Editing God …

There was red ink all over the paper.

My high school journalism teacher had just handed back to me the first news story I had ever written. My heart sank when I saw all the red.

But my spirits rose after reading all the marks and remarks my teacher had made. He didn’t change my story, he had improved it and his notes taught me how to write better. The more I wrote, the less red ink appeared on my paper.

When working as a newspaper reporter, I did have an instance of confronting an editor who didn’t improve my story, but changed it. He took out key elements of my story that made the report true rather than enhancing anything I had written. That couldn’t be tolerated.

As Christians, sometimes we’re like that editor with God’s Word. One passage as an example is the Apostle Paul’s writing in 1 Timothy 6:6, which states, “Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.”

Here’s how we like to edit that verse: “Yet contentment is itself great wealth.”

We like the idea of being content, and we have our own idea of how to achieve contentment. It’s different than what the original verse states. We tend to think contentment comes through security, comfort, certain relationships, and indulgence. That’s why we “edit” the verse, which points to a different source for pairing with contentment for achieving a rich life:

“Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.”

We can edit God’s Word to suit ourselves, but we won’t have the results or power of His Word. We’ll have the weakness and failure of replacing Truth with desire, opinion, and preference.

What are you doing with God’s Word?

Scotty