How to mislead your friends, family, and thousands of others …

“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right,” is what the tweet stated. I’ve seen the same statement posted on Facebook, on calendars, and even as bumper stickers.

The problem is, that platitude shared as wisdom can be as wrong as it sometimes is right.

Sometimes, the wise thing to do is to wait because “the time” isn’t right. Often, God Himself has us wait.

My disdain for platitudes that preach untruths or half truths is multiplied by our social media culture. If a few people plastered a well-intentioned bumper sticker on their car, the misleading of others likely wouldn’t be too great.

That’s not how it is today.

Now, a platitude that teaches something that is biblically incorrect can be communicated to thousands, tens of thousands, or more as fast as it takes to click a “send” or “post” button. So the person who thought something sounded good, but didn’t take any time to examine the biblical veracity of the platitude, can wind up sharing (and, therefore, teaching) biblically incorrect ideas or concepts as if they were true and beneficial.

Compounding that ugly truth are a couple more ugly issues. First, the average Christian never reads his or her Bible outside of a church service. The simple fact is, they tend to be so biblically illiterate they don’t know a biblically untrue platitude from pretty sounding prose that teaches the opposite of what the Word of God actually says. Add to that Christians read and share more platitudes than scripture and you have a proliferation of false teaching.

A biblically inaccurate platitude doesn’t sound so dangerous. It’s just a sentence, shared with good intention, how much damage could it do?

Satan didn’t use very many sentences with Eve, and some sounded close to what God had actually said.

Just with a twist.

Just enough twist to redirect Eve.

And we know how much trouble that caused!

Scotty