MON 10 JUL
MISUSING THE WORD
READ 2 Timothy 2:1-15 Nahum 3:1-19
FOCUS Do your best to please God. Be a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed. Teach the message of truth correctly. 2 Timothy 2:15
I listened to a podcast this morning, on which a minister was using a scripture to endorse absolute submission to church leaders. ‘If your pastor says it, obey it’ he demanded, quoting a verse from Hebrews, ‘Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority’ (Heb. 13:17). He couldn’t be more wrong. There are countless casualties from abusive church leadership. Religious bullies usually weaponise the Bible, lifting random texts out of context to justify their control of God’s people. It’s possible that Jonah’s nationalistic blindness was partly caused by his misunderstanding of the word of the Lord spoken earlier by the prophet Nahum. Denouncing Nineveh with furious promises of judgement from God, Nahum had been filled with righteous anger because of their atrocities. So for Jonah, there would be no good reason to go to that city with an offer of grace and forgiveness. Not only did it make no sense theologically, but if the people of Nineveh did repent, there was a risk that Nahum would be tagged as a false prophet. As such, Jonah might have been able to use Nahum’s words to justify his own hatred for the Assyrians. But if he did, he overlooked one element of Nahum’s prophecy: ‘The Lord is slow to get angry. He is very powerful’ (Nahum 1:3). Let’s be careful about how we ‘use’ Scripture. We believe it is the inspired Word of God – but our conclusions about it are not, especially when we read it out of context. Prayer: Your Word is powerful, Lord. May I approach it with maturity and wisdom. Amen. 13
