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The Bible is one of God’s great blessings to us, as He has given it to let us know Him and how we may be reconciled to Him.
But such a weighty gift requires a weighty approach to it, and unfortunately, that approach isn’t always taken.
It’s easy to get in the habit of cherry picking Bible verses, ignoring their context so we can twist them into the meaning we want them to have. Then, because we have a Bible verse behind our argument, it looks like our words have authority.
That’s why we all have to have a vigilant spirit like the Bereans, who checked the Scriptures to verify the truth of what they were hearing (Acts 17:11).
One of the best ways we can learn to have such discernment is by training ourselves on commonly misused verses. When you see the tricks that are used to pull a verse out of context, you’re more equipped to see through the next misuse.
For the purpose of this article, I’ve chosen to avoid the verses about salvation—verses like John 3:16, Romans 10:9-10, etc. Those could be an article unto themselves (and probably will be), and so we’re going in another direction today.
Rather, these are verses that are far more likely to come up in day-to-day conversation.
These are the verses you hear people quote when talking about life, and current events, and how to make sense of the world—but since they are so often used incorrectly, that leads to a rather poor understanding of it all.
So, without further ado…
Here are the 6 most misused Bible verses of our day
The Lucky Charms
Philippians 4:13
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
This one has been used as encouragement for everything from winning a football game, to passing a test, to overcoming an illness, to finding a job, and more.
Obviously, God cares about the things we do in our lives. He answers our prayers, and He is with us in the ups and downs. But are those the kinds of “things” this verse has in mind?
In context…
Paul was speaking about his ability to endure any hardship while ministering to Christ’s church (4:11-12), because Jesus strengthens those who serve Him. Ultimately, his point was about contentment and trust, that no matter what you go through when following Christ, you can be okay because you know He’ll carry you through it.
That’s a profoundly comforting thought, but we can’t divorce it from the idea of serving God. So many times the popular usage of this verse is about God following us around and giving us a boost, rather than about Him giving us strength to endure as we follow Jesus through life’s ups and downs.
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
The graduation card special—God has plans for you! He’s going to make everything work out for you, because you have a future and a hope!
It sounds so comforting. But while God is guiding our lives and using us for His purposes, is it really this straightforward? What do we do with this verse when tragedy hits and it isn’t getting better any time soon?
In context…
The context tells you that this promise actually meant a lot of hardship for a lot of people. They were headed for 70 years of captivity under Babylon and Persia, with most of them taken from their homeland (29:10).
God’s promise was given to them as a people far more than it was to them as individuals.
So, God plans to bless His people, but in the history of the church we know that has meant persecution for some, poverty for others, and all kinds of cases of people getting by through tough times so the church can live to see a brighter day.
You and I could be in for such tough times, but we can know that God will reward our faithfulness by blessing those who come after us, so long as we seek Him with all our hearts (29:13).
The Excuses
Matthew 7:1
“Judge not, that you be not judged.”
Believe it or not, this one seems to have fallen out of favor as the transitional era of tolerance has ended. “The Bible says ‘don’t judge’” was just a catchphrase weaponized by those who wanted to set themselves up as the judges, resulting in “cancel culture.”
However, for a time it was probably the most misused verse of all. Any Christian who disagreed with any popular sin, such as LGBT causes, abortion, and marijuana, was told they were violating the Bible’s teachings on judgment.
In context…
This section is not about judging, but hypocrisy. In the very next verse, Jesus cautioned His listeners that their standard of measure for others would be used to judge them. Even in telling them to pull the plank from their eye, he was telling them to make sure their lives were in order before trying to fix others.
Judgment isn’t just acceptable—it’s unavoidable. Every person makes judgments every day. That’s why we should be cautious to ground our judgments in the truth and not hold people to a standard we won’t follow.
If God says an act is wrong, and we echo Him, and we are willing to apply His standards to our own lives, Matthew 7 hasn’t been violated when we call that act wrong.
Matthew 9:10
“Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples.”
Jesus did, indeed, eat with sinners. The religious leaders of His day were appalled that Jesus would go to the untouchables of their society to minister to them.
This has become the new sidekick to “Don’t judge,” as “Jesus ate with sinners” is pulled out to tell Christians to temper or silence our objections to those who flaunt sins like those mentioned in the previous point.
In context…
Two verses later, Jesus told us why He was spending time around these people: He viewed them as sick people who needed to be healed (9:12).
That’s the major difference between what Jesus did and what the people who use this argument do. They use “Jesus ate with sinners” to leave people comfortable in their sins. He didn’t endorse their sins, or tell them they were fine just as they are because “we’re all broken.” He showed them their sins and called them to repentance.
We should be engaging the world just as He did, and that means both associating with those who are far from God and telling them the truth of their spiritual condition. Both are acts of Christ-like love.
The Culture War Weapons
Galatians 3:28
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
This one has been used to justify some of the biggest progressive talking points of our day: feminism and egalitarianism in the church and home, mass immigration, the erasure of the concept of nations, etc.
In context…
In context, Paul is speaking about our salvation in Christ and how it is not through heritage or Law-keeping. In fact, he said right before this that we are in Christ through faith and baptism (v. 26-27), and he said immediately after that that those things make us all children of Abraham (v. 29).
So, the point is that in Jesus there is no caste system of salvation. Everybody who has put their faith in Christ is equally saved by Him.
It does not mean that men cease to be men, women cease to be women, and so forth, thanks to the waters of baptism. The same Paul who penned this verse still considered himself a Jew (Romans 9:3-4) and wrote all the verses we have about male leadership and women’s roles (1 Corinthians 14:34, 1 Timothy 2:9ff, 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, etc.).
Matthew 22:39
“And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
This one has been turned into a bludgeon to swing at anyone who disagrees with the status quo of our day. During the Covid years, you had to do everything somebody told you to or else you didn’t love your neighbor. Others will say you have to respect trans pronouns or else you don’t love your neighbor. Still others will say that you can’t oppose mass immigration or you don’t love your neighbor.
Obviously, Jesus did not have all of that in mind when He called this the second greatest commandment.
In context…
This verse doesn’t just require immediate context, but the context of the whole Bible. Warriors who “loved their neighbors as themselves” killed people in the Old Testament. Prophets who “loved their neighbors as themselves” spoke uncomfortable truths to people.
“Love” doesn’t mean “give them a warm and fuzzy feeling.” It means that we are to care about our neighbor, and look out for their good. And that means all of our neighbors.
Sometimes we have to choose which one to prioritize. The idea that it’s an easy “Just shut up and take whatever you’re told” command is nowhere found in the text.
Don’t miss the point
What these twisted verses show us is that eisegesis is easy to fall into if we’re not careful with the text. Eisegesis is the practice of reading meaning into the text, rather than taking the meaning out of it.
Whether it’s our own experiences, the culture around us, or what we’ve always been taught, we have to do our best to strip away what we think a verse means or what we want it to mean, and instead look at it in context to see what it really means.
The better we get at that, the more the Bible will make sense as a whole, as we can fit verses together in a cohesive manner to give us a clearer picture of the God we serve.
Got others to add to the list? Got suggestions for the piece on salvation verses? Leave me a comment below!
Notes
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This week’s Think Deeper Podcast continues the discussion of gluttony, obesity, and the Christian that I started with last week’s article. Listen on YouTube or search Think Deeper on your podcast app
It would be a lot harder to take verses out of context if Bible publishers just left the verses out, as they were never part of the original text to begin with. Many seem to forget that fact.
Our fallen nature to justify our sins by twisting God's Word to meet our shortcomings. Wisdom begins by reading Scripture in context and discerning with the help of the Spirit. I continue to think Do Not Judge is the most misused. It is what I experienced most when leaving the United Methodists to find a Bible believing church.