Simple truth

We can sometimes take what God has said, through his word, and interpret it to a fault because of our desires, naivety and in some cases lack of trust, respect and simple obedience to his word.

On putting the dinner plates on the table my wife, Cate, stated, “these are hot, do not touch”. Little did our daughter know the plates had been on the hob and had become scalding hot; she didn’t need to know, the safe boundary had verbally been set. However, our daughter had interpreted her mother’s statement as “these are hot, I’ve just removed them from the dishwasher, do not touch”. Curious as to how hot a plate can be coming from the dishwasher our daughter touched them and burnt her finger badly.

The command Cate gave to our daughter was easy to understand and simple to keep. But, we sometimes fall into the trap of trying to reimagine what “your mother” may actually be saying; because from the time it took her to bring the plates to the table the goal posts must have changed, and it now means something slightly different. In an everyday context we often take simple commands from scripture and reimagine them for the culture we live in, from the experiences we have had or even an opinion of a friend. We allow the world and its culture to define how we act upon God’s word, instead of us allowing His word to define our culture and how we live.

Like the good Father he is, he protects us and keeps us within healthy boundaries, so we can fully enjoy life and be free to act from who he has made us. The corruption of sin, and the high-jacking and counterfeiting of God’s creation by Satan, can quite often cause us to see and interpret things from a deceived, distorted and emotive perspective.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Romans 1:21-25 ESV

We need to guard ourselves from futile thinking, the philosophies of men, and the way of fools. We need to bring all things to the simplicity of the Gospel, the authoritative Word of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit [2 Timothy 3:16, Isaiah 5:20]; we need to train ourselves in discerning the scriptures through study and meditation [Hebrews 5:11-14, Psalm 119:11]; and maintain a very strong, close and intimate connection with Jesus Christ.

As Paul wrote in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians (10:3-6), let’s reject every shameful, hidden thing of dishonesty and refuse to walk in manipulation and deceitful persuasions; and let us not distort the Word of God. Instead, we bring the simple truth that is in the Word, knowing that God can see all that we do, including the motives, and desires, of our hearts. [1 John 5:2-4, 2 Timothy 2:15]

: Matt Hall :