One of those bad breaks is in Romans. In chapter 1, Paul lays out the problem: "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth" (Rom 1:18). From there it gets worse. God continues to "give them up" to increasing sin. (Interesting, isn't it? Apparently, God is the one keeping our sin in check.) Finally it culminates in "a debased mind" (Rom 1:28) which results in a whole 3 verses of evil Mankind commits, ending with, "Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them" (Rom 1:32). End of the chapter. And we all nod and say, "Yep, that's how it works. Those sure are a lot of sinners." We only get away with that because ... of a bad chapter break. Because chapter 2 begins,
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? (Rom 2:1-3)You see, that chapter break gave us a break; Paul didn't. If you can see the evil that chapter one talks about, chapter 2 warns that you practice them and you are condemned because you can see it's sin. "Oops! That didn't come out like I planned it."
Our sin problem is worse than we realize. The Bible isn't unclear on that. And the solution is Christ alone. The Bible isn't unclear on that. But we need to be careful. It's too easy to miss the important truths by failing to take into account the whole counsel of God. It's too easy to yank a verse out of context and run with it. Don't let bad chapter breaks or favorite ideas or laziness stop you from reading it all, applying it all. God's Word is sufficient (2 Tim 3:16-17), but we need it all.
5 comments:
I like Sproul's take on the chapter breaks, they were put there by an itinerate priest, falling asleep while on horseback. They are useful for helping us find where we're talking about, rather than "this book, this paragraph" especially since the original Greek didn't even have paragraphs. But we must always keep in mind context.
I agree that the verse and chapter breaks in the New Testament books can be unhelpful, as they oftentimes interrupt the flow and presentation of the message, as you point out, and disturb the context. (Fortunately, my bible [NKJV] does run the full chapters in succession, with verse and chapter identifications at the left margin but with no breaks or spacing between verses or chapters; logical paragraph breaks are indicated by verse numbers being in boldface.) I have heard suggestions to read the letters from the apostles straight through in one sitting, if possible, to get the complete picture (like we normally read a letter); Romans and Hebrews are a bit long to do that, but the others are doable that way.
A while back I was teaching a Bible study on the Gospel of John. We went from there to John's epistles. The transition was fascinating. Having left John's gospel account, you could see how much of it impacted his own thinking. Really interesting, and I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't just finished the Gospel of John.
David, Sproul’s explanation made me laugh. I hadn’t heard that, but it is as good an explanation as any! And you are right; “chapter & verse” assignments are essentially bookmarks of sorts.
Taking John’s writings all together is a great idea. There is no doubt interesting continuity throughout, and I would surmise that one can tell which pressing concerns the Holy Spirit led John to reiterate or expound upon in his later writings, as you noticed. (I see that a bit in Paul’s writings, where he is so faithful and diligent to consistently impart the Gospel to its deepest and fullest degree.)
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