Lesson 8 | Explore the Context
Study Skill: Look Both Ways
In the following sermon clip on the “Triumphal Entry” (Mark 11:1–11), Alistair Begg addresses the necessity of carefully exploring the context in order to not make misleading assumptions. Listen to the clip now and consider this question: “Is Jesus’ humble and celebrated entrance into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, meant to paint the picture of a cozy and peaceful Jesus?”
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With that example set before us, let’s consider a few specific strategies for rightly discerning the context.
1. Trace themes within a book
The ability to properly place a passage in its context derives from one of the skills we learned back in Lesson 1—namely, read whole books. And we could add, re-read whole books. By necessity, it takes at least a second reading to fully catch the development of a theme from beginning to end. Ask anyone who has read Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings multiple times and they will delight to help you see the themes you miss with only a single reading.
Armed with that level of understanding, ask...
- Where does this passage fit within the whole?
- What does this passage contribute to the development of this theme?
- What elements are repeated?
- What elements change?
2. Pay careful attention to the adjacent chapters
If the larger (or distant) context is important, the narrower (or near) context is doubly so. With all of the previous lenses, you have examined the immediate context of words, phrases, and sentences within a chapter. It is now time to expand your view to include the preceding and following chapters.
3. Use the Topics lens as a guide
Back in Lesson 4, we sought to identify the various topics in a passage (who, what, when, where, why, and how), and then pressed further to ask, “What is the author’s primary burden?” Now, as you look to the adjacent chapters, ask...
- What topics carry over from one chapter to the next?
- What topics have shifted?
- Has the author’s primary burden shifted?
- Are there any clues to the author’s primary burden for the whole book?
- How does the chapter in focus advance this central concern?
4. Be alert to shared themes under different terms
An author may have a central concern that surfaces in a variety of circumstances or secondary topics. For example, one of Paul’s primary burdens in 1 Corinthians is the matter of divisiveness in the church. This theme surfaces again and again. But he uses a variety of terms depending on the specific issue at hand in each chapter:
- ch. 1: agree and let there be no divisions among you
- chs. 2–4: human vs. spiritual wisdom, arrogance vs. humility in leadership
- ch. 5: church discipline—unity with holy integrity
- ch. 6: lawsuits, sexual immorality
- (ch. 7: on marriage and singleness)
- chs. 8–10: exercising freedom vs. wounding another’s conscience
- ch. 11: divisions and selfishness at the Lord’s Supper
- chs. 12–14: spiritual gifts are designed to build up not to establish rank
- (ch. 15: on resurrection)
- ch. 16: solidarity and support with other churches; stand firm together