Let me offer a few examples of this disassociation of verses and chapters from the surrounding, relevant material, which is an unfortunate (but ever-present) byproduct of versification.
Example One: "Hebrews 11" is a famous passage of Scripture known for its clear and passionate explanation of faith. It is often known as "The Faith Chapter" of the New Testament, much like 1 Corinthians 13 is known as "The Love Chapter." However, Christians usually approach the section as a stand-alone discussion of faith—something like an individual article that contributes to the overall conception of the subject of faith in the larger volume of the New Testament. We start in chapter 11 verse 1 and read up to the last verse (don't hear what I'm not saying), but give little thought to the sentence right before verse 1 or the sentence right after verse 40. Let me ask you, answer for yourself: Do you know how this discussion of faith relates directly and logically to all of the rest of the book of Hebrews?
...Read MoreExample Two: "1 Corinthians 13" provides a beautiful description of true love right from God's dictionary. Sure, it is a beneficial discussion in itself, but why did God inspire Paul to write this literary and spiritual treasure exactly where it is in the Bible? Do you just think of it as "The Love Chapter," or do you think of it as a convincing argument that love is the most desirable of all God's wonderful gifts—to be sought before all talents and virtues and means?
I say to you, we frequently have a tendency to see a passage in the context of the whole Bible and how it relates with ideas over in some other book or how it harmonizes with the overall Biblical narrative before we see a passage in the context most immediate to it.
A parable: A certain man began reading Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" series of books. Each time he sat to read, he would choose a random page and read a selection. Sometimes he would read a sentence, sometimes a paragraph, and sometimes a whole chapter. However, after a time, the man found that no matter how frequently he read like this, he could scarcely find any enjoyment in the reading, and no matter how hard he tried to understand the story, he found that the process was so slow and confusing as to be an almost prohibitively monumental task.
The only sensible way to seek to understand the whole Volume of God's Word is to seek to understand the individual books that make it up. But how often we look over the grains of sand, expecting to see a beach! And that just makes no sense at all.
