One final word of counsel, friends. Keep a sharp eye out for those who take bits and pieces of the teaching that you learned and then use them to make trouble. Give these people a wide berth. They have no intention of living for our Master Christ. They’re only in this for what they can get out of it, and aren’t above using pious sweet talk to dupe unsuspecting innocents.
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
- “The LORD helps those who help themselves.”
- “If you lie, you fry.” – Hezekiah 3:5
- “Spare the rod, spoil the child.”
- “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”
- “God works in mysterious ways.”
- “Pride comes before the fall.”
- “To thine on self be true.”
As Paul points out to the Romans, people have been taking bits and pieces of scripture and twisting them to meet a particular agenda – for centuries! If you go back and take some of the Old Testament books in part and parcel, you can make up all kinds of crazy “Biblical” rules and standards. Leviticus 11:7-8 tells us not to eat pigs…while Deuteronomy 14:8 says not to even touch a dead one! But you can eat locusts, crickets and grasshoppers! Sounds like the beginnings of a new diet craze to me!
I don’t mean to be flippant, but this is just about how ridiculous it gets sometimes. Someone will find a little snippet of scripture and use it to start a whole “thing”…from discrimination against certain groups of people or ideologies to a new fashion mandate or diet fad to the latest method of child-rearing or corporate worship! And the scary thing is that some of these “philosophies” have wormed their way into our psyche and become “gospel!”
So what are we to do? First and foremost, we are to make this as simple as we possibly can…Jesus loves us…He died on the cross for our sins…He wants us to love Him – and to love others as He taught us. Beyond this, we must dig deeply into God’s word and consider it all…in total…not in bits and pieces. We must understand that the laws and rituals of the Old Testament were all changed when Jesus came to live among us. This is why we call it a “New Life” in Christ!
We must appreciate the Old Testament as an illustration of how we as a people have “been there, done that”…how Jesus wiped away all of that insecurity and rigmarole and simplified our faith. “In the same way I loved you, you love one another.” (John 13:34) Notice I did not say that He simplified our discipleship…but unraveling the distortions and misinterpretations - and getting back to the basics of God’s word - is a great first start. “Do your best to win God’s approval as a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed and who teaches only the true message.” (2 Timothy 2:15, CEV) This is pretty well all we need to know…and do. God will handle the rest of the details. Are you ready to let Him?
©2015 Debbie Robus
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