It’s easy to prove most anything you want from the Bible. People twist the scriptures, sometimes beyond recognition, to gain status or power or wealth.

Slaveholders during the American Civil War massaged passages to undergird the institution of slavery, while at the same time abolitionists preached liberation texts from the same Bible. The abolitionists hoped to free enslaved men and women, while the slaveholders loved that money.

We can hold the law of God in our hands, but fail to grasp the wisdom within. Or worse, twist the wisdom for our pleasure. Jeremiah confronted the religious elite in his day for doing just that:

How can you say, “We are wise, for we have the law of the Lord,” when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely? The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have?

Handling the scriptures falsely remains a favored path to popularity. Picking certain passages to emphasize i.e. God is love, allows for all types of selfish thinking. If God is indeed love, doesn’t he want me to be happy? Shouldn’t I chase after the relationships and lifestyle and stuff I want?

To do so one must tamp down other teachings on love, i.e. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

The teachings in the Bible push us away from a phone full of selfies. They instead point toward the care and flourishing of others. While searching out truth and persevering in faith, the Holy Spirit uses the Holy Scriptures to move us from bitterness into forgiveness.

Any teaching that tells you different comes from the pen of a lying scribe—and what kind of wisdom it that?

Jeremiah 8 & I Corinthians 13 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Nicolas Thomas