Monday, March 9, 2009

Misquoted

"Just like the Good Book says, 'Spare the rod, and spoil the child'".

"You know that money is the root of all evil. It says so in the Bible."

Really? Is that what it says?

Does it drive you crazy to hear Scripture misquoted? If it doesn't, I think it should. No, I'm not saying Christians with an impressive recall of text are better than Christians who struggle to quote Scripture. And I'm not saying memory verses stamp one's passport to Heaven. Memorizers should not feel superior, and non-memorizers should not feel resentful.

And I am definitely not saying that someone who misquotes Scripture deserves to be assaulted for it.

What I am saying is that Christians should remind themselves on a regular basis how important it is to be familiar with the Word of God. Besides the two listed above, how many other near-quotes and mis-quotes of Scripture have made their way into common language? And even more important than wording, how many misrepresentations of Scriptural ideas make their way into common understanding, simply because so many believers lack their own personal foundation in Bible reading?

Yes, Christians differ in spiritual gifts. Some will have more of a knack for wording and memorization than others. But even a Christian who isn't talented in this area has great tools available to help, if the interest and commitment are there. Just take a look at Search God's Word.org and see how easy it is to search for a phrase and find the Scriptural reference. Even without this site, any search of Google or other search engines will yield the results a reader needs to be sure a Scriptural citation is correct.

The tools are at our fingertips. It's just a matter of whether we care enough to know what God's Word says, or whether we're satisfied with what we heard somebody say sometime.

Not sure what the errors were in the "scriptures" at the beginning of this post?

Check them out. You'll be amazed at how much the meaning is affected by the real wording in both places:

Proverbs 13:24

I Timothy 6:10

Do you have any other favorite Scriptural misquotations?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yes...people mis-interpret and misquote scripture so very often...and many times, in doing so fall short of the total blessing and fulfillment that comes with the promises included...

One of the ones I find often is Jeremiah 29:11 - people always quote the "I know the plans I have for you" part - but forget the before and after promises of God's covenant with us...

Thanks for sharing David.