Integrity

Have you ever wanted the Bible to say something it did not?  Or want to deny that it says what it does say?  It happened to me this morning.  I was working through Colossians 2:2 and I miss-translated something in the verse.  As I was thinking through the implications of the verse the way I had translated it, I got really excited about what I was “seeing” in the text.

I began to write about – here in fact – what I had seen.  Got about half way through writing the thought down and checked the English translation that you see when you hover your mouse over the verse.  I was stunned.  I immediately realized I had the person of one of the verbs wrong and that changed the entire meaning of the verse.  The only problem was I really liked the point.  So I spent the next few minutes trying to convince myself that the verse could mean what I wanted it to mean.  I realized relatively quickly what I was doing and abandoned my effort to bend the Bible to my will.

My responsibility, our responsibility, as believers is to study the Word and allow it to form our beliefs and positions on a matter.  It is not acceptable for me to attempt to bend the Bible to my agenda or my understanding.  I have done that.  I have seen others do that.  In some cases it was an honest error.  In others, it seems to be a deliberate attempt to make one’s point at the expense of the text.  Errors happen, we are human.  That is why it is so important to check speakers, even those for whom you have great respect, always.

The desire to make the Bible say what we want it to say will happen regularly as well.  Fight that urge.