Example 2: Having a "Peace" about It, Colossians 3:15Ĭolossians 3:15 is a text that is constantly misunderstood by well-meaning Christians. I've got the car." Apart from Jesus' agency nothing came into being that has come into being. It means "apart from His agency." It's the same as saying, "Apart from me you'll never get to Disneyland. "Apart from Him" means something entirely different.
Obviously, the phrase "apart from Jesus" can't mean "with the exception of Jesus." These phrases are not synonymous. Strictly speaking, it means that Jesus is the only created thing that exists. The reconstructed phrase is nearly nonsense. If your brow is furrowed trying to figure this out, I'm not surprised.
The verse then looks like this: " With the exception of Jesus, nothing came into being that has come into being." Okay, let's try the replacement and see what happens. Note that this rebuttal turns on the ability to replace "apart from Him" with the phrase "with the exception of Jesus." Allegedly they're synonymous. 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, ‘Apart from Billy, the whole family is going to Disneyland' you wouldn't mean that Billy wasn't part of the family, just that he wasn't included in the count. Notice the phrase ‘apart from Him.' 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, "All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being." In John 1:1 the writer states plainly that "the Word was God." In verse three he provides backup support for this claim. Example 1: Jesus, the Uncreated Creator, John 1:1 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.įinally 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 it's the right one? Help won'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 (that's what makes puns work). There's a reason this little exercise is so important.
It takes only a few moments and a little observation of the text. Chapter and verse breaks sometimes pop up in unfortunate places, separating relevant material that should be grouped together.įirst, 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 what's going on. I take stock of the relevant material above and below. I read the paragraph, not just the verse. It's an amazingly effective technique you can use, too. I use this simple rule to help me answer the majority of Bible questions I'm asked, even when I'm totally unfamiliar with the verse. Instead, always read a paragraph at least. If there was one bit of wisdom, one rule of thumb, one single skill I could impart, one useful tip I could leave that would serve you well the rest of your life, what would it be? What is the single most important practical skill I've ever learned as a Christian?
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