Context is critical.  This is true when reading the Bible more than anywhere else.  When someone plucks a passage out from its original setting, it can be a recipe for misuse and abuse of God’s word.

This is also true for someone who teaches the Bible. A person can sit in the auditorium on Sunday and listen to a sermon and then totally take it the wrong way.  They can pull a story away from its original setting, a quote without noting the context, and twist the words of a preacher to make them say anything too. 

It is significant to notice how each explanation and illustration ties to the overall theme whenever you listen to someone teach the Bible.  Focus intently on hearing the sermon’s big idea and then break down the parts into an application that fits the lesson.  If you do not do this, you can misunderstand and misapply what the preacher is saying.

Too often, I hear people quote a Biblical teacher or share a story that they told and completely miss the point.  Be careful how you read the Bible and be deliberate in how you receive instructions in the scripture. 

When someone takes a lecture on the word of God and misuses it, it can lead them astray along with the people who learn from them. It is dangerous to everyone when we take sermons the wrong way.