God's Word As We Want It.....VS.....God's Word As It Is Written

As I have dug more and more into the Word, I have developed and carried an opinion for quite some time now:

We take verses out of context and then hold them in our hearts as "God's promises." 


We do this because it makes us feel better about ourselves. We do this and deceive ourselves into thinking that our lives are safely protected under the shadow of God's promises. This inaccurate assessment of scripture, however, keeps us from honestly assessing our lives, prevents us from recognizing the extent of our sin, and prevents us from understanding the amount of our own contribution to the troubles in our lives.

Here's a great example:

"My God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19

How many of us have heard that verse many times?
I have! I have!

Well, if you read that verse in the entire context of Philippians chapter 4, one thing becomes incredibly clear:  The reason the Philippian church could have the assurance of God's rich provision of their needs was because they had first been very generous in giving to Paul during his times of need.
God blessed them as a result of their obedience to Him!

Look at the scriptures where Paul describe the Philippians' giving:
"It was good of you to share in my troubles..... not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessaloncia, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need..... I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent.... They are...pleasing to God." Phil 4:14, 15b,16, 18

It was immediately after these verses summarizing the generosity of the Philippians that Paul assures them by saying, "My God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." (4:19)

So, we see that this promise proclaiming God's rich provision of our needs cannot be claimed by any Christian any time. It can only be claimed be those Christians who are obediently supplying the needs of those around them. Ouch.

There you have it. One of my favorite examples of how we take scripture out of context and thereby miss its full power in our lives. The bible is full of widely-quoted and beloved verses that say "God will do such-and-such for you" or "God will be such-and-such to you." I dare you to look up some of those promises and see how many of them are dependent upon some sort of action on our part. Conditional upon whether or not we first fulfill our end of the bargain.