Proclaimer Blog
Context – aiding application
Yesterday we saw how the context aids understanding. Many preachers are OK with this, and – to be fair – pretty good at it. But context also aids application. It’s when we see a passage in its context that we begin to see the thrust of why it was written and, so, the primary lines of application today.
Take yesterday’s passage – John 15.26-16.15. My struggle was, in part at least, with lines of application. Is it simply a case of “this is what the Spirit does, Hallelujah!” No (though that would at least be a good start). In this section of John’s gospel there is a residing tension. Jesus is going (14.28). That’s tough for the disciples because the chief call is for them to abide in Christ – i.e. to keep going (15.4). Here is a big ask: keep going, says Jesus. I’m going, says Jesus. How can the two be reconciled? Answer – gloriously, Jesus will send his Spirit, another Helper, so “I will not leave you as orphans.”
So far, so good. But those truths in themselves do not really give you the sharp application the passage deserves. Because, in fact, the presence of Jesus in the world brought opposition, and so too the presence of Jesus by his Spirit, carrying on his work, is going to bring the same opposition (which is the thrust of the immediate context in 15.18-25). There is a tension here – the same Spirit who will aid us and bring us the presence of Jesus will also, precisely because he brings us the presence of Jesus, lead us into the world’s hatred.
Ah! Suddenly now the passage has bite. It makes it harder, as it happens, to apply. But once you get there, you’ve got application that has real zip and does what the passage does. No generalities here – “isn’t it nice we have the Spirit?” No – at one level, it’s not nice at all. Just read 15.18-25 again! But it’s precisely into this context that the application really takes hold of us.
Context isn’t everything here. The application is in the passage, not in the surrounding verses. And yet it is the surrounding verses that really sharpen and shape the application and turn the general into the particular. This is what the passage is about, and this is what your people need to hear.