Do you know what your preacher says is true? How? What if he just made it up? Maybe your preacher just wants to bend or pervert scripture to make you feel all warm and fuzzy. You go every Sunday to punch your ticket because that’s what you’ve always done. You go every Sunday because you are supposed to. Well, of course you go because if you don’t you’re a bad person and God will be mad. You go because you need to make that appearance or the people in your community will start talking. Wrong wrong, wrong wrong wrong. God doesn’t care if you go to church. He would like you to. To be able to commune with other believers and worship with other believers and to use your spiritual gifts to serve one another. But how do you know if what you are being fed is the Word of God?
You are responsible for knowing your Bible. God is not a one hour a week acquaintance. I mean he used to be for me. Sometimes less than that. I’m not here to trash preachers but if you are going to sit under one you should know that he is teaching you directly from the Bible and not from a twisted version or interpretation of scripture. It says it directly in the Bible. “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” Matthew 7:15. You are only getting a snippet of the Bible every Sunday. You can’t just memorize scripture and be able to reel off a few verses when the circumstances call for it. Anyone can memorize scripture. Your Pastor can memorize scripture but does he know what it’s saying? Is he explaining it correctly? How would you know? Because scripture speaks for itself. Scripture explains itself. It’s not man’s interpretation or how we feel it best suits our lives or the culture that happens to be most popular at the time. How can we be so sure? There are several sure fire ways.
The Bible never contradicts itself. Any true interpretation or prophecy must align with the overall message of the entire text. Any confusing text or difficult text will always be explained by clearer texts elsewhere in the Bible. You must always read a verse in its entirety. You must read with all the surrounding verses and chapters to gain context. You also must know the culture and historical setting of the time. It makes a difference. For example in Leviticus where it says “You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:28 People are quick to throw that up when they see a Christian has a tattoo. Do you know why God said that at the time and why it is not relevant now? He commanded the Israelites not to tattoo their body because the Pagans did it as part of a mourning ritual and idol worship to their false Gods. It was to separate themselves from the Pagans and not get caught up in idolatry. So unless you are tattooing yourself to worship idols today I think you’re in the clear. That’s why it’s important to know the historical and cultural setting. That’s why it’s important to sit under someone who is schooled. Someone who knows the Word and has studied it. But why must you know it? Several reasons.
How will you know God if you don’t? You can’t get to know God and have a relationship with him by doing a quick check in once a week. That’s not how you get to know someone. Especially someone that has done so much for you. My word he knew you before you were born and loved you so much that he hung himself on a cross and said, I will die for you. I will take all your sins, everything you are going to do, no matter how evil. Put those on me. We need to get to know a God like that. The only way to get to know him is to spend time with him. Meeting with him on a daily basis. Reading your Bible and studying scripture. If you don’t you won’t have any idea if what’s coming from the pulpit is the word or a wolf to drag you straight to hell. You need to know when you hear something that doesn’t line up with scripture to remove yourself. You need to see an elder or go through whatever channels your church has set in place to question these things. You need to find out what’s going on. Did you misunderstand? Did the Pastor really say what he said and are the elders in complete agreement? Jesus warned his disciples. “Behold I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” Matthew 10:16. Basically, don’t be dumb. Be smart. Be intelligent. Be alert. Don’t be naive or deceived and don’t use these things in dealing with people.
I’m going to wrap this up and I have kind of run on but this has been an intense topic for me. Christians aren’t serious enough about getting into the word and we just expect someone else to do all the work. Feed me my dose of Jesus on Sunday and I’m all good. Well, it takes more than that. I think I’m so riled up after watching the Death of a Pastors Wife documentary on Netflix as many of you are. I don’t want to get into breaking that down and the details. But there was one thing that hit me about the whole documentary. Does nobody in that church know scripture? No one is holding him accountable to what he is preaching. Let’s just put aside all his other moral failures. Where are the elders? Maybe if anyone in the church had studied scripture or been the least bit strong in their faith Mica Miller might be alive. There are more people to be held accountable for her death than John Paul Miller. A whole church of blind, scripturally ignorant people.
Journey Through Grace 