By Larry Pasley
Bubba walked into a doctor’s office and the receptionist asked him what he had.
Bubba said, “Shingles.”
So she wrote down his name, address, medical insurance number and told him to have a seat.
Fifteen minutes later a nurse’s aid came out and asked Bubba what he had.
Bubba said, “Shingles.”
So she wrote down his height, weight, a complete medical history and told Bubba to wait in the examining room.
A half hour later a nurse came in and asked Bubba what he had.
Bubba said, “Shingles.”
So the nurse gave Bubba a blood test, a blood pressure test, an electrocardiogram, and told Bubba to take off all his clothes and wait for the doctor.
An hour later the doctor came in and asked Bubba what he had.
Bubba said, “Shingles.”
The doctor asked, “Where?”
Bubba said, “Outside on the truck. Where do you want them?”
There are many words which have two or more different meanings, like shingles. I used to play a game with the young people called, “My Teakettle.” In that game you choose a word that has different meanings and everyone tries to guess what the word is by the way you describe your Teakettle. A word like “plane” could be used and one description would apply to an airplane and the next description would apply to the tool. The descriptions then become confusing to those trying to guess the word.
There are words in the Bible with different meanings which can lead to some confusion.
For example when the word “spirit” is used, is it referring to the Holy Spirit or our human spirit?
When the “body of Christ” is used does it refer to His physical body or His spiritual body, the church?
When “kingdom” is used, is it referring to the kingdom on earth, the church, or the kingdom in heaven.
With many words like these, we depend on the context to let us know which meaning should be used.
Context is always to be considered to get the proper meaning of any Scripture.
The story is told of the man who decided to get up every morning and open the Bible and blindly place his finger on a scripture and accept that as what God wanted him to do that day.
The first day he opened the bible and the Scripture his finger landed on said, “And Judas went out and hanged himself. He thought, “That can’t be right,” so he tried again and the next Scripture said, “Go and do likewise.” Again he thought he would try again, this time his finger landed on, “What you do, do it quickly.” Needless to say he decided that method would not work.
May we always strive to get the meaning intended in the context of the Scriptures.
Bubba walked into a doctor’s office and the receptionist asked him what he had.
Bubba said, “Shingles.”
So she wrote down his name, address, medical insurance number and told him to have a seat.
Fifteen minutes later a nurse’s aid came out and asked Bubba what he had.
Bubba said, “Shingles.”
So she wrote down his height, weight, a complete medical history and told Bubba to wait in the examining room.
A half hour later a nurse came in and asked Bubba what he had.
Bubba said, “Shingles.”
So the nurse gave Bubba a blood test, a blood pressure test, an electrocardiogram, and told Bubba to take off all his clothes and wait for the doctor.
An hour later the doctor came in and asked Bubba what he had.
Bubba said, “Shingles.”
The doctor asked, “Where?”
Bubba said, “Outside on the truck. Where do you want them?”
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There are many words which have two or more different meanings, like shingles. I used to play a game with the young people called, “My Teakettle.” In that game you choose a word that has different meanings and everyone tries to guess what the word is by the way you describe your Teakettle. A word like “plane” could be used and one description would apply to an airplane and the next description would apply to the tool. The descriptions then become confusing to those trying to guess the word.
There are words in the Bible with different meanings which can lead to some confusion.
For example when the word “spirit” is used, is it referring to the Holy Spirit or our human spirit?
When the “body of Christ” is used does it refer to His physical body or His spiritual body, the church?
When “kingdom” is used, is it referring to the kingdom on earth, the church, or the kingdom in heaven.
With many words like these, we depend on the context to let us know which meaning should be used.
Context is always to be considered to get the proper meaning of any Scripture.
The story is told of the man who decided to get up every morning and open the Bible and blindly place his finger on a scripture and accept that as what God wanted him to do that day.
The first day he opened the bible and the Scripture his finger landed on said, “And Judas went out and hanged himself. He thought, “That can’t be right,” so he tried again and the next Scripture said, “Go and do likewise.” Again he thought he would try again, this time his finger landed on, “What you do, do it quickly.” Needless to say he decided that method would not work.
May we always strive to get the meaning intended in the context of the Scriptures.
- Larry Pasley serves as a minister with the Jackson Street Church
of Christ in Alexandria, LA. He may be contacted through the
congregation's website at http://www.JacksonStAlex.com
