Is it ever appropriate to take a single verse of Scripture out of its context?

Take again a scriptural example: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." If I quote this desiring to rest His claim to be heard on His being Son in contrast, say, with Moses or Elias, I may quote it. "This is my beloved Son, hear him." If I were showing the delight of God in Him, I might quote the former part, leaving out "hear him." If I refer to His Father's perfect approbation of Him as a reason why He should be the expression of His mind, I should quote the whole passage. These different citations, instead of being contradictions or mistakes, are proofs of the intention with which the statement is quoted.

Take, again, a scriptural example: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him." Matt. 17:5 If I quote this desiring to rest His claim to be heard on His being Son, in contrast, say, with Moses or Elias, I may quote it: "This is my beloved Son, hear him." If I were shewing the delight of God in Him, I might quote the former part, leaving out "hear him." If I refer to His Father's perfect approbation of Him as a reason why He should be the expression of His mind, I should quote the whole passage. These different citations, instead of being contradictions or mistakes, are proofs of the intention with which the statement is quoted.

We find this text quoted so many times nowadays that it is well to observe carefully the connection in which it was originally used. You cannot cut up a scripture in snippets, and expect to understand each snippet individually. Scripture is put together in a Divine order and for a Divine reason by its Divine Author.

We learn the true sense of a verse by its context. If we ignore the context, we are apt to miss the mind of God.

You must recollect that the verses are only artificial divisions of the Bible (and so indeed are the chapters also) introduced to facilitate reference to any particular portion. For example, Paul, in writing to the Romans, did not divide his letter into chapters and verses. You should make a point, therefore, of reading each verse in connection with its neighbours.

The first thing to realise is that God’s Word, and every part of it, is inspired and useful for instruction. But the second thing to notice is equally important: in order to understand the Bible as a whole and to see how everything fits together, one needs to examine every statement in its own context. In different passages God speaks to different people who lived in completely different epochs.

To understand well any part of Scripture we must not take an isolated passage (though, when understood, such may be rich in edification) but read, as we should in every writing, each passage with its context, and in its place. It is with this view that, in treating of Romans 7 and 8, I take a rapid survey of the structure of the whole Epistle.

1893 231 No scripture can be divorced from its context without losing somewhat of its force and beauty. And the well-known passage in St. John dealing with the Good Shepherd is, like all other inspired writings, only a single link in the chain wrought by the Spirit of God for His own ends and purposes. It may therefore be profitable to meditate upon it with this thought before the mind.

But the word of prophecy is of a consistent, interdependent character. No prophecy has any independent interpretation. If my interpretation does not fit perfectly with the rest of Scripture, then I am wrong. How vital it is therefore that we take Scripture itself deeply to heart, not taking a meaning to it, but bringing a meaning from it, which corresponds to the rest of Scripture.

How true it is that one verse of Scripture is enough to die on, but it needs the whole Word of God to live by. To “rightly divide the word of truth” to hold truth with an even balance—to take all the Word of God in all its parts, is necessary for us, “that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished to all good works.”