Dangerous preaching

Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar. – Proverbs 30v5-6

Do not add to God’s words. Surely we can all agree with that. None of us are going to take out a pen and add to the Bible with the claim that our words hold equal authority with His. That would be unthinkable.

Does that mean that we are not guilty of adding to God’s word? Can we hold ourselves aloft and take pride that this is one sin that we avoid?

I am not so sure. I have been saved a while. I have heard a lot of preachers. I have preached a lot of messages. I have heard a great amount of good and blessed things. My heart has been touched and my spirit moved many times. God has used the preaching of His word to change my life over and over again. The vast majority of what I have heard has been truly Bible based and Holy Spirit directed.

However, I have to admit that it is not always true. Sometimes I have sat under preaching where the preacher’s agenda overrode the word of God. I don’t like to think about it, but I am pretty sure I have done it myself. Now every things said from the pulpit is ‘thus saith the Lord.’ Sometimes is can be ‘thus saith the preacher.’

We need to be careful about making our word equal to God’s word in our preaching, teaching, and decision making. In my life I have come across quite of bit of extra-biblical teaching and preaching. ‘Do this, don’t do that. Go here, don’t go there. Dress this way. Read this Bible’ and on and on and on.

I recently lost some more missionary support. That is nothing new. This loss of support was unusual in that neither reason given to break off support had any Bible basis. It was based on traditions and preference. That is fine, but it was presented as though I was the one walking away from God’s word.

Remember, we preach ‘thus saith the Lord,’ not ‘thus saith me and my church.’