Having run around in church
circles for many years, I have heard my fair share of sayings that were
credited as being in the Bible. I personally
quoted them with such conviction of spirit that to have doubted me would have
seemed on par with doubting if the sun would rise or the stars would
shine. And yet, I was wrong. Perhaps you, like me, have had this experience. For example:
“Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Now, all of us
who love our cleaning products, disinfectants, and antibacterial lotions would
swear this is in the Bible, perhaps somewhere in the book of Sanctimonious. Sadly though, it is not. But rest assured, God is a huge fan of cleaning!
I like the fact that He shares our desire to sparkle and shine. But the
kind of cleansing He’s interested in involves that which is within us. And, no
matter how shiny and germ-free our outsides may be, we can’t scrub hard enough,
deep enough, nor long enough to remove the stain of a sin-cursed heart. Praise God, though; He alone is able and
willing to cleanse us of all our sin, and wash us white as snow through the
perfect, priceless blood of Christ! So
while you won’t find the aforementioned phrase in Scripture, you will find
these: "He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness,
but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of
the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:5); "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (I
John 1:9); and, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast
spirit within me,” (Ps 51:10). Clorox
has nothing on God!
“Money is the
root of all evil.” This phrase, while sounding exactly like
something Scripture might say, is in fact, false. Money, like alcohol, is not inherently
evil. It isn’t good or bad – it is
morally neutral. What causes the evil
according to the Scriptures is not money, but the love of money. God is not opposed to wealth and in fact there
are examples of wealthy individuals from the Bible like Job, Joseph, and
Solomon. Others whose names are not recorded in Scripture used their wealth to
help the fledgling church grow and support those who were taking the Gospel
beyond Jerusalem. In fact, here is the
section of Scripture from which this phrase is probably taken: “But godliness with
contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can
take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content
with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into
many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds
of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and
pierced themselves with many griefs.” (I Tim 6:6-10) The love of money (or, greed and
discontentment) is the root behind all sorts of evil. Our God is generous, He owns it all and
allows us to enjoy what He has entrusted to our care. Let’s be godly
with contentment, and thank Him that we can live free from an unhealthy
pursuit of wealth.
“God helps those who help themselves.” The
implication of this phrase is that we must first help ourselves in order for
God to take action. The onus is on us to
some degree. Now, this is a tricky one
I’ll admit. I am a huge proponent of
people taking responsibility for themselves and doing what they know to do as
instructed by God. As an exhorter, I
believe God gave us His Word because He intends for us to obey it. What’s more, in the Old Testament, the Law
was based upon a system of “obedience equals blessing and disobedience equals
cursing.” But, I also believe that we are hopelessly broken, and as a result we
lean away from God. Scripture states “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have
together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Rom 3:10-12) If God only
helped those who helped themselves, then no one would ever be helped because no
one would make a move toward God on their own.
The great news is, “But God
demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us.” (Rom 5:8). What’s more, I
believe God is kind and merciful, and that He rescues and delivers us time and
time again – not on the merit of our behavior or obedience, but because He is
infinitely good and gracious – and as such He cannot help but to be liberal in
His generosity and assistance. God has
always been the initiator with fallen humanity – from calling out to a cowering
Adam in Eden, sending Christ into a world that would reject and kill Him, and
even today as He allows us to be His vessels filled with His Spirit proclaiming
a message of hope and salvation.
So
ladies, as you can see, being lovers of God’s Word helps us recognize when we
hear things like the phrases above to know if it’s really from Scripture. I will close with this: When people are trained to recognize
counterfeit money, they do not study the counterfeit. Rather, they spend all their time studying
real money. That way, when a counterfeit
hits their eyes, they know it instantly because they know the real thing so
well. Let’s “train” with full and happy hearts as
women who are dearly loved by our Father who has provided us with such a
wonderful and rich Manual!
My next verse if the continuation of Psalm 93:3-5 (NIV)
The seas have lifted up Lord, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea - the Lord on high is mighty. Your statutes, Lord, stand firm; holiness adorns your house for endless days.
