When you play free and loose with Biblical interpretations you can end up very confused.

"I don't think that means what you think it means".

Khanyi Mbau is an actress, TV and radio personality, model and a terrible exegete from South Africa.  Recently in an interview she was questioned about her cosmetic surgeries.  Having grown up in a Christian home she used the Bible to justify her ornamental procedures.  Rather than try to explain what she said, I will let her explain how the Bible vindicates her choices.

She said, “The Bible says I am who I am, through Christ who strengthens me.  If God is your father, it means you’re a god because God gives birth to a god.  So, if you’re my father, why can I not be a god and the Lord says we’re all gods among each other. What does a god do?  A god creates because my father created this earth through His image. 

“I can create my own version, my own earth, through my own vision, as long as it does not affect the next person, but it is my journey. So in my mind, the image and how I see myself is what I’m creating in the physical because everything first happens in the spiritual before it happens in the physical.

“So how I see myself is the most beautiful woman – flawless, filtered every single day of my life.  And that is the problem, once we start seeing ourselves as creators of our time, we will reach our goal because you’re not looking at someone for inspiration, you’re remembering who you are through the God that created you.”

Come again! 

When we play free and loose with Biblical interpretations we can end up with some pretty strange conclusions.   With a vague reference to a passage of scripture that is taken out of context, given a little twist and made into a great sounding cliché that has nothing whatsoever to do with the word of God, she can justify her plastic surgery. 

Not all misapplications of scripture are as misguided as Khanyi’s but it happens even in churches that claim to be committed to the authority of the Word of God.  I recently listened to, or at least tried to listen to, a sermon from a preacher that equated the Hindu practice of Kumbh Mela finding the universal by bathing in the Ganges River, with the Biblical teaching of being born again.  The speaker went on to say, “Jesus was God’s way of showing us how to live a life being connected to God.” 

But before we cast any exegetical stones we need to look at some of the passages that are not saying what a lot of Christians claim that they mean.

Luke 11:9-10 is not a blank check from heaven.  Ask, seek and knock and you will get what you want or at least that is the way we hear that passage portrayed.  But the grammar indicates keep seeking, asking and knocking.  In view of Jesus’ comments in the context about the Holy Spirit perhaps this passage has more to do with our passions changing as we seek God than getting a new BMW.

Matthew 18:20 is not about a few folks gathering for prayer meeting.  When “two or three have gathered” together is about church discipline not about the small groups.

Jeremiah 29:11 is a promise that God has all kinds of goodies just waiting to pour out on us.  Not so much.  Yes, the Lord has a plan for the people to whom He is speaking and that plan is 70 years of captivity in a place they don’t want to live under a tyrant that roasted Ahab the son of Kolaiah in a fire.  Taken out of context this verse is all warm and fuzzy.  But in context it is a call to patient endurance of difficulty to accomplish the greater plan of God

2 Chronicles 7:14 is God’s plan to save America right?  Actually, that verse is just a part of a sentence, it is the answer to a specific prayer Solomon prayed in chapter 6.  Solomon is promised that if God brings calamity on His chosen people (Not America by the way) and if the people repent God will relent from the calamity He has sent.   If you insist that verse 14 applies to America then I insist that verse 15 applies as well.  Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.  If you will use this passage as a formula for national revival and repentance then you must arrange for every US citizen that needs to repent to go to Jerusalem to the Wailing Wall and there repent.  We ought to preach and teach repentance, but let’s not do it by taking scripture out of context. 

Phil 4:13 tells me “I can do anything through Christ who gives me strength”.  One young college football player became a bit of a Christian pop star by writing this verse in his eye black. And if you take it out of context and ignore the original language that is exactly what this verse means.  But Paul was talking about dealing with the hardships of ministry as related to poverty or sufficiency.  He refers in a preceding verse to ‘secret’ a word from ancient mystery religions associated with specific divine insight or knowledge.   This verse has nothing whatsoever to do with football, weight lifting or passing a Finnish language exam.  It is about the strength to learn to live with the adversity that is the result of Paul’s apostolic ministry.  If you say it applies to every situation a Christian faces then I must ask in response, “Was Christ’s strength sufficient for this young man as a pro to beat the Steelers but not the Patriots?  That is a puny strength if you ask me.   

I recall a troubling statement from my hermeneutics professor.  “There is only one correct interpretation of scripture and that is what was in the mind of the Holy Spirit when He inspired the text.”  God’s word is no longer God’s word when it no longer says what God meant it to say.  How many times have we take a favorite passage out of context to say what we want it to say?  When we play loose with God’s Word whether we are a model or athlete or a preacher/teacher we can end up in some pretty strange places.