Satan is good at twisting the truth. he is a master of emphasizing half-truths that really are lies. he loves to bring up parts of Bible verses that confuse Christians or leave them speechless and without argument. his greatest goal is to destroy as many humans as he can, and he does that by turning them away from God, whom he hates. he is the Father of Lies, and if we are not careful, we fall for his deception.
this is how Jesus described Satan:
"He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John 8:44
"Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8b
as Christians, we must equip ourselves! we must read God's word so that we can identify these lies!
"Be self controlled and alert... Resist him, standing firm in the faith..." 1 Peter 5:8a, 9
one of the ways Satan has fooled Americans is by leading them to misuse Bible verses. this takes multiple forms. sometimes it's mindless quoting of a whole verse or part of a verse, sometimes it's a clever saying that people think is in the Bible when it's not, sometimes it's a verse that is taken totally out of context... whatever the case, the meaning is often twisted or lost completely, and people don't even realize it. sadly, many Christians carelessly fall for these half-truths themselves, or if they find themselves in a discussion about it, don't know the Bible well enough to correct what's wrong. (sadly, i've been in both situations)
how about some examples of mindless verse quoting, which goes hand in hand with taking a verse out of context... verses that even non-Christians like the sound of, but don't really know where it came from or the truth behind it:
i see this on billboards and chiseled into buildings of learning, i hear people say it because it sounds good. but they use this saying as though truth is the end-all, highest standard, the main goal, the answer to any question. but here is the whole quote, John 8:31-32, said by Jesus Himself to people who were deciding to believe in Him:
"If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
in context, truth is secondary. it is very important, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't stand alone. it depends fully on holding to Jesus' teaching and being His disciple. without those prerequisites, truth will not be found, and freedom will not be had!
Matthew 7:12 and 22:39
"Do to others what you would have them do to you." and "Love your neighbor as yourself."
again, these are famous quotes from Jesus' own mouth. and they are extremely important. but we have named this concept 'The Golden Rule' and have forgotten that Jesus said that something else was MORE important. look with me at it in context of the preceding verses, Matthew 22:37-39:
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
pretty clear... FIRST priority is to love GOD. second priority is to love our neighbors. they go hand in hand, but the first is most important. without loving God, we will have no ability to truly love each other.
Matthew 7:7
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
oh, how we love this verse! people quote it to each other when they are searching for a job. prosperity preachers use it to ensure us that God wants to give us our every desire: money, jobs, beauty, cars... as if God is a piggy bank in the sky, our personal wizard. they mix it with the New Age idea of putting positive ideas into the universe and getting it back...
yes, God loves to lavish blessings on His people and He wants us to pray to Him about our needs. BUT, if Jesus is truly your Lord, your desires will shift, and your requests will change. a few verses back, in Matthew 6:33, Jesus commands this: "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you."
if you are seeking God's kingdom and God's righteousness, how do you think your requests to Him will change?
Matthew 22:21b
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's."
the religious leaders of Jesus' day were trying to trap Him when they asked Him if paying taxes was right. He wisely held up a coin and reminded them that Caesar's face was imprinted on their money, so they should give Caesar what was his. good answer. it may be tough and it may be unfair, but we live in a world where we are under government authorities, and we pay them the money they printed.
but when i hear this verse quoted, i almost never hear the second half: "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
oh.
ok then, what is God's? think of Jesus' answer. he pointed to the coin and asked them whose image was on it. now, think of this: whose image is on YOU?
"So God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them."
Genesis 1:27
He breathed life into you. He gave you a sense of right and wrong, fair and unfair, good and evil. He gave you choice. He gave you the ability to love, and to create. He gave you the desire for eternity.
how long are you going to claim ownership of yourself? how long are you feebly going to demand kingship in the face of the One who made you?!
Romans 8:28
"In all things God works for good."
it's often said a little different, like, "God works all things for good," but it's the same message: it'll all turn out ok. everything will be all right, and 'happy clappy,' as my pastor used to say.
again, it's missing the rest of the sentence: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." we don't like it as well with the rest of the sentence. it's not as warm and cushy. it doesn't include everyone. it doesn't sound like we can just lay there and let God's good yumminess come to us. it doesn't sound like there's a paycheck coming or a new car or a handsome boyfriend, if we just get through today's troubles...
here's the real context: the previous verses talk about Christians suffering through life, waiting for Jesus' return, waiting as the world gets uglier and more sinful, waiting as we struggle with our inward battles against personal weakness. this verse IS a verse of hope, but it's one to encourage Jesus' followers to choose every day to love God, just as God chose to call them.
Matthew 7:1
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged."
this is a really popular one these days. everyone is determined to do what they want, when they want, and most Christians crumple when confronted with this quote. they feel that they no longer have the right to identify sin, because people will feel 'judged.'
don't let this quote derail you or muzzle you, Christian! this passage continues on to detail how we need to avoid being hypocrites, and we are told in other passages that we are not in position to judge if someone is God's child or not.
BUT, we are definitely supposed to speak the truth, and identifying sin is part of that!
quoting God's word is not judging. the Bible points out many things that are good, as well as many things that are sins, which God detests. it is good to label sin for what it is: wrong. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 gives us one of those lists of wrongs. it may not be popular, but it's the truth, and we all have to deal with our own sins, as well as others': "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." these are all people who are choosing their sins and rejecting God. as Christians, we must remember the next verse, which reminds us that we ALL come from sin: "And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
we are not to judge as though we are superior, but we ARE to judge between right and wrong, for ourselves and to point others to God's truth.
2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that "all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." God changes US through Scripture, and we are meant to help each other on the changing journey too. we all know that sometimes it's easier to see the truth from the outside; we need each other to get perspective.
and though Jesus is the only One who judges souls, we are told that there are clues to tell us who God's true children are and who aren't. 1 John 5:12 says, "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son does not have life." there are clearly 2 groups of people: with the Son or without the Son. with life or without life. and Jesus gives us another clue in Matthew 7:16: "By their fruit you will recognize them... every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." and this isn't just talking about kind deeds, or giving loads of money to charity. the Bible says that God's fruit look like this: "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."
for related topics, please visit real Jesus post and/or double standard post
Romans 10:9
"If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
now, when i mention this verse, i am in NO WAY saying that anything can be added to obtain salvation. this is it. all we can do to be saved from the consequences of our sins is to believe in Jesus. period. nothing can be added or taken away.
(just wanted to make that clear before i forge ahead.)
what i would like to address is something related to my above paragraph, when i mentioned knowing a tree by its fruit. we must be careful of saying, 'i believe,' and then stopping there and continuing to live as before.
the EVIDENCE of believing in Jesus will be a changed life. the church in general has been very lax about this aspect. many churches focus only on a simple and undefined 'belief' and leave it there. because of this, we have thousands of people who claim to be Christians, but know nothing about Jesus, don't care about following Jesus as their Lord, claim God or blame God when it suits them, and frankly, still bow to themselves as god. if you truly believe, you will begin to act like it.
though the whole Bible describes how we should live, James is especially clear: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says... What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? ... You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that --- and shudder... As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." James 1:22; 2:14a, 19, 26
Hebrews 10:26-27 is really clear too: "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God."
yikes.
if you claim Jesus, you must give Him authority over your life. there is more to Christianity than believing (not more to salvation, but more to your life after believing). it's serious business.
as a Christian, you must deal with your sins (sometimes slowly, sometimes immediately, sometimes we fall off of wagons and have to start again...) and, by GOD'S POWER, your heart and your desires will change. that's what sanctification is: the process of being cleaned by God. you put away those lists of sins, and gain the Spirit's fruits.
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
the most quoted verse in the entire Bible. and it's a great one. they are the words of Jesus, describing Himself.
it speaks of God's incredible, undeserved love for the entire world!
it speaks of our need for salvation from death to eternal life!
it speaks of HOW we get that salvation!
it's a precious verse.
but because we are humans, we like to just memorize that yummy-sounding verse, stop there, and think of how nice it all sounds. it sounds like the whole world is fixed. yay!
but there is danger there. Jesus didn't stop talking. the next verses point out the truth of our sins and our human desires. He says, "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." verses 18-21
we cannot just acknowledge salvation and ignore condemnation. John 3:16 is beautiful, but it carries much responsibility for non-Christians and Christians.
to those of you who don't claim Jesus as your King, realize that the Bible DOES clearly state that if you do not believe in Jesus, you will be condemned. and as the condemned, you will be spending eternity in the 'raging fire that will consume the enemies of God,' like in the Hebrews verse above.
please reconsider your position! Jesus is longing to hear your voice claiming Him as Lord (He is Lord of all, regardless of what you claim, but in order to belong to Him, you must choose Him). it doesn't matter what you've done in the past, or how you're currently living; God will accept you where you are, and you can move forward together from there.
please choose the Light.
today.
to the Christians reading this, the rest of the John 3 passage should stir your heart to compassion for the lost. how many souls near you are condemned? how many in your sphere of influence are choosing darkness and hating light? just as you were saved at one point, they may be saved, if you would pray for them, or talk to them, or show God's love to them.
and as far as this blog post goes, YOU are responsible to know God's word, if you have access to it. YOU are responsible to read verses within their context. God gives understanding as you show yourself willing to hear.
don't just take your pastor's word for it, study the Bible for yourself!
don't let Satan fool you with his twisted truth.
this is how Jesus described Satan:
"He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John 8:44
"Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8b
as Christians, we must equip ourselves! we must read God's word so that we can identify these lies!
"Be self controlled and alert... Resist him, standing firm in the faith..." 1 Peter 5:8a, 9
one of the ways Satan has fooled Americans is by leading them to misuse Bible verses. this takes multiple forms. sometimes it's mindless quoting of a whole verse or part of a verse, sometimes it's a clever saying that people think is in the Bible when it's not, sometimes it's a verse that is taken totally out of context... whatever the case, the meaning is often twisted or lost completely, and people don't even realize it. sadly, many Christians carelessly fall for these half-truths themselves, or if they find themselves in a discussion about it, don't know the Bible well enough to correct what's wrong. (sadly, i've been in both situations)
how about some examples of mindless verse quoting, which goes hand in hand with taking a verse out of context... verses that even non-Christians like the sound of, but don't really know where it came from or the truth behind it:
John 8:32
"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."i see this on billboards and chiseled into buildings of learning, i hear people say it because it sounds good. but they use this saying as though truth is the end-all, highest standard, the main goal, the answer to any question. but here is the whole quote, John 8:31-32, said by Jesus Himself to people who were deciding to believe in Him:
"If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
in context, truth is secondary. it is very important, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't stand alone. it depends fully on holding to Jesus' teaching and being His disciple. without those prerequisites, truth will not be found, and freedom will not be had!
Matthew 7:12 and 22:39
"Do to others what you would have them do to you." and "Love your neighbor as yourself."
again, these are famous quotes from Jesus' own mouth. and they are extremely important. but we have named this concept 'The Golden Rule' and have forgotten that Jesus said that something else was MORE important. look with me at it in context of the preceding verses, Matthew 22:37-39:
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
pretty clear... FIRST priority is to love GOD. second priority is to love our neighbors. they go hand in hand, but the first is most important. without loving God, we will have no ability to truly love each other.
Matthew 7:7
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
oh, how we love this verse! people quote it to each other when they are searching for a job. prosperity preachers use it to ensure us that God wants to give us our every desire: money, jobs, beauty, cars... as if God is a piggy bank in the sky, our personal wizard. they mix it with the New Age idea of putting positive ideas into the universe and getting it back...
yes, God loves to lavish blessings on His people and He wants us to pray to Him about our needs. BUT, if Jesus is truly your Lord, your desires will shift, and your requests will change. a few verses back, in Matthew 6:33, Jesus commands this: "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you."
if you are seeking God's kingdom and God's righteousness, how do you think your requests to Him will change?
Matthew 22:21b
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's."
the religious leaders of Jesus' day were trying to trap Him when they asked Him if paying taxes was right. He wisely held up a coin and reminded them that Caesar's face was imprinted on their money, so they should give Caesar what was his. good answer. it may be tough and it may be unfair, but we live in a world where we are under government authorities, and we pay them the money they printed.
but when i hear this verse quoted, i almost never hear the second half: "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
oh.
ok then, what is God's? think of Jesus' answer. he pointed to the coin and asked them whose image was on it. now, think of this: whose image is on YOU?
"So God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them."
Genesis 1:27
He breathed life into you. He gave you a sense of right and wrong, fair and unfair, good and evil. He gave you choice. He gave you the ability to love, and to create. He gave you the desire for eternity.
how long are you going to claim ownership of yourself? how long are you feebly going to demand kingship in the face of the One who made you?!
Romans 8:28
"In all things God works for good."
it's often said a little different, like, "God works all things for good," but it's the same message: it'll all turn out ok. everything will be all right, and 'happy clappy,' as my pastor used to say.
again, it's missing the rest of the sentence: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." we don't like it as well with the rest of the sentence. it's not as warm and cushy. it doesn't include everyone. it doesn't sound like we can just lay there and let God's good yumminess come to us. it doesn't sound like there's a paycheck coming or a new car or a handsome boyfriend, if we just get through today's troubles...
here's the real context: the previous verses talk about Christians suffering through life, waiting for Jesus' return, waiting as the world gets uglier and more sinful, waiting as we struggle with our inward battles against personal weakness. this verse IS a verse of hope, but it's one to encourage Jesus' followers to choose every day to love God, just as God chose to call them.
Matthew 7:1
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged."
this is a really popular one these days. everyone is determined to do what they want, when they want, and most Christians crumple when confronted with this quote. they feel that they no longer have the right to identify sin, because people will feel 'judged.'
don't let this quote derail you or muzzle you, Christian! this passage continues on to detail how we need to avoid being hypocrites, and we are told in other passages that we are not in position to judge if someone is God's child or not.
BUT, we are definitely supposed to speak the truth, and identifying sin is part of that!
quoting God's word is not judging. the Bible points out many things that are good, as well as many things that are sins, which God detests. it is good to label sin for what it is: wrong. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 gives us one of those lists of wrongs. it may not be popular, but it's the truth, and we all have to deal with our own sins, as well as others': "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." these are all people who are choosing their sins and rejecting God. as Christians, we must remember the next verse, which reminds us that we ALL come from sin: "And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
we are not to judge as though we are superior, but we ARE to judge between right and wrong, for ourselves and to point others to God's truth.
2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that "all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." God changes US through Scripture, and we are meant to help each other on the changing journey too. we all know that sometimes it's easier to see the truth from the outside; we need each other to get perspective.
and though Jesus is the only One who judges souls, we are told that there are clues to tell us who God's true children are and who aren't. 1 John 5:12 says, "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son does not have life." there are clearly 2 groups of people: with the Son or without the Son. with life or without life. and Jesus gives us another clue in Matthew 7:16: "By their fruit you will recognize them... every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." and this isn't just talking about kind deeds, or giving loads of money to charity. the Bible says that God's fruit look like this: "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."
for related topics, please visit real Jesus post and/or double standard post
Romans 10:9
"If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
now, when i mention this verse, i am in NO WAY saying that anything can be added to obtain salvation. this is it. all we can do to be saved from the consequences of our sins is to believe in Jesus. period. nothing can be added or taken away.
(just wanted to make that clear before i forge ahead.)
what i would like to address is something related to my above paragraph, when i mentioned knowing a tree by its fruit. we must be careful of saying, 'i believe,' and then stopping there and continuing to live as before.
the EVIDENCE of believing in Jesus will be a changed life. the church in general has been very lax about this aspect. many churches focus only on a simple and undefined 'belief' and leave it there. because of this, we have thousands of people who claim to be Christians, but know nothing about Jesus, don't care about following Jesus as their Lord, claim God or blame God when it suits them, and frankly, still bow to themselves as god. if you truly believe, you will begin to act like it.
though the whole Bible describes how we should live, James is especially clear: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says... What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? ... You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that --- and shudder... As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." James 1:22; 2:14a, 19, 26
Hebrews 10:26-27 is really clear too: "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God."
yikes.
if you claim Jesus, you must give Him authority over your life. there is more to Christianity than believing (not more to salvation, but more to your life after believing). it's serious business.
as a Christian, you must deal with your sins (sometimes slowly, sometimes immediately, sometimes we fall off of wagons and have to start again...) and, by GOD'S POWER, your heart and your desires will change. that's what sanctification is: the process of being cleaned by God. you put away those lists of sins, and gain the Spirit's fruits.
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
the most quoted verse in the entire Bible. and it's a great one. they are the words of Jesus, describing Himself.
it speaks of God's incredible, undeserved love for the entire world!
it speaks of our need for salvation from death to eternal life!
it speaks of HOW we get that salvation!
it's a precious verse.
but because we are humans, we like to just memorize that yummy-sounding verse, stop there, and think of how nice it all sounds. it sounds like the whole world is fixed. yay!
but there is danger there. Jesus didn't stop talking. the next verses point out the truth of our sins and our human desires. He says, "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." verses 18-21
we cannot just acknowledge salvation and ignore condemnation. John 3:16 is beautiful, but it carries much responsibility for non-Christians and Christians.
to those of you who don't claim Jesus as your King, realize that the Bible DOES clearly state that if you do not believe in Jesus, you will be condemned. and as the condemned, you will be spending eternity in the 'raging fire that will consume the enemies of God,' like in the Hebrews verse above.
please reconsider your position! Jesus is longing to hear your voice claiming Him as Lord (He is Lord of all, regardless of what you claim, but in order to belong to Him, you must choose Him). it doesn't matter what you've done in the past, or how you're currently living; God will accept you where you are, and you can move forward together from there.
please choose the Light.
today.
to the Christians reading this, the rest of the John 3 passage should stir your heart to compassion for the lost. how many souls near you are condemned? how many in your sphere of influence are choosing darkness and hating light? just as you were saved at one point, they may be saved, if you would pray for them, or talk to them, or show God's love to them.
and as far as this blog post goes, YOU are responsible to know God's word, if you have access to it. YOU are responsible to read verses within their context. God gives understanding as you show yourself willing to hear.
don't just take your pastor's word for it, study the Bible for yourself!
"The wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight."
1 Corinthians 3:19
"To God belong wisdom and power;
counsel and understanding are His."
Job 12:13
"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God,
who gives generously to all without finding fault,
and it will be given to him."
James 1:5
don't let Satan fool you with his twisted truth.
Dear blogger,
ReplyDeletethis is your blogger husband... well, i guess just husband. here's what i thought. i really love how you spoke of your own shortcomings and sometimes failing to know where a verse is located, etc. i really love and appreciate that.
i wasn't so sure about your 'truth' argument from Jesus' words about knowing the truth and the truth setting you free. i do believe, as you said, that the primary point was found in obeying His teachings... but i also, as i presume you do, would call that truth as well... i suppose i do see what you're saying though.
the part about image was genius. that truly is wisdom from the Spirit. we are God's and we should give ourselves to Him and His will! He doesn't force us.
good homework on the romans verses... i could tell you really dug in on those... i know that you always go all out, but it seemed even more (which is saying a lot)...
and i was proud of you, especially as my wife, by the time i got to the corinthians verses.
awesome job.
orlondo
xo