On many other things Jesus raised
the bar on the old ways. Instead of dealing with adultery He dealt with the
lust behind it by saying if you even look at a woman lustfully you have
committed adultery in your heart. Instead of dealing with murder He dealt with
the anger behind it. Instead of an eye for an eye we are now commanded to turn
the other cheek. So it is important that we examine and test everything. This
is why doctrine is so important! Because people can twist Scripture so easily
if they so desire. They can leave the context out; refuse to look for
supporting or dissenting Scripture or use the Bible to prop up pre-formed
biases and conclusions. I remember I once sat down to do a devotional on
righteous anger"because I was angry. I was angry about things in my church and
I wanted to write about that. By the time God was through with me I had a
devotional about how our anger rarely reaches the level of righteous anger
Jesus has set in Scripture. God cut through my arguments with His Word and
showed me how my anger was mine. It was selfish not righteous. It was about my
ego, not His Son. That is how you watch your doctrine. When the Scriptures I
was seeing were not agreeing with my plan, I could have pushed them aside and
simply kept going until I could find something I could stretch to fit. But then
it would be my word not God's. My word means nothing. God's Word means
everything.
This brings us to our key verses,
which should completely dispel the notion that somehow things in the Bible are
not applicable to New Covenant believers simply because of whom the original
audience was. It is important to realize
first that this letter was written by Paul to Timothy. There was no New
Testament yet. Paul had no idea this letter would become doctrine. So when he
is speaking about Scripture here he is clearly speaking about the Old
Testament. First, all Scripture is inspired by God. From the fall of man to the
revelation of John on the
All Scripture is also useful to
make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong
and teaches us to do what is right. I know the "love only" crowd may have some
problems with this but it is not my word -- it is God's. The 2Chronicles verse
for example was designed to help
For we are God's masterpiece. He has created
us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long
ago. -- Ephesians 2: 10 (NLT)
Listen beloved; broad is the path
to destruction and narrow is the gate that leads to heaven. Many are being led
astray in these times. Our job is not to have unity for the sake of unity. We
should not have the goal of singing kumbya together regardless of what is being
taught and preached. Check and make sure the person is not trying to use
Scripture to support a pre-formed bias. What do I mean by that? A prosperity
preacher will seek out Scripture he can use to prop up his belief that everyone
should be rich -- starting with him. I remember once there was a prosperity
preacher who used Deuteronomy 28: 2 to defend his extravagance. Right away my
Spirit bristled and was curious what Deuteronomy 28: 1 contained. Here are the
two verses:
"Now it shall come to pass, if you
diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe
carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all
nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you
and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: - Deuteronomy 28: 1-2 (NKJV)
The second verse speaks about being
overtaken by God's blessings but he conveniently left out the context which
shows that you must first obey all 613 Mosaic laws, which no one could do. Be
wary of people who are preaching anything "alone." God is a God of balance and
order. When Paul left the Ephesian elders he said he was free of their blood
because he preached the entire Gospel. Watch your life and your doctrine
closely. The wolves are in sheep's clothing for a reason.
Reverend
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