Studying the Bible in context has completely changed how I read Scripture. For years, I treated the Bible like a series of disconnected stories and inspirational verses. But when I started learning the historical and cultural background of the text, what life was actually like for the people living it, it was like seeing in color for the first time.
Two books in particular, Galatians and John, came alive for me through that lens.
Galatians: From Law to Love
The book of Galatians reminds us that salvation isn’t dependent on race, tradition, or religious performance – it’s about grace. Paul’s message is simple but powerful: faith in Christ, not adherence to the law, is what saves us.
Understanding the historical backdrop deepened that truth for me. At the time, Jewish believers were struggling to accept Gentiles into the faith. The Jews had endured persecution, cultural tension, and the pressure to maintain identity under Roman rule. Circumcision, a “tribal mark” that symbolized covenant with God, had become a source of pride and division. To many, abandoning the law felt like abandoning God.
Knowing that context helped me see the heart behind Paul’s letter. These weren’t people trying to be difficult, they were scared, confused, and clinging to what they knew. And in their struggle, I saw my own.
For most of my life, I believed I had to earn God’s love. I thought obedience would make Him proud and failure would make Him withdraw. It wasn’t until I started truly studying Scripture that I realized how wrong I was. Like the Galatians, I kept running back to law instead of resting in love.
Reading Galatians felt like getting a letter straight from Paul to me. His words hit like conviction and comfort at the same time, reminding me that Christ’s sacrifice already paid for everything I could never earn.
John: Seeing Jesus for Who He Really Is
The Gospel of John is where my relationship with God came to life. It’s the first book I read in full when I decided to really study the Bible at the end of 2023. I’d heard John 3:16 my whole life, but until I read the entire gospel, I didn’t grasp how deeply personal it really is.
John’s message is clear: Jesus is the Son of God, sent to save us because of God’s love for us.
The historical details bring even more beauty to the text. For instance, knowing that “living water” referred to natural flowing water helps explain the Samaritan woman’s confusion in John 4. Her culture told her that living water only came from God and yet here was Jesus, offering it to her directly.
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The story of the Samaritan woman changed everything for me. It’s easy to reduce her story to one of sin and shame, but when you study the context, you see a woman who was lonely, isolated, and defensive. She was rejected by Jews for being Samaritan and likely rejected by her own people for her past. And yet, Jesus pursued her. He met her at a well when no one else would meet her anywhere.
He didn’t start with judgment, He started with conversation. He softened her heart with compassion before confronting her sin with truth.
When I first read that, I wept. Because that’s how He met me too.
From Knowledge to Transformation
Understanding the historical and cultural context doesn’t just make the Bible more interesting, it makes it more real. Knowing that the people of Galatia struggled with legalism helps me extend grace to myself when I fall back into performance. Seeing the Samaritan woman’s shame and Jesus’ compassion reminds me that I’m loved right now not someday when I have it all together.
Through both Galatians and John, I’ve learned that context doesn’t distance the Bible from our lives – it draws it closer. It bridges the gap between their world and ours, showing that the same God who spoke then is still speaking now.
Sources
Gary M. Burge and Gene L. Green, The New Testament in Antiquity: A Survey of the New Testament within Its Cultural Contexts, 2nd Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020).
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