Proverbs 20 – 21 Never Read a Bible Verse

I like Proverbs. It allows me to violate a basic principle of reading the Bible: Never read a Bible verse.

Yup, that's right. Never read a Bible verse.

Never.

To be more precise, never read a single Bible verse. Read at least a paragraph.

Why? Because the meaning of any given verse is determined by the verses surrounding it. The authors of the text didn't write the verses in isolation They were working through a specific train of thought and every verse has it's place inside that train of thought. The meaning of the verse comes from the what came before it and what comes after it. This is a simple fact due to the nature of language. Nearly all words have more than one meaning, just look at a dictionary definition. Unfortunately the dictionary doesn't tell us which meaning should be used in a particular situation; only the context in which we find that word can give us the needed clues

That's why you should never read a Bible verse. Because you will not know what God is saying if you don't place the verse in it's proper context.

This is why Proverbs is nice. You can take a break from context for a little bit because a proverb, by its nature, is a short saying that outlines a general rule of wisdom. It's self contained. No context needed. This makes the book of Proverbs an ideal place to start for scripture memorization, or a quick devotional reflection time, because all you need is one verse.

When I read “Blows that hurt cleanse away evil, as do stripes the inner depths of the heart.” (20:30) I don't need to analyze the context of the passage to figure out what is being said, all the needed "context" is provided! That's not to say that these verses are not worthy of much thinking and reflection. Far from it! And the poetical nature of the proverbs means that some “interpretation” needs to be done, but the surrounding context is not an issue.

P.S. If you are wondering, I stole the “Never read a Bible verse” pretty much wholesale from Greg Koukl. If you would like some more information about this concept you can check out what he has to say about it here: http://www.str.org/articles/never-read-a-bible-verse#.U5M-FPldUpk