The Importance of Context

     For a number of years the Bible was like a language that I really didn't know. I could pick out words and an occasional phrase but really didn't know what was going on. Sadly, many Christians that I meet are in the same situation that I was in. They may say very confidently that "to the pure all things are pure," using that as a justification for whatever it is that they wish to do. But maybe one in a hundred could inform you of where the phrase is located. ( Titus 1:15) or the context, a strong rebuke of false teachers. This example emphasizes the importance of context, the surrounding verses to the one we are using.
     This morning I was with two brothers with whom I get together most Monday mornings and one of them named Sandy spoke about the context of a popular verse that I had never considered. We have probably all heard, "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it," (Psalm 118:24) and applied it to the day at hand. As the Lord has made every day, this is quite appropriate yet this is not the actual context of the verse. It actually begins in verse 22. "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. (23) This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes." and then on to verse 24. In context the day that we are to rejoice in is the one in which the chief cornerstone is rejected. Isaiah 53:3 supplies the clue. "He (Jesus) is despised and  rejected by men..."  Psalm 118:22 is the principal OT verse supporting Peter's preaching to the Sanhedrin in Acts 4.  Acts 4:10 says that the name of Jesus heals the man at the temple gate called Beautiful, verse 11 quotes the verse in Psalm 118, and verse 12 is the powerful conclusion. "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. "
   Jesus also speaks about the chief cornerstone verse in His parable about the vineyard in Matthew 21:33-44, and Luke 20: 9-18.