Horror-Scopes - Always Verify!

There is so much that God wants to tell us through his Word, but only sometimes do we understand what He is saying right away. At times we have to read it over and over or study it before we can understand it. Often we cannot understand what we read until we obey it. And sometimes, more often than we know, we cannot really understand things unless the Spirit speaks to our spirit.

However, not understanding what God says is sometimes our own fault. We read a passage of Scripture and skip over it because we think we already know (maybe somebody told us) what it means! When we do this, we are in danger of not hearing God's Word spoken to us!

Let's look at an example that many readers may be familiar with. In Matthew 11:12 it says: "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it." Many people have taken this to mean that if we want to advance the kingdom of heaven, we must be "forceful". In fact, this scripture has been used to correct Christians who's character was not forceful or powerful enough in their dealings with others.

Is this really what Jesus is saying?

If we look at the verse in translations other than the NIV, we find that most of the more accurate ones use the word "violent" instead of forceful. Looking at word commentaries and lexicons, we find that the Greek word is used for the invasion of a country, or warriors overrunning a fortress! This clearly means more than a forceful character.

What kind of character did Jesus have? We don't have to go too far to find out! In verse 29 of the same chapter, we read: "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." We have examples where Jesus was forceful and very bold, but we are told many times that Jesus' overall attitude was one of absolute humility and meekness. How could we believe that Jesus would tell us to be something other than what he was?

In a parallel verse, Luke 16:16 Jesus says: "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it." Now we can see that Jesus is speaking of the attitude that is essential to entering the kingdom of God! We can see other verses where the same truth is taught, like in Luke 13:24: "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to." The attitude necessary to become a Christian is that of a soldier fighting his way into a well-guarded fort. There is no easy way to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It is a battle! If we don't make every effort, we risk never making it in!

So we learn that what Jesus is saying in Matthew 11:12 has been sometimes overlooked because of a misunderstanding of what was being read! We’ll probably never know where it started, but I think we can guess how this error made its way through so many Christians. We weren't verifying what we were told!

A misunderstanding like this doesn't seem to be so serious, but, could anything be more serious? Do we want to believe things to be God's words, when in fact, they are not?

In the next issue, let's look at Philemon 1:6 and what "sharing your faith" means. If you can figure it out, please email your thoughts to wordworkers@gmail.com. Your answer may get printed! Until then, don't forget to verify!