Did you ever hear the saying, “Money is the root of all evil”? Think it is from the Bible?
Well… it isn’t. And there are a number of “biblical” sayings that are not from the Bible.
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Most people do not know one thing from the Bible, but they think they do because they have heard people say, “The Bible says…”.
And those people don’t know what they are talking about because they are just repeating what someone else told them is in the Bible, who heard it from someone else who also doesn’t know what the Bible really says.
They just heard it from somewhere.
People easily believe what they like to hear, and adamantly refuse to believe what they don’t want to hear, and the sad thing about that is most of the time what they don’t want to hear is the truth.
Are you familiar with these sayings, supposedly from the Bible?
“God helps those who help themselves.”;
“Cleanliness is next to godliness.”;
“The Lord works in mysterious ways.”
Sorry to burst anyone’s bubble, but none of these are from the Bible.
The one about money being the root of all evil is close- what the Bible does say is that the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). When you know what the Bible really says, it makes a whole lotta difference, doesn’t it?
There is nothing wrong with money, or having money, or even wanting to earn more money. Where things go wrong is when the money becomes more important to you than God or family. Many of the holiest people in the Bible were rich- Abraham, Job, and Joseph were very rich, just to name a few.
And as for the lie that God helps those who help themselves, well, this is one of my favorite ones to hate. Not only is it NOT from the Bible, but it leads people to reject God!
In Joel 2:32, which is repeated in Acts and Romans, we are told that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved: it doesn’t say all who try on their own will be helped. We are not told anywhere in the Bible to depend on our own power or strength, but rather the opposite- we are to depend on God!
God doesn’t want us to leave him out of it, but rather to include him from the start. Yeah, sure, God will help us as we go through life, but only when we go through life the way he says we should. If we want to do it on our own, God will let us; but doing it on our own is rejecting God, and when we reject him, he rejects us. Now, because he is a forgiving and compassionate God, after failing miserably on our own, if we humble ourselves, repent of our sin (of rejecting him), and ask him to forgive us and help us, he will be all-in for that.
But if you want to do it on your own, don’t expect him to help.
The “biblical” wisdom about cleanliness and God working in mysterious ways is not found anywhere in the Bible. It is true that we are told God is so far above us we can never understand him (Isaiah 55:8-9), and there are laws God gave us to obey that are called Chukim, meaning laws that we cannot understand why God gave them to us, such as the showbread. So, okay, yes- there are mysterious things about God, but he doesn’t work mysteriously. In fact, Moses said it best in Deuteronomy 30:11, when he told the people that the Torah is not difficult to do or to understand.
So, nu? …what’s my point?
It is this: if you don’t read the Bible for yourself, so you know what is in there and what isn’t, like Isaiah said (Isaiah53:6), you will be easily led astray.
When a cop stops you and tells you that you broke a traffic law, and you say you weren’t aware of that law, you know what their reply will be, right?
Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
When you find yourself facing God on Judgement Day (and we all will) and he asks you, “Why didn’t you do what I said to do?”, your only answer will be “But I did what they said I should do- how was I to know I was rejecting you?”
Expect to hear this:
Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
You can be ignorant, or you can be saved, but you can’t be saved from your ignorance.
Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!