Bulletin Articles
“Stop over-thinking it”
Categories: discussing, inferences, reason, Study the WordCan you picture Jesus’ audience during His sermon on the mount (Matt. 5-7)? Can you imagine then interrupting Him every five seconds to have Him explain what He just said? That would be odd as His message was given clearly and needed no clarification. When it comes to God’s word, people rarely have a problem with what was actually said – rather, they often have a problem with who it was said to.
Stop and think about the tree of good and evil in the garden (Gen. 2:17). What was wrong with the fruit in and of itself? Beyond the spiritual consequences of eating the fruit, was it going to taste bad? Was it unhealthy? Why did God make it pleasing to the eye? Why not have it covered with thorns so that it would hurt to even touch it? None of those question matter. The fact is, Adam and Eve knew which fruit to avoid and yet they ate it – period.
Over-thinking leads to over-analyzing, which often leads to missing the obvious. Those in Acts 17 searched the scriptures to know if what Paul taught was true (verse 11). They did not consult those deemed “more” scholarly. I have studied with many people and exposed their false ideas with scripture. Rather than accepting God’s word or studying further to confirm my argument, they often return to their religious leaders. I rarely hear from them again. When the Bible speaks, there is no need to hear the opinions of man.
Just last week, a TV viewer disregarded what I said Matthew 19:9 was teaching. He argued that the Greek word for “except” does not mean exception. This can be quickly solved by going to I Corinthians 14:5 where the same word in the Greek for “except” is used, and one can see that it means an exception. Searching the scriptures provided the correct answer.
Over-thinking a Bible verse can be as harmful as never reading it. We should be wary when we hear someone say, “I know it says that, but that’s not really what it means.”
Chuck
