Context is everything.
One thing said in one instance is a completely different thing said the same way but in another context.
We hear words and we stop there. But there is so much more going on and a very large part of communication is taking into account the context.
Without context we make all sorts of fatal errors of judgment.
Context changes the application, it changes the presentation, and it changes the response.
Context does not change truth but it does bring to bear a heavy weight or responsibility upon that truth, a responsibility to present truth within the context by which others find themselves.
Speaking is about context. Listening is about context.
This past week I am struck afresh about how within the context of Jesus Christ all things are changed.
Our conversations about sin and sorrow have been completely changed in context of Jesus Christ.
For if we really got it, REALLY GOT IT, that Love covers over a multitude of sins, might not our condemnations and our judgments be completely put to rest?
Wouldn’t our experiences of joy and delight take on incredible depths and proportions in context of Jesus Christ, if we really got him?
Titus 1:15 says, “To the pure, all things are pure.”
Context. What is the context of your vision, your understanding and your perspectives?
Just this one verse alone challenges our thinking and our paradigms. For within the Christian community there is much ranting and raving about all the bad and wrong in the world. It is not hard to find multiple condemnations and forceful judgments coming out of the mouths of those who claim to know God.
But those things, the attitudes of our hearts that hate everyone and everything, is not the heart of God. Our hearts are not very pure when our focus only sees the bad and the wrong.
‘To the pure, all things are pure.’
It never hurts to truly challenge ourselves in regards to our hearts and the context from which we are living.
After all, our lives depend on it.