5 Classic Bible Twists (And How To Correct Them)

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

The Wrong Application: God loves you and has an adventurous plan for your life. Quit living the same-old boring life of just going to church, and go do something great for God.

The Problem: If you zoom out and look at this verse in context, you see the background. Look at verse 4: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon…” These verse are not written about you. They are written about the Jews during the exile in Babylon and thus when God says that he knows the plans he has for “you” he was not speaking about the general reader of the book of Jeremiah.

The Right Application: God disciplines his covenant people when they engage in idolatry by delivering them into the hands of their enemies, yet faithfully promises to rescue them according to his predestined plans to bring them to repentance and bless them by grace.

John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

The Wrong Application: Your marriage, your finances, your relationships, your children, your health and everything else in your life may be ok, but couldn’t it all stand to be a lot better? The enemy wants you to give up and give in to just living the normal life, but God doesn’t want you to be mediocre. He wants to give you life abundantly. By applying biblical principles to our lives we can learn from Jesus how to quit being average and live the abundant life God has for us.

The Problem: With Jeremiah 29:11 we saw that the context and the audience make a big difference when it comes to biblical interpretation. Based on the wrong application above, who would you guess Jesus is speaking to? His disciples? A blind, lame, or leprous person that Jesus is about to heal? No, at this point Jesus is arguing with the Pharisees. If anyone applied biblical principles to their lives, it was the Pharisees. They also were rich, in places of honor, and seemed to generally maintain decent relationships with people. By most people’s standards, the Pharisees applied biblical principles to their lives and were living the abundant life as a result. Yet Jesus is in the middle of arguing with them.

The Right Application: Jesus is the great shepherd of his people. He lays down his life in order to save his sheep, because he knows his sheep, he loves his sheep, he gathers his sheep, and he has received the charge from his Father to lay down his life for his sheep. Jesus wants to give his people abundant, eternal life where he may dwell with all who have entered through the door: faith in himself. Any who enter another way have come to steal people away from the joy of life with Jesus.

Revelation 3:20

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

The Wrong Application: If you have never accepted Jesus into your heart to be your personal Lord and Savior, know this: Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart, asking you, begging you to let him in. If you have never done that before in your life, I want you to pray this prayer with me. Just repeat after me. “Lord Jesus…”

The Problem: In chapters 2 and 3 of the book of Revelation, Jesus is dictating letters that are to be sent to the churches of Asia. This particular portion is written to the church in Laodicea, a church with a reputation for well-being. By all appearances Laodicea would be a church where Jesus had been invited in a long time ago. Jesus is not knocking on the door of anyone’s heart, but knocking on the door of the church.

The Right Application: The reason that Jesus is at the door knocking is because the church has effectively removed Jesus. He is no longer present at the church and they are only keeping up appearances. Jesus is highlighting the irony that a church with a reputation of spirituality is a church where he needs to knock on the door and wait for it to be answered. Therefore, today we must recognize that outward growth and spiritual reputation can be present when Jesus is not. We need to bring Jesus back into our church by preaching the gospel and performing works that are worthy of the gospel of God.

Matthew 22:36-40

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Wrong Application: The Bible is not a book all about rule-following and keeping every “i” dotted or every “t” crossed. The Pharisees were experts with their traditions and kept thousands of man-made laws thinking that this made them right with God. God says this, “You want to know what the whole Bible is about? You want to know how to please God? You want to know how to live a life of meaning and purpose? Love God, love people. That’s it. This is the whole Bible whittled down to 4 verses.”

The Problem: It is certainly true that the entire law is summarized and fulfilled by the two commandments to love God and love people. In fact, it is even perceptive to notice that the commandment for us to love our neighbor is in fact a commandment to love mankind in general considering that Jesus told the parable of the good Samaritan in response to the question “who is my neighbor” and furthermore Jesus has also said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Having stated this, the problem with the wrong interpretation is that the commands “Love God, Love People” are an adequate summary of the law, but not the gospel! See Romans 3:20 – “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” So the incorrect application of this passage actually teaches salvation by works rather that salvation by faith!

The Right Application: Since the entire law is summarized by the commandments “Love God and Love People,” consider the full scope of how gravely we break this every day. The requirement of this law is absolute, uninterrupted love for God. That is a terrifying thought. With or every action that does not stem from absolute love of God we are guilty of breaking the greatest commandment. The very commandment that seemed to be life-giving has actually condemned us! Yet thanks be to Jesus, who did in fact keep this commandment perfectly! Jesus always loved his Father and neighbor with perfect and unfailing love. Meditate on 1 John 4:10 – “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Through faith in Jesus, we are counted as if we lived Jesus’ life of perfect love. We are counted as if we loved God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. From this righteousness that comes from outside of us we can learn to actually obey Jesus. We learn that there is no sin that loves God and there is no good work without loving God.

Proverbs 29:18

Where there is no vision the people perish.

The Wrong Application:Your local mega-church pastor has been reading books by business gurus again and announces the newest topic of a sermon series: Vision-casting. When you totally surrender your life to God he will make a vision for your life to well up within you until you just can’t help but do something about it. This church was born from a vision we had a few years ago and if you’re not on board with the mission and vision of this church then it’s not you who is going to perish, but everybody else. This is a church for the unchurched, and if you’re not on-board with the vision of this church, you need to leave and find another church. Preferably one who doesn’t care about reaching the lost.

The Problem: Most fundamentally, the verse itself is quoted wrong. The verse actually says, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.” The proverb is not talking about a church’s vision or mission statement but about God’s legal revelations.

The Right Application: If you are familiar with the Book of Concord’s three primary uses of the law, the correct use for this proverb would be the first: to curb sin in society. When there is no revelation from God concerning his moral law sinful human beings do whatever they consider right in their own eyes causing absolute havoc. When the God of Love reveals a law, it truly is good for society for that the law be kept and enforced.

Revelation 3:20

Is God Good for Destroying the World with the Flood?

Not for the Felt Board

There comes a time in the lives of many individuals where they stop seeing Noah’s ark as a cute story with animals, and start seeing it as the greatest destructive disaster of all time. Militant atheists will use this to seed doubt in God’s goodness, kindness, or love, while others are left confused and discouraged. Doubts arise as to whether God changes in nature between the Old and New Testaments even to the point of wondering if Christians simply imagined up a God who would be kinder and gentler than the one they read about in the Old Testament. There are two routes we could take to vindicate God’s goodness:

1) We could study the scripture regarding the great flood and meticulously explain why God is still good, or

2) We could look at the underlying beliefs and sympathies of the doubting heart that serve as the foundation for the doubts about God.

While option 1) will be important in the long run, option 2) will provide the deepest peace and the fullest understanding about the heart of the issue. God will not merely be defended, but trusted. Furthermore, this approach will be applicable across many other difficult passages and cause our study to be sanctifying and enlightening, to our eternal benefit.

Who is God?

If we are going to investigate whether or not the great flood is consistent with God’s character, we need to start by knowing what God’s character is. The most fundamentally and vastly understood attribute of God is the simple statement, “God is good.” Certainly there are unnumbered other glorious attributes of God, but this one can be most immediately helpful. To say that God is good is like saying that the ocean is wet. It’s true, but a gigantic understatement. The Bible’s declaration is that God is, “Holy, holy, holy.” Three times repeated, God wants us to know how emphatically holy God is.

Isaiah’s Peek

The first place we see “Holy, holy, holy” as a description of God is in Isaiah 6. In prophetic vision, Isaiah witnesses a heavenly angel call out to another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” You would expect for Isaiah to be thrilled at his opportunity to witness the holiness of God, and that perhaps he would be overjoyed to see how monumentally good God is. Instead, we see something absolutely terrifying. Isaiah does not explode with joy, nor even crack a smile, but rather cries out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

The Implications of Holiness

Isaiah was not a new prophet here, for he had already received two visions by this point. Yet it was not until Isaiah saw the holiness of the Lord that he cried out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Isaiah was scared for his life, and probably for his soul. He knew that he was a sinner and was terrified because he saw God’s holiness. In other words, Isaiah presumed that he was generally a pretty clean guy until he saw what true holiness really is.

Woe is You

Most people have never honestly felt Isaiah’s feeling that would lead him to cry, “Woe is me.” Most of us are content to say, “Woe is you,” to the Hitlers or the Fred Phelps of the world, but rarely do we find ourselves terrified of God’s judgment. We are not terrified because we do not feel like we are sinners. If we do feel like we are sinners, we tend to think that we still are not really that bad. The reason we do not feel bad about our sin is because we have such a feeble grasp on how holy God really is. We have no real standard of good because we tend to neglect reading God’s law, which compares us to his holiness. In one sense, when we sing about how holy God is, we should start trying to avoid lightning bolts. Yet, just as Isaiah’s sins are atoned for by God through a burning coal, so believers’ sins are atoned for by Jesus death on the cross.

Back to the Point

So what does all of this have to do with Noah and the great flood? In Genesis 6, the passage about the flood, God gives his reason for destroying the earth with the flood: The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. In other words, the population of the earth would have been worthy to say, “Woe is me,” but they didn’t, to their own harm. God has always held woeful wrath against the unholy, but his wrath does not delay forever. When viewed biblically, the great flood is not a tragic natural disaster, but God’s judgment finally being expressed after extreme patience. The previous chapter of Genesis, chapter 5, is a genealogy from Adam to Noah, where men lived to be outrageously old. In other words, God was outrageously patient with them. For generations, he waited the better part of a millennium to bring forth his righteous wrath. Yet, finally the day came when God was grieved and set his heart to destroy the world.

A Sacred Opportunity

Is God good? Absolutely. The flood is more evidence for that fact, not against it. The only real question left is, “Is man good?” The answer? Absolutely not. Isaiah was privileged to see God’s holiness and yet live through crying out his confession, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Now you have that opportunity. Will you cry, “Woe is me” in confession to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, or will you presume that your great flood will never arrive? God has promised that there will never be another great flood, but he has promised that his next flood will be fire. Be delivered from it. We must not see God as wicked in punishing the wicked, but instead call out on behalf of our own wickedness that we will be saved!

Finding Your Spiritual Gifts

The Anecdotes Don’t Help

“…I was in deep prayer, when I felt God speaking to my heart to become a pastor, so I said ‘where God?’ and he replied, ‘Well Jack, I want you to figure it out.’ Later that day on the way to the grocery store I saw seven license plates with Ohio on them. So I threw a dart at a word map, and after getting various spots in the Pacific ocean I finally hit Ohio and I knew that it was where God wanted me to go, so I have been a pastor here ever since…”

Most of us have heard stories about people discovering their spiritual gifts in crazy ways, but for most people, the Holy Spirit doesn’t take a break from converting sinners and sanctifying believers so that he can drop you hints for you to piece together to figure out your spiritual gifts. Instead, the Holy Spirit empowers and reveals your spiritual gifts by making you loving, wise, and diligent.

List or Love?

1 Corinthians 14:26
What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

1 Corinthians 12:4-7
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Usually when we see these kind of passages, we want to immediately look for lists of gifts so that we can see if we fit in somewhere. That is not what these passages are about, and to do so misses the point. These passages are about love in action. The goal of all spiritual gifts are to build up and serve the common good, especially the Church. Finding your spiritual gifts can be as simple as answering the question, “What does it look like for me to love and build up the Church in a biblical way?” Notice how Paul in both passages seems to put little emphasis on the activities themselves. His main point is building up.

If you read the entirety of 1 Corinthians 12, it is clear that God’s gifts are numerous among his people and unique to the individual. This will cause radical diversity that has the ability to either be a well rounded, thriving body or an envious, cannibalizing body. We must not be jealous of one-another’s gifts but seek to build others up with even the humblest of our own.

Wise or Wild?

Believe it or not, it is possible to take a God-given gift and use it unwisely and unlovingly, and do major damage to the church. One example is when discernment ministry is done in the flesh: God gave them the gift of discerning truth from error, but rather than measured careful rebukes, there are snotty, sarcastic, and stone-hearted comments. This is the Ephesian error. The Corinthians were speaking in tongues without interpretation, and  so proving that they were not concerned with one another.

Fan into Flame

In 2 Timothy, Paul urges Timothy to fan into flame the gift of God. Part of this gift is his faith, but another part is his calling to preach. This means that even with God-given gifts, diligent work is required to bring them to fruition. The musician must practice. The preacher must study. The spiritual gifts can become stronger with some hard work.

What About Me?

The spiritual gifts are numerous. You probably have not one, but many gifts. If you seek to actively love the Church, your gifts will start to show. The real miracle is not the exercising of a gift, but that you, a sinner, would love the Church. When a person is saved by faith in Jesus crucified and resurrected for their sins, the Holy Spirit is given to lead them in spiritual growth, and the greatest fruit of the Spirit is love. If you love the Church you have perfect evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work in you. Now you just get loving, and the Holy Spirit will empower your gifting.

Are you a songwriter? Write your friends songs based on the word of God. Are you a good reader? Write book reviews. Do you have a lot of money? Contribute to the needs of others and the Church. Are you amiable? Make people feel welcome at church. Are you in need? Be humble and rejoice that those who are fulfilling your needs are getting fruit to their credit! Are you good at sympathizing with others? Encourage them and pray for them. Are you good at giving haircuts? Give away haircuts to people that need them. The list could go on and on. The list is not the point. Love is the point. Grow to love your church and make your life about building it up and your gifts will be close at hand.

What Do I Need to Be Saved From?

A Stubborn Old Man’s Blunder

There was a stubborn old man who had frequent headaches that were extremely painful. He discovered that taking painkillers, for the most part, would numb the pain. He took the painkillers, and continued on with his life normally. Turns out, he had a brain tumor and it killed him. If he had gone to the doctor and learned about his real illness, the doctor would have applied a different remedy than simply painkillers. Instead, since he did not have an accurate diagnosis, he’s dead.

Tell Me Straight, Doc

When we answer the question, “What do I need to be saved from?” we put ourselves in the same place as the man with the tumor. If we look for salvation from the wrong problem, we will never be saved from our real problem! Let’s go to the physician, Jesus, to find out.

John 3:17-18
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

We know that Jesus is talking about salvation, because he declares it outright: the Son did not come to condemn, but rather to save. The very next verse, Jesus explains that whoever believes in the Son of God is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in the Son is condemned already. These verses are connected to each other. Therefore we can see what Jesus is saving the world from: condemnation. Not only that, but we can see how he is doing it: through faith in Jesus.

If then, the world is under condemnation, two questions come up:

1) Who is condemning us?

2) Why are we under condemnation?

Who am I Condemned With?

We could take guesses and try to figure out who is condemning us on our own, or instead we could listen to the doctor and get an accurate diagnosis. It turns out that John the Baptist, speaking about Jesus elaborates later on in the chapter:

John 3:35-36
35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

The wrath of God remains on him. Remember verse 18? Jesus spoke that whoever did not believe in the Son was condemned already. It wasn’t something new, it was already there. Now we have verse 36. The wrath of God remains on him. Again, it wasn’t something new, but something old that remained; specifically, the wrath of God.

That answers the “who” question. It is God that condemns us.

Wait. I Thought God Loves Us…

He does. He loves us so much that he sent his Son to die on a cross so that whoever believes in him will not be condemned.

John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

This is true love. Normal people can have affectionate feelings for others, but only God’s love can pay the ultimate price for people who deserve God’s wrath. God’s love does not motivate him to ignore wrath, but rather to satisfy it.

Why is the World Condemned?

If someone were to fire a gun at me, it would be painful and it would kill me, but it would not be condemnation. If I were guilty of a crime and put before a firing squad, it would be condemnation. What is the difference if the consequences are the same? The first case is merely an event, while the second case is a judgment.

To be condemned means that a judgment has been made. In order for the world to be condemned by God, it must have been judged by God. We’d be on a roll if John 3 addressed this question too. Good news, it does:

John 3:19-21
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Ok. What is the judgment now? Jesus, the light, is rejected by the world because the world loves evil works and therefore hates Jesus when he causes their sins to be exposed. We not only have an evil works problem, but we have a love problem. The rejection of Jesus is a symptom of loving evil. All of this is worthy of condemnation.

Get Me Saved!

We have the diagnosis: the world needs to be saved from the condemnation of God that was earned by our own wicked works and rejection of Jesus. What is the solution?

John 3
13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

God sent fiery snakes as condemnation against the Israelites when they sinned. Upon repenting, God had them look to a bronze snake that he had Moses lift up and he removed his wrath from all who looked upon it. Likewise, Jesus was lifted up on a cross and died such that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Confess your sin and believe in the Son of God: Jesus, and your sins will be forgiven and the condemnation of God will not remain on you, but you will have everlasting life!

You Need to Hear the Gospel Today (and Every Day)

This is probably the most important thread I have written for Founder and Perfecter. Not that it is any big deal to speak from my life, but this biblical message has had such a profound impact on me, that I must share it.

This message is the gospel.

Because you are on this blog, you probably believe you are a Christian. This message is for you. You may not be a Christian. You may already be a Christian. No matter who you are or what you currently believe, you need the gospel.

I grew up in a church that implicitly taught that the gospel is a message for unbelievers. Every time the gospel was ever told it was phrased, “maybe you have never accepted Jesus into your heart.” All the while, I, sitting in the pew would think, “I accepted Jesus into my heart when I was 7. This is just for the unbelievers.”

I was wrong. Oh how greatly I was wrong.

I commit sins frequently. So do you. If you don’t agree, you need to read the law of God. The 10 commandments are not fun to read. I did not enjoy reading James saying, “whoever knows what good he ought to do but does not do it, for him it is sin.” I especially hated reading Paul saying, “everything that does not stem from faith is sin.” Again James would chime in with, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” It didn’t help for Jesus to tell me that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully is guilty of adultery, and anyone who hates his brother is guilty of murder. If you don’t feel despair, you are probably feeling pride, and have been guilty of breaking the whole law the whole time.

My conscience bore witness against me that I needed to stop sinning. I wanted to. I tried to. I failed. Time after time. Like clockwork. I might once concoct some punishment scheme and for a short season stay clean until I relapsed. Another time I might manipulate my thinking. I failed in due time.

All the advice people would offer was no help. Everyone had some clever thought, or tried to pretend like they didn’t know what it was like to be tempted to sin. I got a whole lot of moralizing, but the more I was convinced that I needed to do better, the worse I did. The guiltier I felt. I just wanted to die.

Jesus was my savior. He saved me through the gospel.

What is the gospel?
The gospel is the news that Jesus Christ, an eternal person of the triune God, became a human being. He lived and was tempted in every way, but sinned not. Jesus willingly subjected himself to death on a cross. He was betrayed by one of his own, denounced by the others. He prayed to the point of shedding his blood in the hours leading up to his betrayal from one of the 12 people closest to him. He was beaten severely. God poured out his wrathful anger at my sins on Jesus Christ. It please the Lord to crush him. Jesus drank every drop of wrath that fell from the cup. The crowds jeered. He was blindfolded and struck, then mocked saying, “prophesy! which one of us struck you?” They mocked his kingly claim by pressing a crown of thorns into his skull. He did not open his lips except to forgive a man who sinned against him, to bewail the turning of God’s face from him, to state, “father forgive them, for they know not what they do,” and to say, “it is finished.” He was buried in a tomb. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead, eternally defeating all of his enemies, and destroying the power of the devil. He walked among men for while longer showing his resurrected, scarred body to multitudes, then he ascended into Heaven that he may reign at the right hand of the Father. He sent a Comforter who was called the Interpreter, that is the Holy Spirit. By grace alone, through faith alone, he imputed Christ’s righteousness to all who believe and has made propitiation for our sins, so that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, only everlasting joy. All who believe will see his beauty face to face and not fall down dead from sin, but be eternally satisfied, forever.

That is the gospel. The gospel breaks the power of forgiven sin. I repent. I believe. I am forgiven. God uses the gospel to hold us close to him, and it is God that keeps us in the faith. I have the power to stop sinning without animalistic restraint or raw obedience. Glory to the lamb that was slain!

If you have never heard this message, I am truly sorry, believe it today and read about even more of the details in the Bible (I would recommend reading John). If you have heard it before but never believed it, believe it today. If you are like the rest of us who have believed this before, believe that this still applies to you today.

You never outgrow your need for the gospel. Ever. You don’t just hear the gospel, get saved and then devote the rest of your life to raw obedience! You get saved through the gospel and you get strong through the gospel. Don’t run away, don’t rebel, don’t put it off. Believe. If you do not believe, read it again. If you still do not believe, read the gospels in the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Read about it until you believe. Truly, God is merciful and I believe that he will show you the truth. Keep your eyes fixed on the one with the power to keep you from sinning and to save you from sin.