Are We Twisting Scripture Without Realizing It?

starts with our own heart and kind of making sure that we're not looking for validation of what we're already looking for when we go to Scripture. Hello there, you're listening to the Girl Talk podcast. My name is Carol. I'm Kelly. I'm Trisha. Glad you're here today. Have you ever twisted Scripture? You're like, "Twisted Scriptures. Is that like a band or something?" No, it's not. It's not. It's a bad name for a band, especially if you're a Christian band. But both sides can do it. No matter where you stand on an issue, everybody can twist Scripture and make it fit their own agenda. Oh, sure. Let's talk about that. I think when we use Scripture as a weapon, that's when we get in trouble. Have you ever had anybody use that kind of use Scripture as a weapon with you? Oh, sure. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. So, how do we avoid using Scripture incorrectly? The Bible calls it rightly dividing the Word of God and the whole counsel of Scripture, which, you know, I think you mentioned it in the last episode, Trisha, you talked about how the Bible is a book, not about us. The Bible is a book about God. And I think when we start from that place, then we will tend to twist Scripture to fit our agenda less. Yeah. It doesn't totally go away, but the temptation is to twist Scripture to kind of paint our own agenda. Right? Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's a story after story after story in the Bible of this happening over and over and over and over again. It starts in the Garden of Eden, right? They've got to really say, but God really say, and how many times have we even asked ourselves that? You know, God really say that. I don't think I like that. So I'm going to make it be whatever. And even Peter talks about that in one of his books in the Bible. He talks about how that's our nature, like our nature's to twist Scripture and that we, that we do it, but we have to stay firm to make sure that we don't do that, that we've got to be really careful. We've got to be diligent to make sure that we don't take Scripture out of context. And that we don't just cherry pick, I mean, Peter didn't use the word cherry pick, but I'm kind of summarizing in the, you know, KBV. I heard this story a long time ago about Ruth Bill Graham. She was seated at a dinner beside the head of Scotland Yard, of the division that found counterfeit money. And she said to him, wow, you must really study all the counterfeits in all the world. And so that when a counterfeit comes by, you know, and he said, oh, no, ma'am, he said, I study the real thing so that when a counterfeit comes by, I know it. And I think that is the heart of where we're, where we're landing today is that we study the real thing, right context included to see God's book about God, yeah, about what it says about life. And, and we just have to study it and be students of it our entire lives. Our pastor says there's, there's one hero and everybody else for the bad guys. Yeah. It's, of course, God, but one thing that has been very helpful for me to understand scripture better is to have attempted to read the whole Bible. Now, I know that's not for everybody and it's not for everybody where they are right now. It's not, it might not be for you at this stage, it's, but for, I tell you, I have learned a lot from reading the whole Bible. I read it twice now through like one of those apps, the U version Bible app. And having gone through the whole thing from the beginning to the end has helped me understand God so much more, seeing his faithfulness, seeing how he works, seeing him and, and all these different stories, but all cohesive. That has helped me a lot and I'm like, I say, I know that's not for everybody now trying to be legalistic. But for reading the whole Bible for me has helped me understand scripture better and understand God's nature better. Well, let's just put that in a practical sense. Say that you go check a book out from the library, any book, it could be any book in the whole wide world and you open up that book and read the page that's in the very center. Are you going to know the whole story? You're not going to know any of the story, right, right, which I think is a great parallel for us because if we cherry pick scriptures all the time, you don't really know the whole story. Yeah. One of the best ways I think with reading the Bible any year or reading the Bible all the way through is to read a chronological Bible and that really helps with the context because there's parts of different books of the Bible that are all about the same exact experience, the same circumstances, but from different perspectives. And so putting all of that together to be able to go, oh, okay, I see now, you know, this was his perspective and his perspective and his perspective and comes together to create more of a whole picture. So I think that's reading the Bible through is great, yeah, great idea. Well, I think we're, for me, I'm so self-centered that when I read something, I think it's about me. I'm trying to find myself in it. What promise is it? How is this going to help me in my work day to day? Do you know? Yeah. I just sort of try to force myself into those pages. But the freeing part comes when I see God's character and then I can relax about myself because God's God it and the Bible will show you how God's got it. But absolutely, I have had it used as a weapon against me because I have a friend of mine. I love him. I love him cleave. His name. We've been friends for decades. But he is absolutely not a follower of Christ and he's a, I don't know what he would call himself really atheist maybe, but he will use parts of Scripture and say, well, what about this? Usually it's like an eye for an eye or something from the Old Testament or something that seems really angry and punitive and he's like, how could this be a loving God and that kind of thing? And they're genuine, you know, things that you can discuss, but when somebody uses Scripture at you like that, they're taking it completely out of context. And the person I listened to currently, she says there are two things about the Bible. It can be either descriptive or prescriptive and those are two different things. Let's take slavery. She said, the Bible talks about slavery in a descriptive way. I mean, it's describing what they are living in. It's not prescribing it. It's not saying we need slavery, it's just describing what's happening at that time. It's not prescribing that's what needs to happen. And I think that was a really interesting point for me that I learned. Yeah, that's very interesting because that's a lot of the reasons why we take Scripture and twist it. Yeah. Is that we get it wrong from the first perspective of what is it here for? Yeah. You know, is it here to be an example of what is perfect and holy, yeah, prescriptive and the way we should be in the way the world should look and the way the world should act? Or is it just descriptive of what was going on at that time? Or in that circumstance, it meant this to this group of people in that circumstance, but that the way it means to us is going to be different because we have a different lens, a different context, a different world we live in, a different covenant, a different relationship with God than they had with God. Yeah. And so it's, yeah, taking that and making sure you know at the beginning, kind of what the context is and where, you know, is it descriptive or is it prescriptive? That's a, that's a great way to start. Look at that. Yeah. What do you say to someone who looks at culture and then tries to weaponize Scripture good or bad or in a positive way or a negative way? What would you say to someone who looks at an issue and in culture and says, well, the Bible says, I don't have a perfect answer for that, but I can see how that might be an interesting thing to go, what a great opportunity for us to look into Scripture together, what a great opportunity for us to read the Bible together. Yeah. I don't know that I would have all the answers, but if we look into it, let's say they bring up a passage from something in the Old Testament, well, then you look from that descriptive point of view and what can we learn about God? And I bet you, I mean, I know God. Mm-hmm. He'll help you. Right. In those moments, Holy Spirit will be there. You know, I just think about some specific scriptures that kind of came to mind when you said that. Like, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. It's a great Scripture. So, so good just remind ourselves that everything we do, we do through Christ and that he walks with us through all the things and he is there with us in our hard days. He's there with us in our good days and we can do all the things that we're called to do with the assistance of Christ and in his, in his space. But that does not mean I am going to be the absolute best fill in the blank because I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. You know, Jesus is going to make me the best basketball player or the richest person in the world. And it's, so a lot of it even starts with our own heart and kind of making sure that we're not looking for validation of what we're already looking for. for when we go to Scripture. It's just, it was just exactly adultery and you were, it's the, it's the emphasis, you know, I can do all things through Christ or I can do all things through Christ. You know, I mean, there's a different perspective there. The emphasis is on a different word. It's the same heart and message. So how do you know, how do you know if you're using the word of God correctly? Say you find yourself in a discussion with somebody and you really want to make sure that you're using God's word effectively, but you also want to make sure you're using it correctly. What would you say to somebody who's in that predicament today? Well, I think part of where we have to start is with our own humility because none of us know the Scriptures perfectly. None of us know exactly what God meant in every single word that's in the Scriptures. And so I think that coming to Scripture and coming to using Scripture with humility is the first place to start and then asking the Holy Spirit to guide your thoughts and guide your words. And he will do it. He's faithful to answer that, that request. But it's when we come at it with the, I know everything attitude. And I know the answer to this. I'm right. That's when we start to get really tripped up. And so I think starting with that place of humility is really where we've got to start with using Scripture rightly. I love that. I love that. I agree with that 100%. So I'm thinking about a verse that I've heard pulled out of context. Jeremiah 2911 for I know the plans I have for you. People kind of say, this is what God's saying. I've got good plan. You know, in this situation, my new job is going to be good because God has this plan for me. Well, that verse was spoken to the Israelites for a very specific time. So I think what we can do is look at the characteristics of God that we learned from that scripture. So not that God says, I've got a new plan for you in your new job. But that God is never changing. God is always the same. He's always faithful. So if he promised that he is working out things, then he's working out things. Doesn't mean that you're going to get that new job. Right. With that particular boss that you're hoping for whatever. So I've been learning about that God never changes. So what can that verse tell me about God's unchanging character? Not about the specifics, but about his character. Yeah. And that's great. Getting back, again, reading scripture from a perspective of what does it say about God in his character as opposed to how what does it say about my situation? Yeah. Because your situation is not in the Bible. Yeah. Yeah. So it's got to come back to what do we do? How does this relate to God? How is God's character being shown in this scripture? I love that. And I love the scripture that you pointed out. Another good one in that thing is he works all things for good for those who are called according to his purposes. And so we also have to remind ourselves too of what how God's definitions of things are different than our definitions of things. Or we can twist scripture that what our definition of good from our fleshly fallen broken perspective, selfish, very selfish. And God's perspective of good are two entirely different things. And good can be hard. Yeah. In his world, the end is good, but that doesn't mean that the end is easy or soft and comfortable and, you know, I've had you dig into this, guys, I'll just take a second and I don't want to labor it. But Psalm 91, you know, Psalm 91, it's about like God's protection and under the most shadow of the most time under your wings, no harm shall befall me. All that my mom used to do, she loved that verse. And when I would get nervous, she would say, "Read Psalm 91, read Psalm 91." Well, my mom died in a car accident. And I'm like, where was the protection? And I've been talking with my counselor who is a very strong Christian about that. He's like, I think he might still be mad at God a little bit because I was looking for the protection that I wanted it to be and the goodness that I wanted it to be instead of what God's plan was. And there are lots of different things that I'm learning about what it means for God to be good and how it is different than my definition of good. My definition of good and protection would be that my mom's at home right now, cooking up some soup. But that's not God's definition of good. God had a different plan that included even her being taken out of this world before even COVID and all kinds of things that were happening in her life. And I can see that that is good. That is good. But we get twisted. I get twisted when I look for my definition of good and right and so he's challenged me to go back to Psalm 91 and read it again with a different lens of what is good and what God's protection actually means. It's so good. So is there ever a time that you can use God's word as a weapon? Fine weapon. Is it a bad way? I mean, weapon definitely sounds like it's aggressive. Aggressive. Okay. Honful. Okay. But so it is a two-edged sword. It is a two-edged sword and we use it against the devil. But that's really the only person I think we were really intended to use it against. Oh yeah. Oh, I like that. That it calls out things in us is not a weapon against other people. Right. It's more of a removal of a barrier. You know what I'm saying? No. I don't. Like there's I understand the enemy part, but the barrier removal of a barrier part. So God tells us to get rid of sin in our life. That's not because he's using it as a weapon. That's because he's trying to remove a barrier from us knowing him deeper. And when you look at it, but I'll say during times in my life when I've been in willful sin, I would have said that somebody telling me, you know, God's looking for your relationship with you. You know, he just don't want me to have any fun. No, he was trying to get closer to me. He was trying to remove those barriers and that sin was separating me from him. Yeah. So I just I guess because of the social media frenzy that we live in, I see it all the time, people post verses and they allude to things going on in the world and current events. And it starts this big old thing about, you know, whether God is loving or whether God, you know, all the things. And I just, I'm like, I don't know that God ever intended for us to use it as a weapon. Yeah. Yeah. I would agree against each other unless it's against the enemy. I love that you said that. That actually is very clear as a teaching and rebuking tool. Sure. Yes. And done rightly in love in humility and love in humility and love. Yes. Because we do have to line up our behaviors and even the behaviors of others, especially those were called to do life with in a meaningful way. People who call themselves Christians and who we're doing life with, there is important times where we have to bring scripture out in a way that is rebuking. But it all has to be done with love and humility and grace and mercy and, again, humility, humility. It can't be used as a weapon because that nobody is driven to Christ in that or into a deeper relationship with Christ with a hammer. Because weapons hurt. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the God's word heals. And I think some of the people that I know that have deconstructed their faith or or, you know, pulled apart their faith or because their faith was built on fear. Like you better do this or this instead of love and people that have used scripture as a weapon are pushing the fear part and not the love part. Without humility. Without humility. Yeah. I'm right. You're wrong. Yeah. And I think there's so much of that in some of our churches that are just, they're just misguided oftentimes where somebody's using scripture as a weapon instead of as a loving tool to guide someone. So it's good to convicting for all of us to just go, how am I using scripture? You know, do I ask yourself, yeah, how do I use it? You know, how am I? I can't change other people and how they use scripture, but I can change myself and how I interact with other people and how I use scripture to interact with them. Yeah. If you got comments or questions, we would love to hear from you. 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