I remember when I was filling in as teaching pastor to a congregation years ago. On Wednesday evenings, I taught through the gospel of John verse-by-verse. I was doing that for one main reason. John’s gospel is the clearest example of who Jesus is, especially to those who are baby Christians, or who are perhaps still unregenerate.

I love teaching through John. If a person’s mind and heart are being gripped by God, John’s gospel often seems to launch people into a clearer understanding of the person and work of Christ. That has been my experience, anyway.

I have found that people, after having the Word taught systematically and verse-by-verse, they find that verses and passages they had often heard cited mean something quite different than what they’d previously thought.

A Real Example: On one Wednesday night as I was teaching at this church, we had really slim attendance, and I think one of the men present picked up on how down I was because of low attendance. (It’s hard not to take it personally, if you care about your people.) Anyway, Tim said, “Well, pastor, where two or three are gathered in my name, Jesus is in the midst.”

Tim was trying to console me, of course. I knew that. So I took his offer of comfort and thanked him for it. But here’s the rub: That is NOT what that verse is about, not even close.

In Matthew 18:19-20 (ESV), Jesus says this: “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.”

Context, Context, Context: Do you know what the context of Jesus’ words was there? It was about church discipline. It was about how to handle the situation when a brother sins against another brother (v. 15). It is about the efforts we should go to in order to restore a brother if and when he repents. It is about how the community of disciples, and later qualified elders, were to operate as those with authority from Christ himself in order to deal with sin in the church. And where two or three of said disciples and/or qualified elders are gathered, Christ’s authority was likewise among them insofar as they (the disciples and/or qualified elders) remained biblically faithful to Scripture. In short, it had NOTHING to do with slim attendance numbers at Bible study.

Encouragement/takeaway: “Text without context is pretext” is axiomatic for good reason. So much betrayal of the truth of God occurs because verses, phrases, words, etc. are divorced from their original contexts. This ought not be for Christians. We should abide by the NT’s teaching: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15, ESV). More than two or three should be gathered around that clear command, and live it out, for then God’s authority would surely be in their midst.