The fact that the Bible is one book should have big implications for the way we read it. The way you read a book depends on the kind of book you think it is. . . . With the exception of the Proverbs, the Bible does not contain isolated sayings. I should be wary about dipping into it at random and extracting individual verses without regard for their context. I am almost bound to misunderstand the Bible if I read it in that way. Each verse needs to be understood in the context of the chapter in which it appears, and each chapter in light of the book as a whole. And there is a wider context we must consider as well: the whole Bible.

Vaughan Roberts, God’s Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible, 18-19.