The 17 Most Misused Verses in the Bible

Christian Post ^ | 06/02/2012 | Trevin Wax

[SeekAndFind]

The 17 Most Misused Verses in the Bible

By Trevin Wax

Last weekend, I read a helpful book by Eric Bargerhuff titled The Most Misused Verses in the Bible: Surprising Ways God’s Word Is Misunderstood (Bethany House, 2012). Eric takes the reader through 17 often misquoted verses and helps us see their proper meaning and application.Since some of these misinterpretations are more damaging than others, Eric doesn’t recommend we run to correct people who innocently mis-apply the passages. He does recommend, however, that pastors and teachers take special care to avoid the common mistakes that lead to misuse.

I should note that pastors and scholars don’t always agree on the meaning and application of some of these passages. Personally, I found myself appreciating Eric’s analysis of some of the more rampant misunderstandings that come from these verses without necessarily agreeing with all the particulars of Eric’s interpretation. Still, the book is a helpful tool that resembles F. F. Bruce’s Hard Sayings of Jesus.

Here’s a look at the “most misused verses” Eric writes about in his book:

• “Judge Not” - Matthew 7:1
• “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you” - Jeremiah 29:11-13
• “Where two or three are gathered” - Matthew 18:20
• “Ask for anything in My name” - John 14:13-14
• “All things work together for good” - Romans 8:28
• “If My people who are called by My name” - 2 Chronicles 7:14
• “Jesus as the firstborn of all creation” - Colossians 1:15
• “Money is the root of all evil” - 1 Timothy 6:10
• “No more than you can handle” - 1 Corinthians 10:13
• “Train up a child” - Proverbs 22:6
• “I can do all things through Christ” - Philippians 4:13
• “An eye for an eye” - Exodus 21:23-25
• “Prayer offered in faith” - James 5:15
• “Repent and be baptized” - Acts 2:38
• “Guard your heart” - Proverbs 4:23
• “Where there is no vision” - Proverbs 29:18
• “Lifting up the name of Jesus” - John 12:32

What are some other verses that you see commonly misused? How can we as pastors help people interpret the Bible rightly?

Trevin Wax is Managing Editor of The Gospel Project for LifeWay Christian Resources and the author of Counterfeit Gospels and Holy Subversion. Follow him on Twitter or read his daily blog, TrevinWax.com (where this article first appeared).

[uglybiker]

Verse #4 is what we should ponder most.

•“Ask for anything in My name” - John 14:13-14

Oh, you can ask Him for anything your heart desires.
Just don't be suprised if the answer is 'NO'.
:-p

[Springfield Reformer]

Um, I have met people of many denominations who have the opinion they alone are the guardians of the only route to salvation. By contrast, I grew up among Baptists, most of whom had a fairly simple understanding of salvation that allowed them to believe most anyone whose beliefs were distinctively Christian were probably saved, or born again, as Jesus called it.

And all too often these rifts are not about basic beliefs, but about competing claims of institutional continuity.

Not to diminish the importance of doctrinal differences, but frankly a lot of these are lost on rank and file believers. If a pure and refined grasp of theology were the route to salvation, what would become of the children among us?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

*****Not all “Campbellite” churches think that.****

I see you joined in 2009. That means you missed the Campbelite wars on here back in 2004-2008.

I do hope they are beginning to to reexamine their position on this.

[Lurker]

Yes it would.

[imardmd1]

Another mistakenly interpreted verse:

1 Cor. 6:19
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost (which is) in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Many, if not most, try to make this apply to the individual, whereas it does not. It applies to the local church. Pronouns all plural, body is singular.

[boatbums]

I remember a story a pastor told where he told the congregation he wanted to assess their Bible knowledge. He said he got hands up on all the following questions:

1. How many people here have read the book of the Bible called Hezekiah?

2. How many people have read in the Bible, "God helps those that help themselves."?

3. How many people have read in the Bible, "I am my brother's keeper."?

Then there are the comical ones:

1. The Bible mentions baseball - In the beginning (big inning).

2. The Bible mentions tennis - David served in Saul's court.

3. The Bible talks about race care driving - Paul said thrice he was beaten by rods.

4. Ex-lax is mentioned - Moses took the tablets and sat upon the throne.

[Diapason]

John 8:7 Let he who is without sin cast the first stone - generally misused by the same people who misuse “Judge not”.

[Jeremiah Jr]

Ananias and Saffira in Acts 5

Before Ananias and Saffira was this prayer (cause and effect). Note: 31& 32

1 Kings 8

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication (of the Temple)

22 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven; 23 and he said: “Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. 24 You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day. 25 Therefore, Lord God of Israel, now keep what You promised Your servant David my father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way, that they walk before Me as you have walked before Me.’ 26 And now I pray, O God of Israel, let Your word come true, which You have spoken to Your servant David my father.

27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built! 28 Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today: 29 that Your eyes may be open toward this temple night and day, toward the place of which You said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. 30 And may You hear the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear in heaven Your dwelling place; and when You hear, forgive.

31 “When anyone sins against his neighbor, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple, 32 then hear in heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, condemning the wicked, bringing his way on his head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.

33 “When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and when they turn back to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication to You in this temple, 34 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to their fathers.

35 “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, 36 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.

37 “When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; 38 whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple: 39 then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men), 40 that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.

41 “Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for Your name’s sake 42 (for they will hear of Your great name and Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this temple, 43 hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name.

44 “When Your people go out to battle against their enemy, wherever You send them, and when they pray to the Lord toward the city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name, 45 then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

46 “When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to the land of the enemy, far or near; 47 yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of those who took them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong, we have committed wickedness’; 48 and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and pray to You toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name: 49 then hear in heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause, 50 and forgive Your people who have sinned against You, and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against You; and grant them compassion before those who took them captive, that they may have compassion on them 51 (for they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out of Egypt, out of the iron furnace), 52 that Your eyes may be open to the supplication of Your servant and the supplication of Your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they call to You. 53 For You separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be Your inheritance, as You spoke by Your servant Moses, when You brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.”

Solomon Blesses the Assembly

54 And so it was, when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, that he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. 55 Then he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying: 56 “Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses. 57 May the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us nor forsake us, 58 that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers. 59 And may these words of mine, with which I have made supplication before the Lord, be near the Lord our God day and night, that He may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as each day may require, 60 that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other. 61 Let your heart therefore be loyal to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day.”

***

My vote for most misused...

Matthew 25:40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

The Messiah’s brothers are Jewish!

[swampfox101]

Me either. Many churches want salvation on their terms, not God’s.

Calvinist are an example.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

That was handled very well by Luther’s debate with Eurasmus in BONDAGE OF THE WILL, summed up in his passage XVIII. On the comfort of knowing that salvation does not depend on free-will.

Eurasmus’ responses were very similar to Arminus’s later doctrines followed by the Remonstrants, Methodists, Nazarines, CofCs, Catholics, while Luther’s were more like Calvin’s later doctrines, although Calvin did modify some of his hard line beliefs between writing the Institutes and commentaries.

[imardmd1]

John 8:7 Let he who is without sin cast the first stone - generally misused by the same people who misuse “Judge not”.

And, you, not having quoted this correctly, misuse the verse also. The portion is: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." (Jn. 8:7c,d, KJV)

Deleting those words would have made it necessary for Jesus, since it was a command without an escape clause, to start the stoning remedy, and perhaps by seeing some or all of the scribes and Pharisees stoned first, before the woman -- a great false set of doctrinal necessities.

Let me suggest, in the tone of this thread, then, that in "quoting" the writings translated into our language, that you (and I) not only quote Scripture exactly, but give the translation version, including punctuation and translator's conventions (like italics in KJV, which were added, not in the Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek); and furthermore, do your own exegesis on the original text to ensure that your understanding of the verse (which may not be unambiguous) is correct, and correctly applied.

Sounds like a big task, eh? And it is.

With respect -- just tying up some loose ends.

[Diapason]

Of course I misquoted and misused the verse - in the way that it is usually misused and misquoted. That is the whole point of this thread! Which verses are misused and how?

[imardmd1]

Of course I misquoted and misused the verse - in the way that it is usually misused and misquoted

Sorry, it just looked to me that your usage was indeliberate, not intended without a demurrer.

That is the whole point of this thread!

I took that the point of the topic was to identify 17 verses, then to correct the mistaken uses they were out to, by linking back to the original article.

Which verses are misused and how?

Certainly more than 17 of the thousands of verses may be misused if they are not (a) taken from uncorrupted texts, (b) translated according to a precise literal equivalency, (c) interpreted by a literal/grammatical/historical/cultural hermeneutic, and (d) applied according to their intended use and time.

For the 17 verses, all known to well-discipled Bible students, a little reading and spiritual guidance will show their use and misuse. If you mean for me to do that, now, that will not be convenient. You might read the original link. But I did deal with one recently (2 Chr. 7:14) on Dec. 30 in the dispensational caucus thread of "The Descendants of Abraham: Do Church-Age Believers Become 'Spiritual Jews'?", post #10 I believe.

Responding sincerely --