It’s Perfect the Way It Is

It’s Perfect the Way It Is

“Do not add or subtract from these commands I am giving you. Just obey the commands of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 4:2 NLT)

Sometimes the innocence of youth will overcome the wisdom of age. A pastor was at home in his office working on a sermon. His four-year-old daughter came in and asked, “What are you doing Daddy?” He responded, “I am writing a sermon.” She then asked, “How do you know what to write?”  He smiled at her and said, “God gives me the words.” She paused with a perplexed look on her face and then asked, “Well why do you keep changing them?” The sermon the pastor gave on Sunday was not what he had originally planned, it was on “God does not make mistakes!” Needless to say, the conversation with his daughter and what she had taught him was part of the pastor’s sermon. No matter how old and wise we think we are, God always has a way of teaching us.

But God was not through teaching the pastor. After church that Sunday, there were three men arguing about what they thought a particular verse of scripture meant. Each was vehement about his interpretation. Since they could not agree, they did the only reasonable thing, they went to talk to the pastor. The pastor patiently listened to each of the men give his interpretation of the text and then argue why he was correct and the other two were wrong. After listening to each of them, the pastor picked up his Bible and read the text that was in question out loud. He then read most of the chapter from which the text came as well.  He looked at the three men and asked, “Do you really want to know who is correct?” They responded in unison, “Yes.”

The pastor then said, “You are all wrong.” One of them had added a few words to the text, another had left a few words out of the text, and the third had taken a short part of the text and read his own meaning into it so it would suit his purpose. The preacher then told them what God had meant in the scripture, in the context of the entire chapter, without adding anything or taking anything away. What happened next shocked the pastor.

The argument then erupted again, with each of them talking at once. They paid no attention to what the pastor had said and gone right back to the positions they had held before talking to him. What happened? The pastor saw that the issue all along had not been the proper interpretation of the scripture, but rather each of them wanting to prove himself right and the others wrong.

God’s Word is infallible (not capable of being wrong).  Each of the men had made a mistake.  One had added words to the text to make it mean what he wanted it to mean.  The second had taken words out of the text to make it mean what he wanted it to mean. And the third took only a part of the text to make it mean what he wanted.  They all three made the same mistake, they changed God’s word to suit their own purposes. None of them had anything close to what God’s Word really meant.  The mistakes they made were addressed by Moses in Deuteronomy 4:2, “Do not add or subtract from these commands I have given you (NIV).” We see the same message reflected by the apostle John in Revelation 22:18-19.

The problem occurs when we, as finite beings, try to interpret the infinite mind of our infinite God. God knows exactly what He meant in each and every text of His Holy Word.  The problem arises when a man tries to place his meaning, or understanding of the meaning, on God’s Word rather than diligently seeking to understand what God really means. What’s important is what God means, not what man thinks God means.

As we read and study God’s word, take time to pause and reflect on what God means in each scripture and how His meaning should be applied by each of us in our daily life.