Every Word True

For Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Proverbs 30:5-6

Every word of God proves true;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Do not add to his words,
lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

Every word proves true - every promise, every warning, every instruction. What we are commanded to do is to study every word in his Word. Because every word is true, we need to systematically study the scriptures, not skipping over the portions that seem uninteresting and with no application. Because every word is true, our one intent is to understand what the words are teaching. We are to let the words determine what we are to learn; for if we do not, we will become guilty of adding to his words.

It works like this. I have a topic I am interested in, so I "search" the scriptures finding verses that may have a word I am looking for or seem to speak to my topic. I then pull those verses out of their context and make them say what they do not actually mean. Thus one "health and wealth" preacher twisted 1 Corinthians 2:9 - "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" - to mean that God intends physical prosperity for those who love him. In its context, the verse is a rebuke to those who prefer the wisdom of the world over the wisdom of the cross.

Or to take another example of a preacher who took the story of sinful woman washing Jesus' feet (Luke 7ff), which teaches the mercy of God towards those who repent, to be a lesson that it is okay to cry. Or yet another example of a preacher taking the story of the paralytic being lowered through a roof to speak disapprovingly of people who damage other people's property.

Such addition to God's words will result in rebuke and the verdict that the speaker is a liar. For perverting God's Word - whether it be to contract scripture or misapply or misinterpret - is to add what is not true. We undoubtedly will make our mistakes in understanding, but let it not be because we will not submit ourselves to hearing whatever it is that God wants us to hear, and all because we have our own agenda.