TỘI LẠM DỤNG KINH THÁNH 1

Kinh thánh: 1Giăng 3: 1-10

Câu gốc: 1GIĂNG 3: 7 – Hỡi các con cái bé mọn, chớ để cho ai lừa dối mình: kẻ làm sự công bình là người công bình, như chính mình Chúa là công bình.

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SIN OF ABUSING THE BIBLE 1

BIBLE: 1John 3: 1-10

Main verse: 1JOHN 3: 7 – Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

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– One of the reasons Christians should study the Bible carefully that unbelievers, especialy those who are hostile to the church, often quote Scriptures in their devious ways in order to deceive Christians to do something quite contrary to God’s truth.

– For example, there was a story of a Christian youth who was bullied at school. When he could not stand it anymore and wanted to fight back, the others who bullied him said Jesus taught that Christians should offer the other cheek for those who slapped them on the face. Then they accused him that he was not a true Christian because he wanted to fight back.

– It was one verse in the Bible that had been quoted the wrong way to oppress Christians. There are many more verses that unbelievers use to talk down God’s children, to make us to be submissive, being afraid to do things right or to follow and support their devious schemes.

– That’s why we Christians should encourage each other to study the Bible thouroughly and carefully in order to understand the meaning of each command that God wants us to obey so that we can be happily to live according to His instruction and at the same time avoiding to be manipulated by bad people in society.

– We will consider one by one each of the verses that unbelievers have often used to decieve us, but at first we should know this main principle when we study the Bible: God blessed us with the book in order to make us being wiser in this life, not being foolish.

– God did not take human form and came into this world to make those who believed in Him becoming fool themselves. He was the Light Who came into this world to make us becoming children of Light, thus becoming wiser and more prudent than others

JOHN 8: 12 – Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying: I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.

GIĂNG 8: 12 – Đức Chúa Jêsus lại cất tiếng phán cùng chúng rằng: Ta là sự sáng của thế gian; người nào theo ta, chẳng đi trong nơi tối tăm, nhưng có ánh sáng của sự sống.

1THESSALONIANS 5: 5 – You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

1TÊ-SA-LÔ-NI-CA 5: 5 – Anh em đều là con của sự sáng và con của ban ngày. Chúng ta không phải thuộc về ban đêm, cũng không phải thuộc về sự mờ tối.

EPHESIANS 5: 8 – For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of Light.

Ê-PHÊ-SÔ 5: 8 – Vả, lúc trước anh em đang còn tối tăm, nhưng bây giờ đã nên người sáng láng trong Chúa. Hãy bước đi như các con sáng láng.

– Walking as children of Light means we know what we talk, how to behave, things to do and to avoid, know who we would be friend or stay far away.

– Therefore if any verse that was explained in a way that make Christians to be a fool, we know right away that it had been interpreted wrongly, like the one we just quoted above:

MATTHEW 5: 39 – But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

MA-THI-Ơ 5: 39 – Song ta bảo các ngươi, đừng chống cự kẻ dữ. Trái lại, nếu ai vả má bên hữu ngươi, hãy đưa má bên kia cho họ luôn.

– Now let us study this verse together to understand its real meaning that some Christians have been confused about it.

– This verse has two parts: the first is the command not to resist an evil person. The second one is the command to offer another cheek when being slapped on the face.

– When Jesus talked about an evil person, He meant either a descendant of Satan or a person who was under his influence, or in other words, his minion.

– To both of them, Christians should try our best to avoid them as far as possible. That is the real meaning of not resist an evil person. For if they were as such and we Christians kept being near them and not resist them, we made ourselves being fool for sooner or later we would be hurt by them, physically, financially, emotionally or spiritually.

– To make certain of this meaning, we should know that this verse is not the only verse that God taught us about an evil person. There are other verses, too, in the Bible, to command Christians to stay far away from that kind of people.

PROVERBS 4: 14-15 – Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it, do not travel on it; Turn away from it and pass on.

CHÂM NGÔN 4: 14-15 – Chớ vào trong lối kẻ hung dữ, và đừng đi đường kẻ gian ác. Hãy tránh đường ấy, chớ đi ngang qua nó; Hãy xây khỏi nó và cứ đi thẳng.

– That’s is the way to resist an evil person according to the Bible’s teaching. God wants us to be wise in this life and a wise person should know when to stay far away from evil people.

PROBERBS 27: 12 – A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself; The simple pass on and are punished

CHÂM NGÔN 27: 12 – Người khôn khéo thấy trước sự tai hại, bèn lo ẩn núp mình; Còn kẻ ngu muội cứ đi qua, và phải mang lấy tai vạ.

– As we already know that whenever we study a verse, we must check throughout the Bible for other similar verses in order to understand its meaning fully and clearly. Unbelievers and devious people often use just one verse to mock us, criticize Christianity or deceive God’s children, that’s why we should never try to understand God’s commands with just one verse only.

– Sadly, many church ministers have not applied this method in Bible study and the consequences is Christians have been lead farther away from God’s truth in the modern time.

– Because God wants us to resist evil person by stay far away from him in order not to be hurt by such individual, so the Bible indicates that Christians who know to do that right way are blessed by the Lord:

PSALM 1: 1 – Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.

THI THIÊN 1: 1 – Phước cho người nào chẳng theo mưu kế của kẻ dữ, chẳng đứng trong đường tội nhân, không ngồi chỗ của kẻ nhạo báng.

– So, we will blessed if we don’t stand in the path of sinners, especially the path of evil people, for when doing that we obey both His command of not to resist them and at the same time to stay far away from them.

– The second part of the verse in Matthew 5: 39 is to offer the other cheek when being slapped on the face.

– After we understand that not to resist an evil person is to stay far away from him, then we also understand that whoever slapped our faces is not the same person like the one we have avoided. So, if the person who slapped our faces was not an evil person, then certainly he was who misunderstood us and slapped us by mistake.

– At this point we should remember the main principle for studying the Bible, that is to be wise and know how to live this life joyfully and intelligently. So we should understand that even a mentally ill person tends to avoid being slapped on the face a second time, and surely we Christians are not mentally unstable in our mind, therefore Jesus’ teaching has a speciall meaning that we should understand like this:

– Physically speaking, the person who slapped our faces did that by mistake or by misunderstanding, and the offering of the other cheek would show that we forgave him and not upset about that.

– Metaphorrically speaking, slap on the face is the hurt that someone caused to us by mistake or by misunderstanding, and offering the other cheek means that we did not remember or dwell on it in order to pay it back.

– That is the love in Christian’s attitude that Jesus wanted us to have while living this life on earth. He wanted us to be loving people and at the same time being wise enough to know how to behave properly and sensible among unbelievers so that we can profess and glorify Him publicly.

– A fool cannot glorify anyone and an unwise person cannot be good witness. Therefore Christians should remember the main principle of becoming wise by the Scripture when dealing with evil people who abused or misused Bible’s verses for their devious scam over Christians.

– Because of their intention to take advantage over Christians or to harm us by abusing God’s Word in that way, may God judge them accordingly. May their sin catch up with them one day and cause them the same damage that they had done to us.

– In the mean time, may God bless us with more understanding of His words so that we would become wiser with each passing day on Earth, to know exactly what should be done and what should be avoided so that we can glorify Him the best with our lives. May God reward us abundantly when trying to do so. Amen.

(will be continued)