The grand message and the details
So we need to know the grand message of the Bible, but of course this does not mean particular texts do not provide their own contribution to that message. They do! It’s just that their place in the grand mosaic of the revelation of God must be rightly understood.
To understand a particular part of the Bible, you must understand the whole. And to properly understand the whole, no part can be excluded.
There are two pitfalls which relate to this. First, we must never simply decide that a text does not mean what it plainly says simply because it does not fit into our conception of the Bible. This happens far too often and leads to foolish doctrinal divisions between those who pay heed to one set of texts and those who pay heed to another set.
...each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided?
1 Corinthians 1:12-13
But if that first pitfall could be described as the context of the Scriptures trumping the text you are studying, the second pitfall is where the text at hand trumps the context. That is, we must acknowledge that there is oftentimes clarity or qualification legitimately brought to a text from its larger context. Or put another way, you can rightly interpret a passage of scripture in terms of its immediate context, and yet misapply it if you do not know the grand message of the Bible.
An important example
Our aim is not to “balance” out the message of a difficult text, nor is it to make excuses for what God says and does. Our goal is rather to always show how the full weight of every text fits in the grand mosaic of divine revelation.
For example, consider the following text.
Now an Israelite woman’s son, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the people of Israel. And the Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel fought in the camp, and the Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the Name, and cursed. ... Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.'
—Leviticus 24:10-14
When we teach on Leviticus (which I hope we do!), how do relate to passages such as these? Do we try to defend God from being mean or simply brush over the text quickly in order to turn to a passage which speaks of God's love and forgiveness? God is most certainly loving and forgiving, but he is also holy and his Name is to be honored. Passages such as these need to be taught with the weightiness that they in fact carry.
And then we must place them into the mosaic of Truth. After the weight of holy justice has fallen upon those we teach, our job as ministers of the gospel is then to bring them afresh to the Cross where holy justice was satisfied. Far from making us legalists, Leviticus taught rightly will produce a soft and humble people who make their boast in Jesus alone.
To summarize: Is a text law? Then it ought to capture the full weight of divine command. But if it is suggested or assumed in our teaching that this law lives in the very center of the plan of God, we have become Pharisees instead of gospel preachers. That is, we have missed the Bible's message.
Audience considerations
Of course how extensively the mosaic is explained depends upon our audience.
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
—Hebrews 6:1-2
The whole point of this passage in Hebrews is that we should not have to give a lengthy explanation of the foundations with every new thing we learn from the scriptures. Thus, if your audience knows the gospel, sometimes just briefly acknowledging these foundations will suffice. On the other hand, oftentimes they will need to be expounded upon. Here are some examples of the types of questions to ask yourself.
Does my audience have a clear and correct understanding of what repentance is?
Regarding “faith,” does my audience know that we are talking about concrete confidence in the only true God, and not a subjective feeling?
Is my audience firmly established upon the reality that we have only one life to live and then comes eternal judgment?
Biblical examples
The books of the Bible themselves also indicate their own contexts in a variety of ways.
Some books begin in such a way that demonstrates they are picking up from previous revelation that has already been given.
After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun...
—Joshua 1:1
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach...
—Acts 1:1
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham...
—Matthew 1:1
Other books end with clear indications of more to come in the sovereign story of history.
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
—Judges 21:25
So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife... and she bore a son... He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
—Ruth 4:13-17
Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’
—2 Chronicles 36:22-23
Still other books supply contextual introductions that most certainly demand attention to that context.
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
—Psalm 51, title
The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
—Micah 1:1
The presence of quotations from other books of the Bible also testifies to a greater context to be aware of.
it is written... (appears 80 times in the Bible)
And of course there are books of the Bible that go far beyond simply acknowledging a greater context. Books like Romans, Ephesians and Hebrews undertake to map out for us the grand mosaic of God's Word as a whole.