you.” He would rather construe the apostle as asking, “Can you indulge anger and yet be sinless?” If his contention be true there may be ethics involved in a punctuation point.
Probably in Luke 13:24, a comma should displace a period: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able, when once the master of the house hath risen up and hath shut to the doors,” when it is too late (Matthew 25). The illuminative force of context is illustrated by our Lord’s great lesson on almsgiving (Matthew 6:1-4). The greater lesson is on the unseen world and the unseen God. He has been showing how the unseen in man is the essential and true self—not the outer word, blow, act, but the inner thought, desire, disposition, will. And now He advances to a higher and more comprehensive conception; the greater objective as well as subjective reality is unseen. He would make the unseen in man responsive to the unseen in God and bring his unseen self into harmony with the whole realm of the invisible. This may be illustrated by the “harp, the harper and the harmony,” as the late Joseph Cook used to say. The main thing is not the beauty of the instrument nor the dress and appearance of the player, but the music evolved by his touch; and melody and harmony are inexplicable mysteries obedient to unseen forces. Imagination, memory, love, hope, faith, conscience, sensibility, all find expression in music which is their creation, and all these are unseen faculties and attributes. The soul of the harper must create the harmony. And so almsgiving is only music in God’s ear when it is the outgoing and expression of an unseen spirit in man which is in accord with Himself, the response of what is best in us to what is best in Him; any lower motive spoils and degrades it as does a mere mercenary motive debase the musician’s art. In 1 Timothy 3:15-16, the punctuation is probably misleading. It were better to read somewhat thus:
“That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God which is the church of the living God. The pillar and ground of the truth, and without controversy great, is the mystery of Godliness—namely,” etc.
Thus read, we avoid a mixed and incongruous figure, at one instant comparing the church to a house and the next to a pillar in a house; but, according to this reading, the doctrine of the incarnation becomes the central pillar and pedestal of the church, upholding and sustaining it. A pillar consists of two parts—the upper and lower—one connects it with what is above, the other with what is below. Perhaps the thought is that the church, as the House of God, finds its central prop and pillar in the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, Who as Son of God and son of man, related to both realms, links heaven and earth. By His humanity, Gospel, believing people, with earth; by his Deity, relation to Angels, coronation as King, with Heaven. And so long as this pillar remains thus central in church life and doctrine, even the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16). The two words together, “Life and Peace,” (Romans 8:6) describe the double result of the atoning work of Christ, and the order is unchangeable.
“Life” results from vital union with Him in whom is Life. It comes by simple acceptance of the Word of the Gospel as the incorruptible seed of God (1 Peter 1:23). At once by believing we have the Son of God and have Life (1 John 5:12) and the Spirit of Life (Romans 8:2).
“Peace” is the effect of His work, and faith in it as a finished work. It comes of minding the things of the Spirit, but is not to be confounded with Life, which precedes it and prepares for it.
Life does not always bring peace, but at first breaks up peace as a dead man raised to life like Lazarus would become conscious of sepulchral bonds. Peace is threefold: With God—reconciled relations (Romans 5:1); with Men—new fellowship (Ephesians 2); Peace of God—conscious indwelling (Philippians 4). A child born to a king has his father’s life in him from the first; but he has to be trained to know and understand all the duties and principles involved in being son and heir. The one place where our Lord is expressly set before us as an example is 1 Peter 2:21-24. The exact word is writing-copy, as though the portrait of our Lord were put before us that we should study its exact lineaments and seek to reproduce them in our own character and conduct, speech, temper, will, and that inexpressible something which we call “spirit”—the inmost secret of the whole man which unconsciously molds all the rest.
Here we are commended to His example as our guide in all things: for our daily walk, abstinence from all known sin; in the truthfulness and self restraint of the tongue, even under provocation; in the regulation of temper and disposition, forbearing threatening, and all retaliation and vindictiveness; in the great executive act of the will by which we commit ourselves to the keeping of a righteous God; and especially are we to imitate His self-sacrificing and self-oblivious spirit, which makes us ready to live and die for the salvation of others. What department of life is left untouched in this marvelously comprehensive example and ideal!
We have frequent occasion to refer to verbal emphasis, which is a science by itself, because emphasis is so often in effect exegesis. To find the word where the stress of a sentence falls is often to find the stress also of thought. Here again the study of context and connection is helpful, as showing the objective point toward which a whole discourse moves. The emphatic word is often the pivot on which the meaning turns. When the anger of the Jews was aroused by the claim of our Lord that God was His Father, they retorted in a most insulting manner, “we be not born of fornication,” by this stress upon the first personal pronoun, more than insinuating that His birth was unsanctified by wedlock, and a disgrace. When our Lord says “Take my yoke upon you,” the emphasis on “my.” In these few verses (Matthew 11:27-30) the emphasis seems throughout upon himself. He alone has knowledge of the Father or power to reveal Him; He alone can give rest, teach lowliness and meekness, or impart the secret of rest even in toils and burden bearing. If the “I,” “Me,” “My,” be uniformly emphasized the whole passage becomes luminous; the rest of salvation is His gift; the les-son of meekness is His lesson; the yoke that is easy is the yoke He makes, fits to us, and wears with us, and the burden is one which He lays on us and bears with us. What an example of the significance of emphasis!
If it be possible, “as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men” (Romans 12:18), suggests that it may not always be possible with all men to live peaceably because they are not always pacifically inclined; but so far as lies in us, let there be peace. It takes but one to make an attack or assault, but it takes two to make a quarrel. There are some who are so contentious that the most peace-loving people cannot prevent the outbreaks of a wicked loquacity and pugnacity. But it is not necessary either to make angry reply or deal an angry blow. When slandered or struck we may remain passive and unresisting; or even return evil by good, and so quench the fires of strife. In 1 Corinthians 7:40 the emphasis lies upon “I also”—“for I think that I also have the spirit of God.” This is usually taken to mean that Paul gives his private judgment, and thinks that he also has the Spirit’s guidance. But, putting the emphasis where it belongs, he is confidently affirming that, whoever may claim to teach them as Spirit-led teachers, he, Paul, may also confidently claim the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, as one specially commissioned to guide the churches. In Hebrews 3:7 to Hebrews 4:11, the context shows the emphatic word is “Today.” It occurs three times, marking an intensive present and the accompanying tenses are all present, “Exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘today;’” “Harden not your hearts;” “Take heed;” “We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold,” etc. “Let us, therefore, fear;” “lest any of you should seem to come short of it,” “do enter into rest.” “There remaineth a Sabbatism;” “he that is entered into His rest,” etc. To see where the emphasis lies prevents our mistaking the meaning; for the Sabbatic Rest here meant is not a future heaven, but a present satisfaction in God, corresponding to Canaan, which was the earthly, not heavenly inheritance promised to Israel. This present rest is entered into now, not by dying or ceasing from our earthly activities, but by believing and “ceasing from our own works.”
Context and connection reveal order, which also often shows emphasis very plainly, as in Revelation 17:14, “called and chosen and faithful”—each successive term stronger than its predecessor; there are many “called,” but few “chosen,” and, even out of the “chosen” comparatively few that are “faithful,” “loving not their lives even unto death,” the true martyr witnesses.