Being Perceptive and Critical Thinkers:

I have just finished this book called, “Misquoted,” by Russell Muilenburg.  This book gave insight to phrases we often associate with the Bible and are often said by Christians, when they are not actually used in the Bible, or they are not used in the same context as is often used by the world.   These are not phrases that are written in the Bible and some do not even have necessarily Biblical truth to them.  Some of these phrases include “God helps those who help themselves,” “Let Go and Let God,” “Charity begins at home,” “God will not give you more than you can handle,” and “Everything happens for a reason.”  There were a few others, but these are the ones that really stuck out to me.  

A majority of the phrases mentioned do start with a general Biblical idea.  However, then they were taken and changed to be something different than their original or desired significance.  They have been spun out of control for the negative.  For example, the first one, “God helps those who help themselves,” is not always a great saying to preach to Christians when they should be seeking to help all the people that are around them.  If we really truly believe that God only helps those who help themselves then any person who is struggling with poverty or with a disease or some kind of emergency needs to really help themselves.  We can’t do anything.  We don’t have the answers.  It puts way too much focus on working for everything in life.  Yes, work is God-ordained and created, but that does not mean we are to be people who base our whole identity on work-ethic.  Similarly, we can not expect others to do everything for themselves.  We are called to be servants.  

The main idea from this book was to make sure that we as people and as Chrsitians are always being perceptive and discerning of the information we receive.  We need to make sure that we don’t hear something and then instantly think that item is true.  Just because something sounds correct, and maybe even sounds like it would be good or even Godly advice, doesn’t mean we should take it without some backing and without some checking of source material.  This can apply to more areas than just in our Christian world.  It is important that when we hear a statistic from someone, that we don’t instantly start spreading that statistic without looking at research.  

As a teacher and someone who works with youth, this is something I try really hard to teach my students to instill in their own lives.  I have heard my students tell me pretty crazy things that they have heard.  They could have seen this on social media, on the news (or fake news) or from their friends in school.  This does not mean they are true.  They may not be true or factual in the slightest.  Because of this, these students would be very unwise to start spreading this information to more and more people.  I make sure to tell students to fact-check the information they are receiving and processing.  I want them to double-check their work and make sure they are looking at good sources. 

It is very important that we as Christians do the same thing.  This is especially true when we are trying to spread God’s word with others.  What is the place where we should do our fact-checking and information processing? This is, of course, God’s Word.  John 17:17 describes this perfectly when it says, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”  The Lord has provided us with truth.  With a quick google search, I discovered that there are over 31, 000 verses in the Bible.  This gives us as believers a lot of chances to find great advice and great pieces of wisdom that we can spread to others.  This gives us a lot to memorize and to consider.  With that great amount, there isn’t really a reason to include sayings that are not in the Bible.  This means that we shouldn’t make up pieces of what God has said when he hasn’t.  He has told us enough-31, 000 verses to be exact.  

It is also important that we read things in the correct context.  This does mean that we should read verses just by themselves but in their larger chapters and larger stories.  The verses will provide great truth, but some of them will be a bit strange until we look at it in the larger story.  Majority of the phrases that come from the book I was reading came about because they are from the Bible, but they are not from the larger context.  These verses and wisdom from the Bible become misconstrued and become used not in the correct way it was intended for.  These phrases then become unhelpful and sometimes, even unkind, advice.  

My challenge for both myself and for all of you reading is to spend time thinking about the phrases and the pieces of advice we give to others, especially the ones we use because we believe they are from the Bible. When our friends are hurting, and they are seeking comfort, what are the common words we speak to them? When someone asks us wisdom, specifically from the Bible, we need to make sure we have the full context and the complete words from the Bible.  This is one of the reasons I am a big fan of scripture memorization.  When the verses are memorized word for word, then there is less chance that we are going to not use these holy scriptures inaccurately.  Let us go out this week and pay more attention to the wisdom we are speaking from our mouths.