TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT

Politics aside, one thing the Shirley Sherrod incident demonstrated was how words and sentences lifted out of their context can be so easily infused with meaning they do not have within their context. And this leads to a very serious question. How guilty are we in the body of Christ—especially preachers—of lifting Bible verses out of their context and infusing them with meaning that Jesus, Paul, Peter and others never intended? If it is such a serious matter to take a government employee out of context, how much more the Living God!