What was the reason for writing the text? What was commanded? What should my response be in reading this? What are the characters doing?

When was this written? When did this occur or when will it occur? When did the subject say this?

Where was this written? Where was it sent? Where did the event take place? Where will this prediction happen?

Why did the author say this? Why was this written? Why did the subject say or do this? Why am I to do this? Why would God command this or do this?

How am I to obey this? How did the first reader perceive this? How is this truth illustrated? How does this compare with other Scriptures?

By acting like a detective and asking these diagnostic and inductive questions you allow the literary context to speak and not your own presuppositions. Interaction with text is absolutely critical and indispensable to correct hermeneutics. Asking the right question is half or more of the battle to gain the right answer.

Let’s work on an example.

Scripture passage: Matthew 6:25

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?