Danger of taking out of context

"A Text without a Context is a Pretext."

It is very important to consider text and speech in its context.

There was a story about a depressed man who had never been a student of the Bible decided that he would begin to read the bible.

He opened the Bible at random and began to read the verses his eyes fell upon. The place he happened to read was the twenty seventh chapter of Matthew where the writer tells about Judas who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. When he realized what he had done, he took the money back, and the Scriptures say in Matthew 27:5, “So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.”

When the man in our story read that Scripture, he began to feel very bad. He closed the Bible, and the more he thought about this man’s hanging himself, the worse he felt. But he thought, “Maybe if I will read again in the Bible, I will feel better.” He opened the Bible again at random and this time his eyes fell upon Luke 10:37 where Jesus said, “... Go and do likewise.”

Quickly the man in our story closed the Bible and said to himself, “Surely this does not mean for me to do the same as the man who hanged himself.” Now he really felt bad, but he said, “It cannot mean for me to go and do the same.” So he opened the Bible at random again. This time his eyes fell upon 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “... for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.”

By this time our man was thoroughly confused and troubled by what he had read in the Bible, but he returned once more to the book. This time his eyes fell at random on John 13:27, “... "What you are about to do, do quickly,...”

The above story is a bit far out and is intended only as an illustration that will point out the need to rightly divide the word of God.


Here is another illustration:

The Bible contains the sentence:

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."... - Psalm 14:1

If the context is omitted, this becomes:
There is no God.

Let us make very sure that we listen carefully and read the context of any spoken or written text so as not to misrepresent any speakers or authors. This could spark off misunderstanding. Thus, be very careful with words.

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Don't fail to read good books

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." - Sir Francis Bacon

"The road to knowledge begins with the turn of the page."

"The books that help you most are those which make you think the most."

“The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them” - Mark Twain

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”

Good books are indeed great source for information and knowledge. However, you need to spend time reading to acquire the necessary information and knowledge. Anyway, remember that it is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.

Read books. They are good for us.

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Learn to communicate your thoughts

To win friends instantly, admire everything and everybody, and express it freely.

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” - Mother Teresa

Most of us impress too much, express too little. Reading, listening, watching TV is impressing - absorbing - taking in. Talking, writing, doing is expressing - giving out. For faster growth, expressing should equal impressing.

“Having knowledge but lacking the power to express it clearly is no better than never having any ideas at all” - Pericles

“Words and hearts should be handled with care for words when spoken and hearts when broken are the hardest things to repair.”

“There are hundreds of languages in the world, but a smile speaks them all.”

Photo by nuanc taken from this source

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How smart are you?

To outperform someone else - even if that person is "smarter" than you - is to increase your own Mental Performance Ratio - the percentage of your total mental capacity that you are putting to use.

"A man can learn only two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people." - Will Rogers

"Smart men put up with small annoyances, to gain larger rewards later."

Worker smarter, not just harder!

"The harder and smarter we work, the luckier we get - and the more we live."

"It's never smart to act better or wiser than those around us."

"A mark of a smart employer: he hires men smarter than himself."

"I make progress by having people around me who are smarter than I am and listening to them. And I assume that everyone is smarter about something than I am." - Henry J. Kaiser

"Heed woman. They're smarter than men. They know less, but understand more." - Anonymous

What do you think?

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Read and Think

"Ink is the transcript of thought."

"A drop of ink may make a million think." - Lord Byron

"If you've learned to read, you can learn to succeed."

"We learn to read so that we can read to learn."

“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” - Margaret Fuller

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” - Joseph Addison

"Reading without thinking is like eating without digesting."

"Force yourself to reflect on what you read, paragraph by paragraph." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Learn from Wise Sayings

“Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.” - Sandra Carey

A short saying often contains much wisdom.

"Wisdom is not the product of schooling but the lifelong attempt to acquire it." - Albert Einstein

"Every man like myself, who never went to college, can largely make up for that lack by reading the wise sayings of the great men of the past, who gladly left their wisdom and experience in proverbs for us who follow them." - Winston Churchill

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Acquire Good Habits

Guard your habits - bad ones will destroy you. Good habits are hard to acquire but easy to live with. Bad habits are easy to acquire but hard to live with.

Force the habits you consider best for you. Time will make them natural and easy. Most harmful habits are too weak to be noticed until they're too strong to be broken.

Guard against getting into the habit of mere reading. Promote yourself to more doing.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is one of those books that can be helpful in this area.

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Effective Learning

Learning how to learn is life's most important skill.

Those who don't read good books have no advantage over those who can't.

It is true that we learn by listening, yet we don't listen. All experiences are opportunities for us to learn and grow. We learn more when we teach.

When we acquire knowledge only intellectually, we will never learn. We can learn only by doing. Learn from the past to improve the future. It is better to learn from the experience of others.

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