The Pendulum Swing
I grew up watching people weaponize Scripture without context. Now I’m watching people use context to dismiss anything uncomfortable. It makes sense. When you’ve been hurt by rigid, legalistic Christianity, the type where you’re shamed for not “following the rules”, of course, we’d swing to the complete other side. “That was just cultural” feels like freedom after being condemned by strict rules.
The problem here is this: both are doing the same thing just in opposite directions.
Some people rip verses from their surrounding passages to control and condemn.
Others reduce uncomfortable verses to “just cultural” to avoid conviction.
Both extremes take Scripture out of context: one side to make it harsher, the other side to make it irrelevant. Both cherry-pick Scripture to serve an agenda.
When we do this, we lose the actual transformative power of Scriptures. Instead of God’s voice challenging us, the gospel becomes a tool for our own purposes. If we morph Scripture to affirm our choices, we miss the point altogether. And ultimately, we end up hiding the gospel itself.
Real faith requires examining context honestly for ALL of Scripture. Not ignoring it to make verses harsher and not weaponizing it to make verses irrelevant.
Using Verses to Control (The Abuse Many Have Fled)
First, let’s name what many of us have experienced…the strict, legalistic view of the Bible that takes Scripture out of context to condemn and control. I’d argue that many people leave Christianity due to judgmental Christians forcing unbiblical, out-of-context rules onto people.
This is the pattern of ripping verses from their surrounding passages, ignoring any context that would soften the application.
Let’s take a look at some examples.
Example 1: “Wives Submit” (Ephesians 5:22)
This verse gets misused when it’s plucked out and read in isolation. The context ignored is in verse 21 and 25. Verse 21 says, “[submit] to one another out of reverence to Christ”. This shows MUTUAL submission. And verse 25 highlights sacrificial, self-giving love from husbands. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). Paul is actually radically elevating women for his culture.
This isn’t one-sided control. It’s mutual laying down of rights, both for the husband and the wife.
The harm here is that some churches might use the verse to excuse abusive situations, saying that God requires wives to be submissive to a fault. They may even use the verse to protect abusive husbands, completely ignoring verse 25’s command to sacrificial, Christ-like love.
The pattern? Cherry-picking one verse, ignoring the context around it.
Example 2: “Touch Not My Anointed” (Psalm 105:15)
Psalm 105:15 says, “Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!” This verse gets used to protect corrupt and abusive leaders from accountability. In the actual context, this has to do with God protecting Israel from EXTERNAL enemies. It has nothing to do with internal church accountability, but again, the verse is ripped completely from its original meaning.
The harm here is that abuse victims are silenced and leaders are not held accountable. The verse is used to unrighteously protect church corruption and shield leaders from accountability.
The pattern? Taking a verse and applying it to something it was never about.
Example 3: “Do Not Be Anxious” (Philippians 4:6)
In its entirety, Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” But this verse gets misused all the time as a command to just stop feeling anxious.
The harm is that people with clinical anxiety may be told they’re faithless or sinful for being anxious. This verse gets weaponized against mental health struggles, dismissing them as spiritual failures. People may in turn avoid therapy, medication, and other medical interventions because they believe “prayer should be enough”. This just heaps shame on people who are already suffering and adds guilt to their anxiety.
But the context ignored is important. Verse 5 in the same passage says, “The Lord is at hand.” God’s presence is the foundation, not our ability to control feelings. Verse 6 tells us to “let your requests be made known to God”—this is an ACTION, not a command to stop feeling anxiety. We are to bring our anxiety TO God in prayer. Verse 7 goes on to tell us that “the peace of God will guard your hearts”. Peace is the RESULT of the practice of sharing our worries with God, not the starting point.
In fact, the full passage is about a spiritual practice for dealing WITH anxiety, not a prohibition against having it. What Paul is actually saying is: when you’re anxious (because you will be), bring it to God through prayer. He’s not saying Christians shouldn’t ever feel anxious.
The pattern? Taking a command phrase out of context, ignoring the action steps.
The Swing: Why the Overcorrection Happens
So when we’ve been beaten with Bible verses, of course we want to reexamine them. We want to reinterpret them as an act of self-defense. If people took verses out of context to harm us, maybe understanding context will set us free.
It starts out healthy. We say, “Wait, let me understand the WHOLE passage, not just one verse. What does this mean in the cultural and historical setting?” This is good biblical interpretation.
But what happens when “that was just cultural” becomes the excuse for ANYTHING uncomfortable? When we use it to avoid accountability and dismiss whatever challenges us?
This is the overcorrection. I’ve felt this pull too.
The temptation to make Scripture fit our pain instead of letting it speak into our pain can tug us to the complete other side of this problem. Ignoring context becomes permission to explain away the hard parts of Scripture.
Out of Context: Using “Cultural” as an Escape Hatch
Here’s where it gets tricky. “That was just cultural” can become our new escape hatch. And I know because I’ve been tempted to use it that way too.
And honestly? Sometimes understanding context DOES free us from harmful interpretations.
But here’s the thing—we have to apply context consistently, not just to verses that make us uncomfortable.
Let’s look at some examples of this.
Example 1: “Judge Not” (Matthew 7:1)
After being judged harshly by the church, we might swing to “never evaluate anything”. Matthew 7:1 says, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” This verse becomes our permission slip to dismiss all discernment, accountability, and church discipline. Any attempt at accountability feels like the old church control, even if done with love and respect.
The actual context says to not be hypocritical and to remove the log from our eyes first before helping with the speck in our neighbor’s eye (Matthew 7:3-5). This verse is about hypocritical judgment—judging or condemning people for doing what we’re doing too. In John 7:24, Jesus says, “judge with righteous judgment”. The passage teaches how to judge rightly, not whether to judge.
The harm: We can’t name abuse or call out harm. We overlook false teaching and toxic behavior. We stay in unhealthy situations because “judging would make us like them”—the harsh, judgmental Christians we fled.
The pattern? Using one phrase to dismiss the full teaching about righteous discernment.
Example 2: “God is Love” (1 John 4:8)
After experiencing harsh, unloving religion, we might cling to “God is love” to comfort us. Any moral boundary feels like the old legalism we suffered from, and we use the verse to say “love means God accepts everything about me as-is”. We use “God is love” to remove all conviction.
The context is important. 1 John 2:3-6 tells us that “if we know Him, we keep His commands.” This same letter is FULL of calls to obedience, warnings about sin, and tests of genuine faith. It’s about love AND truth together. 1 John 1:8-10 says we confess sin and He forgives…but the sin is still named.
Biblical love includes transformation, not just affirmation.
The harm: We lose the power of conviction that leads to freedom. Growth stops because everything is “fine as-is”. We create a God who only affirms, never challenges—which isn’t the God of Scripture.
The pattern? Extracting one attribute of God while ignoring His fullness.
Example 3: Passages About Money
After being guilted into tithing by manipulative churches, passages about money, and generosity, sacrificial giving can feel triggering. “That was for the early church,” we say. “It doesn’t apply to American capitalism.”
The actual context: Jesus talks about money more than almost any other topic. The pattern shows up throughout Scripture—Old Testament, Gospels, Epistles. It’s not just about tithing. It’s about where our treasure is (Matthew 6:21). The cultural expression changes (we don’t literally give grain offerings), but the heart principle remains.
The harm: We stay enslaved to materialism while thinking we’ve found freedom. We miss the actual liberation that comes from open-handed living. We can’t participate in God’s economy of generosity because we’ve dismissed it as “cultural.”
The pattern? Using “that was for a different time” to protect our American lifestyle from biblical challenge.
Example 4: Passages About Suffering
After toxic “suffering is always God’s will for you” teaching, we might reject ALL passages about suffering. “Take up your cross” feels like the old manipulation. Any teaching about hardship gets labeled “toxic positivity” or “trauma theology.”
The actual context: Jesus promises suffering—”In this world you WILL have trouble” (John 16:33). Paul writes about sharing in Christ’s sufferings (Philippians 3:10). But it’s voluntary suffering for the gospel, not abuse or self-harm.
The Bible validates that pain is real while also saying God is present in it and uses it.
The harm: We miss the power of God’s presence IN suffering. We can’t make sense of inevitable hardship because we’ve dismissed every passage that addresses it. We lose the “both/and” of pain being real AND God being present.
The pattern? Using “that’s toxic theology” to dismiss difficult but true passages.
I’ve Done This Too
Look, I’ve been there. After losing four family members in quick succession, when I read “all things work together for good” it made me feel physically ill (Romans 8:28). It literally felt like a slap in the face after the grief and trauma I went through. How could any good possibly come from losing my 15-year-old cousin?! I wanted to rewrite the verse to say, “God will prevent bad things from happening for those who love Him.”
I wanted to dismiss it as a toxic positivity verse. I wanted to reinterpret it to mean something softer, to affirm my pain. I wanted to explain it away. “That’s not what it really means, clearly.” I even felt faithless at times reading the verse. I interpreted it as “all things are good, so your grief is a faith problem.” And then I’d swing to the other side and think, “That’s just toxic positivity. It doesn’t apply to real tragedy.” But both of these angles are taking the verse out of important context.
And I couldn’t run from the context once I read the whole passage. The verse doesn’t say the things themselves are good. It says God WORKS in the terrible things. The context actually validates that bad things will happen.
It doesn’t minimize our pain. It promises God’s presence in pain.
I had to sit in the discomfort, and to be honest, I still wrestle with this today. My reality was devastating, AND God’s promise is also true.
Looking back, God got me through that time, and it led us here—I’d say He did work it all together for good (AND my pain is still valid).
Sometimes Scripture Is Hard (And That’s Okay)
Here’s what I’ve learned about examining context honestly.
Sometimes examining context makes verses SOFTER than we thought. And sometimes it makes verses MORE challenging than we wanted.
The goal isn’t to land where we’re comfortable. It’s to land where it’s TRUE. Truth is what actually sets us free, even when it hurts first.
Sometimes context makes verses softer than they appear. We see this in the “wives submit” example. In full context, this verse is about mutual love and respect, not one-sided control. “Spare the rod” in cultural context is about shepherding, not beating (Proverbs 13:24). “Lean not on your own understanding” in context includes seeking wise counsel.
But some passages remain challenging even when we understand the context. And that’s okay. We’re meant to be challenged. The discomfort might even be conviction, not just trauma.
Why does this even matter? Well, if we can edit Scripture to fit our preferences, then it has no power to transform us. We need something OUTSIDE ourselves to speak into our lives. That’s what makes it God’s word, not just our own thoughts reflected back.
But our pain is real. Our worst IS our worst. AND God’s truth is real. The context helps us to understand both. We don’t have to choose between them.
And we actually experience freedom when we’re under Scripture. It protects us, not smothers us. When we can rewrite it, it has no authority to challenge injustice, call out abuse, or speak truth to power.
The same Bible that makes us uncomfortable also confronts the systems that harm us. We need it to stand outside culture and challenge both extremes.
Where Faith Actually Lives
So where does this leave us?
Not ripping verses from context to control. Not using context as a blanket dismissal. But the both/and space where context matters AND truth challenges us.
Practically, this looks like reading whole passages, not just isolated verses. Learning about cultural and historical settings for ALL Scripture. Applying the same interpretive principles consistently. Allowing ourselves to sit with discomfort instead of immediately explaining it away OR weaponizing it. Letting Scripture speak to us, not just reflect our own values back.
We need to hold the tension between “this is hard” and “I trust God anyway.”
This isn’t having all the answers. It’s about being willing to do the honest work. To let God’s word confront us from both directions and trust that He’s good even when His truth challenges us.
Real transformation happens through Scripture. Not in making faith fit our preferences but in submitting to a God who loves us enough to challenge us.
What We Lose When We Cherry-Pick
Because here’s what’s at stake.
When we take Scripture out of context from either direction, whether by weaponizing or dismissing verses, we end up obscuring the gospel itself.
And that’s what I want to talk about in a few weeks: how cherry-picking Scripture hides what Jesus actually came to do.
But first, next week, we need to talk about pain. About how the worst thing that’s happened to you is the worst thing that’s happened to you. No dismissals, no minimization, no comparison.
For now, I’ll leave you with this: faith that can’t handle context isn’t faith—it’s preference. Faith that uses context to avoid challenge also isn’t faith—it’s comfort.
The Bible’s power is that it stands outside all of us, ready to sharpen and challenge both extremes. And that’s exactly why we need it. Context and all.
