Stand to reason never read a bible verse

Jehovah created Jesus first, then Jesus created everything else. In the same way, every created thing was created by Jesus with the exception of Jesus Himself. Every member of the family is going to Disneyland with the exception of Billy. If you said, вЂApart from Billy, the whole family is going to DisneylandвЂ™ you wouldnвЂ™t mean that Billy wasnвЂ™t part of the family, just that he wasnвЂ™t included in the count. Notice the phrase вЂapart from Him.вЂ™ The apostle excludes Jesus from the count. Those who deny the deity of Christ offer this rebuttal, though. Therefore, the Word could not have been created. If the Word caused all created things to come into existence, then He must have existed before all created things came into existence. John says the same thing in two different ways for emphasis and clarity: Everything that ever came into being owes its existence to the Word, Who caused it all to happen. John writes, вЂњAll things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.вЂќ In John 1:1 the writer states plainly that вЂњthe Word was God.вЂќ In verse three he provides backup support for this claim. Here is an excellent example of how effective this paraphrase technique can be. Does it dovetail naturally with the bigger picture? Sum it up in your own words.ДЇinally and this is critical see if your paraphrase makes sense when inserted in the passage. With the larger context now in view, you can narrow your focus and speculate on the meaning of the verse itself. Help must come from somewhere else close by: the surrounding paragraph. Dictionaries only complicate the issue, giving us more choices, not fewer. But how do we know itвЂ™s the right one? Help wonвЂ™t come from the dictionary. When we consider a verse in isolation, one meaning may occur to us. Words have different meanings in different contexts (thatвЂ™s what makes puns work). ThereвЂ™s a reason this little exercise is so important. Ask, вЂњWhat in this paragraph or group of paragraphs gives any clue to the meaning of the verse?вЂќ Stand back from the verse and look for breaks in the narrative that identify major units of thought. What type of literature is it history, poetry, proverb? What is the passage about in general? What idea is being developed? It takes only a few moments and a little observation of the text.Д«egin with the broad context of the book. Chapter and verse breaks sometimes pop up in unfortunate places, separating relevant material that should be grouped together.ДЇirst, ignore the verse numbers and try to get the big picture. Numbers were added hundreds of years later. The numbers in front of the sentences give the illusion the verses stand alone in their meaning. The key to the meaning of any verse comes from the paragraph, not just from the individual words. This works because of a basic rule of all communication: Meaning always flows from the top down, from the larger units to the smaller units, not the other way around.

Since the context frames the verse and gives it specific meaning, I let it tell me whatвЂ™s going on. I take stock of the relevant material above and below. I read the paragraph, not just the verse. ItвЂ™s an amazingly effective technique you can use, too.

When IвЂ™m on the radio, I use this simple rule to help me answer the majority of Bible questions IвЂ™m asked, even when IвЂ™m totally unfamiliar with the verse.

Stand to reason never read a bible verse