When my local church first gave me the privilege and honor to teach Sunday School, one of the first things we did was to briefly go over every book of the Bible. We did this in order to get a basic understanding of what each inspired writer had to say. This exercise helped did to put the whole Bible into context. Often when we do not understand scriptures it is because a piece of the context is missing. Understanding what the Old Testament writers had to say and why they said it is a notch in the key to understanding the New Testament, especially The Book of Revelation.

I suppose my Sunday School class is wearied with hearing me quote the following:

“The New Testament is within the Old Testament Contained. The Old Testament is within the New Testament Explained.” ― Unknown Author

None the less, a truer statement has not been uttered. Another reason we have so many different interpretations is that we simply do not know what the Bible says. The Bible is not some hodgepodge collection of sayings, to be interpreted in a willy-nilly fashion. It is the story of God’s dealings with mankind. Personally, I like to call the Bible, HIS-STORY. For a born-again Christian to fully understand Biblical history one must have at least a cursory chronological understanding of all the events contained therein. One must also understand the purpose of the authors. If you believe as I do that the Bible was written by men inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, then we must ask ourselves, “What did God inspire them to say and why did they/He say it?”

Jesus summarizes why God said everything he has said in the most famous verse in the Bible: John 3:16 KJV - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Which begs us to explore what else, did He say? To find out what God said we have to read and study His book in its entire context for ourselves. Take for instance the context of John 3:16. Some would say read a few verses before John 3:16 and read a few verses afterwards and you have the context. Others might say read all of John 3, which is a good starting place. Yet even all of John 3 does not give us the full context of John 3:16.

Let me show you what I am talking about by putting John 3:16 into the context in which the inspired writer John developed. You see John 3:16 does not begin at John Chapter 3:1, it does not even begin in the Book of John 1:1, but John 1:1 is a big clue pointing us in the right direction. It actually begins “In the beginning …” or rather before God created the heavens and the earth, again the Bible is God’s unfolding of all History beginning just before He created everything. Which is why John 1:1 begins thusly:

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God. John 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

If we meditate on the whole of Bible scriptures, John’s imagery painted in these few verses should immediately draw our minds to Genesis Chapter 1.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. Genesis 1:4 And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Now simply compare and contrast the first few verses of John with the first few verses of Genesis and vice versa and you should immediately see similarities.
John 1:1 vs. Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning”

For the remainder of the verses in both Books we have an unveiling of God’s creative prowess via contrast and comparison. (Please note: I do not use the word unveiling lightly). When something is unveiled what happens? Answer: What was under the veil is revealed. In other words we have a revelation!

So John is not only drawing us to the creation story and the first book of the Bible—he is revealing something to us and drawing us to the last book of the Bible—the Book of Revelation.

Now I could go on and on as most of my Sunday School class is well aware, but let me close by telling how to understand God’s word. The Bible interprets itself. Our Lord, Jesus Himself lived among us and shortly before he ascended back to His throne in glory, He explained to His disciples how to rightly divide the word of truth:.

Luke 24:25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Luke 24:26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? Luke 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

That, my friends, is using scripture to explain scripture. We do not have to ask “What would Jesus do?” the answer is written down for us to read.