Commonly Misunderstood and Misapplied Verses: I Can Do All Things Through A Verse Misquoted . . . Or Can I? Philippians 4:13

            The verse can be found on T-shirts, mugs, and plagues. Christian athletes like to paint it on their cheeks or have it printed on their cleats, holding fast to it being a promise for God to empower them to make their 3-point jump shot or score the touchdown to help their team win the game. It has been said just before lifting something heavy or weights in the gym that will require some strength. The words have served as motivation to meet a goal someone has set or to overcome some sort of obstacle or challenge in front of them. And how many people have quoted it just before giving a speech or doing a solo to calm their nerves and anxiety? I am referring to the beloved Philippians 4:13 which states, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” For many of us, this was one of the first verses we ever committed to memory. The only problem is that it doesn’t mean what most people think it does. Hence why I refer to it as one of those “Inigo Montoya passages,” “You keep quoting that verse. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

 

            Many today believe that this verse means that God will give them the power to do anything they may set their minds to or that they may desire. That they literally have the power in Christ to do whatever. But is that what Paul communicates in this verse? Certainly, someone could not go up on the roof of a tall building and jump off of it convinced that he will be able to fly because of what Philippians 4:13 says and be able to do such. They would learn fast that the “all things” doesn’t include flying! (PLEASE DO NOT TRY THAT AT HOME!) Of course, that would be absurd but is similar to how a number wind up using this passage.

 

As always, to discover the real meaning of the passage and be sure that we are not misquoting or misapplying it, we need to examine the context of the verse. And when we do, what we find is that Paul is not talking about any sporting event, lifting weights, or standing in front of people at all. Those types of things are far from his mind. Instead, he is addressing the generous offering that the church there in Philippi had sent to him. He wants them to know that he doesn’t speak from being in need in rejoicing over receiving it but that he has learned to be content in whatever circumstances he has found himself in (v. 11). He goes on to say, “I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in abundance; in any and all things I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need” (v. 12). You see, his focus is on being content regardless of one’s circumstances. It doesn’t matter if he is in a place where he doesn’t have enough resources or if he has too much. He doesn’t see himself as lacking in either one.

 

What is the secret to such contentment? That’s where v. 13 comes in. He acknowledges that Jesus is the One who gives him strength in times of want and in times of plenty. He realizes he basically has all that he needs in Christ. He is never lacking anything even when physically he may not have as much. When we keep in mind that he writes this letter from prison, it really puts things in perspective. He is in a spot currently where he easily could be discontent and feel that he certainly is lacking. Instead, he recognizes that he still has Christ and that by far makes up for anything he may lack physically. C. S. Lewis once wrote, “He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.” Jesus is enough and knowing that blessed truth can get us through whatever storm or trial we may wind up facing or have to walk through.

 

I actually think that this makes the verse so much more practical for us. Who of us doesn’t have problems with contentment at times? When the prices go up for inflation or tariffs and you have to tighten your budget, choosing not to get as much. You go through that rough patch in your marriage and it is not all that you had hoped it would be. The job you had devoted so much of your time to and that provided for the family shuts its doors or is forced to have to lay you off. You have to walk through the loss of a spouse or even a child, long before you had ever planned to. Someone in the family is discovered to have a disability which adds difficulty not just for them but for you and the entire family. Disaster or disease strikes taking away your home, stuff, or health. How can you handle such and keep going? Through applying the meaning of this verse by looking to Christ and finding your strength in Him. Reminding yourself that no matter what you may be lacking physically here on this earth that Christ makes up for it. You still have all that you need in Him. You are not lacking in any way.

 

       So, instead of this being a promise that you will have what it takes to score to win the game, lift something heavy, achieve that goal, or give that speech, these are the words the athlete needs to go to when due to age and all the activity of his life he is no longer physically able to  continue to perform on the field or court, the weights become too much to lift like you used to, the hope of achieving that goal is shattered, and the speaking engagement falls through. Not as a motivation for such but an encouragement to persevere through it. May God help us to learn the same kind of contentment Paul did and to continually direct us back to Christ for the strength we need for that contentment in the midst of whatever circumstances we may be in.

 

Love in Christ,

Pastor Lee

Commonly Misunderstood and Misapplied Verses: The Most Misquoted and Misapplied Verse in All the Bible

            It could rightly be called the most popular verse in all of the Bible. Certainly the one which appears quoted the most often, even by believers and unbelievers alike. Those who have never read much of the Bible at all know it well and will throw it out whenever someone may call their lifestyle or decisions into question or say what they are doing is a sin. They are very quick to point out what the Bible says in this one verse. However, the verse does not mean anything close to how it is used in such situations. The verse I’m referring to is not John 3:16 as you might first have been thinking. It is Matthew 7:1 which says, “Do not judge, so that you will not be judged.” How many times have we heard someone say when we point out something they are doing is wrong or sinful that Jesus says not to judge and that is judging them? Often times it is treated as a “get out of accountability free card” or as what Mark Dever has referred to as a “shield for sin”. The philosopher Leo Tolstoy even claimed that it indicated that we shouldn’t have any court system at all! This clearly is another one of those “Inigo Montoya passages.” “You keep quoting that verse. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

            When we come to this verse, we have to realize that Jesus is in no way prohibiting the passing of judgment in general. That can’t be the case. In just a few verses, He will tell His disciples, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces” (v. 6). Basically, don’t give deep spiritual biblical truths and teaching to those who want nothing to do with it and will not benefit from it. Such will be a waste and not appreciated. For us to obey this, don’t we have to make a judgment call as to who would be considered a “dog” or “swine” not to spend our time giving the holy things to? Jesus also goes on to warn of false prophets and how they can be known to be such by their fruits. To conclude that someone is a false prophet or teacher requires judgment. Jesus even commands for His followers to “judge with righteous judgment” in John 7:24! Paul later says that we ARE to judge those within the church but not those outside who still belong to the world (1 Corinthians 5:12-13). In fact, in that passage, he is chastising the church in Corinth for their failure to judge the immoral man in their midst who is sleeping with his stepmother. Jesus cannot mean by this statement that we should never call another believer out for his or her sin because He lays out an entire process for how we are to do so in Matthew 18:15-20. Lovingly calling out someone else’s sin and their need to repent cannot be the type of judgment Jesus refers to here. He would not later tell us how to do so if He first said that we are not supposed to do so at all. And if you read the Matthew 7 passage carefully, not just stopping at verse 1, you can see that Jesus does not say that we are not to do anything about the speck of sawdust in our brother’s eye. Only that we must take care of the unmistakable much greater log or plank of wood in our own. THEN, and only then, we are in a position to address our brother’s speck. That’s the whole point of v. 5, “first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

            So, what kind of judgment is Jesus speaking of here then when He calls us not to judge? A self-righteous hypocritical type of judging. Having an “I’m holier than thou” attitude in confronting sin, thinking that we are better or less sinful than someone else because we may not be guilty of the exact same type of sin as them in the moment. It is rightly confronting someone else in their sin but wrongly failing to do anything about similar sin in your own life. Treating their sin as greater than your own. For instance, the case of a believer approaching another professing believer about him cheating on his wife and rightly calling for him to repent but then turning around to go home to look at pornography on his phone where he needs to repent and leave such sin behind himself. He is ignoring the huge wooden plank of sin in his own eye while addressing the speck in his brother’s. In fact, the reason his viewing habits would even be considered a plank in comparison with his brother’s infidelity as a speck is due to him refusing to deal with it when he is much closer to it. It is not that the man’s unfaithfulness to his spouse shouldn’t be confronted. Love for that man and his wife should move us to do so as Scripture commands (Matthew 18:15; Galatians 6:1). But nothing should be said to the man about it until the person is sure to clean up their own house at home so to speak first. This will insure that he will not be guilty of the self-righteous hypocritical judging Jesus condemns in this verse.

 

            A prime example of the kind of judging Jesus tells us not to do here is found with the Pharisees. They were notorious for their self-righteous hypocrisy. Judging and looking down on others for not holding to the standards that they had set (and in many cases added to the ones God had set in His holy law) all the while not abiding by those standards themselves. Jesus presents the very picture of this in His parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector who both go up to the temple to pray (Luke 18:9-14). The Pharisee was preoccupied with how much more righteous he thought himself to be because he was not like those “sinners” out there such as that tax collector (vv. 11-12) not recognizing that he was just as much of a sinner in need of God’s mercy. He was very busy pointing out the speck in the tax collector’s eyes while ignoring the huge plank in his own obvious for everyone else to see. This very well could be another case where Jesus is directly addressing the Pharisees in His sermon both to confront their hypocrisy and warn His followers not to follow suit.

 

This verse is a call to proper judgment. Not no judging of anyone at all but a right judging of them. The warning here is to be sure that we are appropriately judging others. That’s what Jesus means when He says that the manner of judgment we use against others is that which we ourselves will receive (v. 2). Not that we will face judgment if we judge anyone else about anything but that we will face the same kind of judgment we give them. We will be held to the same standard we are holding them to left without an excuse for what we are doing because of our condemnation of them for doing the same thing. Therefore, we should be sure to be fair and accurate in the judgments we make and have the right attitude in repentance over our own sins so that we don’t befall the same ourselves. Like Haman winding up being hung on his own gallows he had prepared for Mordecai (Esther 6:9-10) and Adoni-bezek having his own thumbs and big toes cut off after doing the same for the seventy kings he had captured (Judges 1:6-7), the one practicing this unrighteous judging can expect to get it returned to them. Adoni-bezek even stated afterwards, “as I have done, so God has repaid me” (v. 7).

 

Let’s not misunderstand Jesus here. We absolutely are to judge. But that judgment should not be a self-righteous hypocritical judgment where we fail to deal with the sin in our own lives and only point out the sins in other’s lives as a way of elevating ourselves above them. Rather, when we first notice a concerning sin being practiced by a brother or sister that they need to repent of, we need to humbly first examine ourselves of any similar sins we have yet to deal with, recognizing that we are no better than they are but are in need of the same grace and accountability. Only then are we ready to judge as Jesus calls us to in this verse.

 

Love in Christ,

Pastor Lee

Commonly Misunderstood and Misapplied Verses: A Patriotic Promise But for Whom? 2 Chronicles 7:14

We continue this post with our look at some of what I like to call “Inigo Montoya Passages.” Those verses which are often misquoted and misapplied, causing us to say, “You keep quoting that verse. I do not think it means what you think it means.” We want to find out what it exactly does mean so that we don’t wind up misunderstanding it or, even worse, believing or doing something different than what God had said. The verse I want to examine this time is one that is very popularly quoted around patriotic holidays such as The Fourth of July and 9/11. You will hear it especially referenced on the National Day of Prayer. During times of drought, it will show up on people’s lips as well and in encouragements to pray in an election year. Many hold out hope of a national revival breaking out if they do what it says. This is the well-known statement of God to King Solomon right after the dedication of the temple in response to the king’s prayer for the temple. 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their evil ways, then I will listen from heaven, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.”

The first thing we need to realize here is that this is a SPECIFIC promise for a SPECIFIC people regarding a SPECIFIC land in a SPECIFIC time. It is not general for ALL people and EVERY land at ALL times. God is not saying that whoever prays and repents should expect Him to heal whatever land they are in. Only those who are counted as being His people with the land He refers to here. This means that to rightfully understand this promise and guard against misapplying it, we have to figure out the identity of the “My people” the verse mentions. That’s who the promise is for. And it is not America or Americans but the nation of Israel. Those who were in a covenant relationship with the Lord. That can’t apply to our nation as a whole today because clearly not everyone in it could rightly be called a part of God’s people. Only those who as a result of being born again by the Spirit have repented and trusted in Christ alone for their salvation can. We can say that there are those within our nation who would be part of God’s people but certainly not the entire nation or everyone in it. The only nation in history collectively together to have ever been recognized as being God’s people was ancient Israel. There has been no cutting of a covenant with our nation the same as occurred with the Israelites in the past. So, right away, we need to put a pause on appealing to this as a promise contingent for the citizens of our nation being on their knees.

We also must keep in mind that this promise was given as part of the old covenant with its stipulations of blessings on the people for obedience and curses to come upon them in their disobedience. The withholding of rain and destruction by grasshoppers or locusts mentioned in the previous verse serves as part of those prescribed curses. In fact, you will see such in the list of curses specified for the Israelites for their disobedience in Deuteronomy 28. In verses 24 and 38 there specifically. Therefore, we shouldn’t assume that the lack of rain we may be experiencing or a bad year for our crops is the result of some specific sin in our lives that we need to repent of together as a nation or due to the nation’s many sins. If it were, we would never have any rain and be bombarded with locusts!

The next thing we need to consider in understanding this passage is WHAT LAND. What specific land is being referred to in this promise that God will heal contingent on His people’s prayers? Once again, context is key. Since the “My people” are the people of Israel as part of the old covenant at the dedication of the temple, the land therefore must be the land of Canaan which God had given to them. Not the land of North America which we live. If we would even want to claim this promise for our country today, we shouldn’t expect any physical healing from pestilence or the relief of rain after a drought in response to it. That’s simply because the promise is for a different place entirely. We can’t just make the “land” be whatever “land” we live in or wherever we want it to be. It doesn’t work like that. In that context, God has a specific land in mind and it isn’t America.
 

So, what are we to do with this promise then if it doesn’t directly apply to us at all? Since we are not a part of the nation of Israel with the stipulations of the old covenant living in the land of Canaan, what relevance does it have to us? Should we just dismiss it or throw it out? Absolutely not! It is included with the “all Scripture” Paul speaks of in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that “is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.” There has to be something for us in these words then. Whenever we find a text that isn’t given directly TO us, we are to look for the principle we can derive from it FOR us. In this case, one of those principles is for us to continue to humble ourselves, pray, seek the Lord, and turn from our sins in repentance, resting in the blessed and glorious truth that we have forgiveness for each and every one of those sins on account of Jesus’ living and dying on our behalf. We don’t have to worry about the old covenant curses such as drought and locusts falling upon us or our land as judgment on us since Jesus took all the curses of the old covenant on Himself so that we could receive the blessings of it as part of the new covenant even though we don’t deserve it on account of our disobedience.

An equivalent New Testament promise for the church would be 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The verb for “confess” is in the present tense in Greek, indicating an ongoing confession for daily cleansing. When Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, He told them that they each have already had their bath but needed their feet clean from the dirt of their walking to get there (John 13:10). Likewise, we have been fully and completely cleansed spiritually of our sins the moment we first have trusted in Christ alone for our salvation. We have had that bath we could say. But we still need His cleansing of our feet if you will for the dirt of sin we’ve collected throughout our day as we seek to grow in our sanctification and walk with the Lord. This is a regular prayer for us.
 

And we can and should pray for our nation. As was discussed in a previous article, we are commanded to pray for our leaders, especially for their salvation (1 Timothy 2:1-4). Also, mirroring the Jews in Babylon, to “seek the peace of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to Yahweh on its behalf; for in its peace you will have peace (Jeremiah 29:7). And we should make it our aim to see more and more people in this nation come to Christ, so that they, by God’s grace through faith in Him, will be counted among God’s people to humble themselves, pray, repent, and confess their sins with us as we enjoy the blessings Christ has achieved for us on our behalf. And that is what will bring true revival! Be sure to remember all this the next time you hear this verse quoted but wrongly applied at the a national prayer service or patriotic celebration.

With my love in Jesus,
Pastor Lee

Commonly Misunderstood and Misapplied Verses: A Precious Promise or a Sober Warning? Proverbs 22:6

Some of the most quoted verses of the Bible also are some of the most misunderstood and misapplied ones. They may be found on mugs, T-shirts, and plaques around the house, spoken of often, all the while with people missing the true meaning of what the verse actually says. Or, worse yet, thinking and treating the verse or passage as saying something different than what it does. I like to think of these as “Inigo Montoya passages.” In the classic movie, “The Princess Bride,” there is a scene where a man named Vizzini keeps saying that something that is happening is “inconceivable.” After the fourth time he says this in disbelief, another character who works for him, Inigo Montoya, says to him, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” In this case, it’s “You keep quoting that verse. I do not think it means what you think it means.” With this post, I want to begin a series where we will look at some of these famous “Inigo Montoya passages” to discover what they really mean. This way we will be sure not to misunderstand or misapply them ourselves.

            We’ll start by looking at one of the most well-known and beloved proverbs in the Bible that could classify as potentially being the most misapplied and misunderstood of them. Proverbs 22:6, Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it (ESV). Many a parent has held to this verse as a precious promise that if they do their job right in raising their children that they then have no need to fear them ever going astray from what they were taught. However, a number of parents can also testify to them seeking to do their very best at this training to have the heartbreak of watching their son or daughter walk away from it, leaving it all behind. In such a case, what went wrong? How could the child grow up to depart from it when it says here that they will not? I think part of the problem lies in us having the wrong view of what this verse actually is saying. In fact, the more that I study it, the more I am convinced that rather than being a precious promise for parents to hold fast to, it instead serves as a sober warning of what can happen if we prove negligent in our duty to discipline our children. 

            Part of the misunderstanding of this verse begins with a mistranslation of the Hebrew that it was originally written in. The phrase should go is absent in the Hebrew. Literally, it reads, Train a child according to his way, even when he grows old, he will not turn aside from it. The training spoken of here then is not according to the way that the child ought to go but rather to his way. Furthermore, the word for “train” actually means to “start” or “begin.” (You will notice that the NIV captures this with their translation.) If you start a child out according to his own way, then you can expect him never to depart from it when he grows up. This changes everything, doesn’t it? What we have here is not encouragement as to what we are to do with our kids but what we must be careful not to do with them.

 

            Now, why is it that hardly any English translation actually carries this meaning? We don’t know for sure but it may have something to do with the fact that the King James Version added the should go, perhaps giving their interpretation of the according to his way, and it has become so familiar of a translation that other modern versions have been hesitant to veer from translating it any other way. In fact, it is hard to find a translation that doesn’t include these two words or some variation of them. (The New American Standard Bible, NASB, at least contains a footnote to indicate the literal translation of it.) However, one of the newest of the English translations currently available, the Christian Standard Bible (CSB), does provide the closest reading of the text that I have found. It translates it as follows: Start a youth out on his way; even when he grows old he will not depart from it.

 

            So, what does it mean for a parent to start a youth out on his way? What kind of way is it? According to the book of Proverbs, there is only two ways in which you can walk; the way of wisdom or the way of foolishness. The author seems to imply that the way of foolishness is the natural way for us to walk. He tells us that the way that appears right to a man has at its end the way of death (14:12; 16:25) and that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, which is why discipline is necessary to remove it from him (22:15). This would mean that the way that the child would want to go would be the way of foolishness. And to allow him to go his way without any correction would be enable him to get to the place where he will not, apart from the supernatural work of God, depart from such foolishness. 

 

            When it comes to child rearing, the emphasis throughout the book of Proverbs is on discipline. We see this with every other proverb that addresses the issue (13:24; 19:18; 22:15; 23:13-14; 29:17). In light of that, we should realize that this proverb isn’t an exception. It also deals with the issue of discipline. In this case, it is on what happens should the parent fail to discipline their son or daughter. Should they do so, their children will get to the point where the parents will not be able to do anything with him or her. The child will become so ingrained in their foolish disobedience that there is no way to break them of it.

 

And is this not what we are witnessing today? A generation of those who, by and at large, have not been disciplined and taught to go the way of wisdom, but rather who had parents who basically let them do whatever they wanted, allowing them to call the shots. Such has resulted in them desiring to have their way and not being able to be bridled. How many of a parent has wound up with a teenager who they can do nothing with who they failed to discipline at a young age? We see this warning left unheeded played out again and again. 

 

For those of us with children still in our home, let’s be careful not to cave into their demands and allow them to get their way but to discipline them as God has prescribed, in hopes that their foolish bent will be curbed and they will learn to walk wisely. Of course, as with everything that God has called us to, this is not something that we can do on our own effectively without Him. We must rely on Him and seek to be faithful. 

 

Love in Christ,

Pastor Lee