It drives me crazy and causes my blood to boil when someone comes along and pulls a verse or two out of the Bible and uses it to criticize, condemn or belittle the beliefs of another Christian. For two thousand years, people have been doing this and for two thousand years it has caused division in the Body of Christ and has hurt God’s people greatly.

I have studied the Bible for 40 years. I have read it, researched it and sought to understand it. I would never dream of pulling a verse out of context to justify my theological position. To me, that is not only wrong, but flat out dishonest. As workmen of the Word of God, we must strive to “rightly divide” the Word of God and with great meekness seek to get it right.

If someone wants to make my spiritual blood boil and cause me to grit my spiritual teeth and growl as a lion, all they need to do is make wild accusations by pulling verses out of context and weaving together a position that is absurd and ridiculous, all the while calling it truth. To me, this is the height of dishonesty and is the very definition of handling the Word of God deceitfully.

Christianity is littered with people who have used the Word of God for self gain and self promotion. Christianity is infected with people who use the Word of God to promote devilish doctrines that hurt the simple and cause confusion among the flock of God.

I have no tolerance for those who throw away the whole Word of God and pull only a few verses out to promote their warped theology. I have no patience with those who deceitfully decide to reject the total message of the Word of God by focusing only upon a few verses that outwardly appear to back up what they are promoting.

If a person just reads the Word of God over and over again, a strong and wholesome belief system springs up that will be basically right on all counts. But, if a person rejects vast sections of the Word of God and only reads or studies a section of it (Old Testament, Gospels, Epistles etc), their viewpoint is skewed and their corresponding theology will fail to include the heart of the entirety of God’s Word.

Just because someone in the Bible did or said something to someone does not automatically make it the cornerstone for a belief system. The Word of God must be taken as a whole and not chopped up to include only those verses that agree with one’s theology. Yet, time and again this is exactly what many people and groups do to justify their position.

The Word of God must be received with meekness, not handled with deceit, studied diligently and held as the standard for truth. The Word of God is supposed to be our only rule for faith and practice. The Word of God is supposed to be believed as the will of God and held forth as the Word of truth.

So, whether you “only” read the Word of God regularly or are a scholar who studies it using ancient texts; unless the Word of God is received with meekness and looked upon as the whole Word of God, there will inevitably be problems. I pray that we never become so self absorbed that we lose sight of the greatness of the integrity of the Word of God.

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