All the things I command you, be careful to do it. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.
(Deu 12:32)
This is a very important principle for us to understand. In the context here, when this verse is proclaimed, God is talking about the things they should and should not do. They SHOULD tear down the altars and everything related to pagan worship, they SHOULD NOT enquire as to how the pagan nations worship and attempt to do likewise… the commands go on and on. These commands had particular application to the Israelites that don’t really apply to us today. We aren’t called by God to go around wrecking false idols and destroying mosques, and temples, and stuff.
However, the underlying principle contains a great timeless truth. It is never safe to alter God’s Word. We need to leave gospel intact, as is, not adding to it or subtracting from it. There are a couple of ways we can do this.
- We can take things out of God’s Word that make us uncomfortable, or push others away. We need to come to grips with the facts that the message of the gospel is OFFENSIVE. There are times that it will offend us, and others that it will offend those we share it with. We cannot change it to make it less offensive. It says all men are sinners. It says there is nothing good in our fallen nature. It says the best we can do in our own strength is nothing more than a pile of filthy rags in the sight of God. It says Homosexuality is a sinful act we engage in, not a genetic “hand” we have been dealt in life. It says that those who lust after a woman are cheating on their wives, those who hate someone commit murder in God’s eyes, and that outward appearance means nothing to the God of the universe. These things OFFEND the world, but we can’t leave them out. They are truth, and without them, the Gospel lacks the power to transform.
- We can add or own rules to the Gospel. We say Christians have to look a certain way, act a certain way, dress a certain way. We categorize things the Bible is silent about, and try and preach our own personal convictions as gospel truth. “Dancing is a sin”, “playing cards is a sin”, “wrestling is ungodly”… the list can go on and on. We don’t need to try and tell people what Christians do and don’t do… we just need to teach them the word of God.
Don’t add to God’s Word; don’t take away from it… just focus on reading it and doing it. People don’t need our opinions, they need to know what God’s opinion is… so let them have it. When we alter God’s Word, we are no longer making Disciples of Christ; we are creating clones of ourselves! God doesn’t want us to reproduce ourselves, He wants us to sow gospel seed, and water it with the Word, and let it bloom into what HE wants it to be. Let God do the talking; don’t spoil His Word with your silly ideas!
3 comments:
Wow! I really like that! How did you manage to extract all that fron that one tiny verse?
This is a very do not chapter. I fell asleep while trying to read it. Very repetetive.
Do you mena that "we can't take things out" and "we can't add our own rules"? In the DEVO it says the we "can" do those things.
I meant to write can. We can do this, we shouldn't do it, but we all have the ability to... in the context I was talking about ways a person can alter the Word of God. Can is a question of ability, not permission.
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