When we read the Bible, we need to become thoughtful students of the linguistic and cultural contexts of Scripture. Every verse in the Bible has a context. This includes a verse I was studying this morning in my daily devotional time.
In John 9, Jesus has healed a blind man. Later, the people were incredulous. Some thought it was the same man. Others weren't so sure. But the blind man himself kept saying:
"I am."
The Greek here reads egō eimi. I'm sure you've heard of that expression. It plays an important role in terms of New Testament christology. Why, a few verses earlier, Jesus uses the same two words with reference to himself. In John 8:58 we read:
Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."
Here the words "I AM" are placed in caps because the expression is an obvious reference to the name of God in Exod. 3:14. But in John 9:9, the very same Greek words mean nothing more than "It's me."
This was a simple reminder to me that we always have to place the verses we're reading into their proper contexts. If we fail to do so, we'll be awash in confusion, and it won't be long before we slide down the slippery slope of eisegesis. Every major cult is built on a violation of this basic principle of context. A great deal of that sort of error could be avoided by simply asking ourselves, "What do the previous verses or the ones that follow say?"
I'll talk more about the importance of context in upcoming Greek classes. But whenever you study the word of God, keep taking the context into careful consideration!