Unfortunately, there are many Christians that abuse scriptures for their own benefit. This is either done by ignorance because they lack the foundational understanding and context surrounding the verse, or they are manipulators. Neither situation is good, but one example is incompetence and the other is a wicked heart. I talk about this quite a bit in my book as well as in my personal life. If you do not read your Bible, you can’t possibly understand the whole context surrounding a particular verse. Sometimes the verse will be preceded or proceeded with broader understanding of the context. Other times one book of the Bible will lead up to and define the meaning of a scripture that was written later on in a different book.
You will never know if someone is abusing scriptures if you don’t read your Bible. I always question what others say by applying it to one single standard. What does the Bible say? If the Bible doesn’t say it, then don’t pretend like it is biblical. If the verse doesn’t say it, don’t add it to the verse. This is why horrible renditions of Bibles just need to be thrown in the dumpster. They will paraphrase the scripture based off of a personal bias from the author. Since these are not actual inspired words of God, but paraphrases, they should be taken with a grain of salt. I do not like paraphrase Bibles one bit.
People abuse scriptures by changing words.
One of the most frustrating things as a believer that I encounter is to have to deal with people who factually and inaccurately articulate their opinions as the inherent word of God. This type of evil behavior was on full display during covid. One of the most abused Bible verses that I witnessed firsthand was Mark 12:30-31. For those of you that don’t have it memorized, here it is.
Mark 12:30-31 New American Standard Bible 1995
30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Notice how verse 31 says ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’, PERIOD. There are no other words added to the end of the sentence. What happened during covid was that pathetically weak and cowardly leaders from the pulpit abused scriptures to manipulate their congregations. This was done on purpose to hide their fear and cowardly behavior while pretending to be Godly and righteous. Too many times to count, but I remember their biblical perversion very well. Love your neighbor and wear a mask. Love your neighbor and get a shot. Love your neighbor and stay home. Love you neighbor and blah, blah, blah.
Not one thing they said was biblical. They spat on the word of God, lied to their congregations and did it with pride. When called out on their lies and false pandering of secular nonsense, they often ran from the confrontation. They knew that they were cowards and wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are the same false prophets that the Bible speaks of where the manipulation focuses on tickling the ears of their congregation more than it focuses on truth. If these abominations of blasphemous actually followed their role, they would have preached the Gospel instead of trying to change it.
Mark 16:15 New American Standard Bible 1995
15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
Luke 14:23 New American Standard Bible 1995
23 And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.
Matthew 28:19-20 New American Standard Bible 1995
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”