I wrote the following comment on a Sister's post about speaking the truth of God in her own words, not always adding scripture. God said "hide my word away in your heart", meaning know it well, this is not memorization but a deep understanding of His meanings.
If we were to memorize the word of God we would have to memorize it in Hebrew. All translations are in other languages and cannot possibly convey the deeper truths adequately.
Here was my comment:
"When I know the principles you speak of are in the Word, I have no need for the exact words, here's why: We do not have the original words anyway, everything we have is a translation. Also, all the translations are somewhat inadequate in that if the meaning of a Hebrew word could mean an entire sentence in English, we do not have nearly as clear an understanding as we need, which is why we need the Holy Spirit to help us when we read in our language."
The word "difficult" in 2 Timothy 3 means "ragingly insane", difficult doesn't really convey the real meaning God had for us. The intensity of "ragingly insane" is a much stronger and more intense meaning than merely "difficult." There are other words like this, that need clarification.
We can come to an understanding of the truth but only through the Holy Spirit and the study of His Word. We have some access to the original language and teachers who read Hebrew, so we have no excuse, all we have to do is ask the Holy Spirit to open the understanding.
James 1:4-6 "…4 Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.…"
Keep in mind too that unsaved people will not be able to interpret the scriptures correctly, they see the words with their worldly and unregenerate, unstable, deceitful minds.
1 Corinthians 2:13-15 "…13 And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment."
A good example of this is a story I will tell you about a person who interprets something the way they think and not the way someone else may think. Also, keep in mind that Americans are interpreting much of scripture based on a western mindset and the culture around them and not at all on what God actually said or meant.
A man received a letter from a woman about a particular date that she had incorrectly placed in the letter. The man corrected the woman in a matter-a-fact fashion in the letter, giving her the proper date of the function. There was nothing wrong, just a simple friendly correction to help clarify things.
The man received a letter back from the woman chiding him for his manner of delivery, not thanking him for his input to clarify matters.
The reason the woman saw a problem in "his delivery" was that if she were correcting someone it would have been in a rude and snarky fashion for the purpose of control over the emotions of others, so she could feel superior. Because this is the way she operates and her mind thinks when corrected she interpreted the man's correction as if he were acting the way she would normally act.
When we see irrational reactions to innocent responses we are watching a person who is revealing their own angst rather than anything wrong with the person who did the correcting.
Correction in our culture is the new "hate speech", any correction at all is seen as a personal attack no matter how kindly it is delivered.
We saw this in the time of Christ when He walked on the earth. The "religious leaders" saw Christ as a threat not because He was threatening them in any real way, but that He was a threat to the way they thought and the loss of control they would have over others if the people followed Christ.
Controlling people fear the loss of control of others as a threat. Even a bigger threat is the fear of others controlling them. They perceive every correction and every disagreement as a loss of control. This is the same mentality that the "religious leaders" had in the time of Christ and also the religious leaders of our time.
Those who wish to control others will always be irrational in their responses to simple and benign things. If there is any perceived loss of control they will rage, exact revenge, and demean those they fear the most, those who are confident and bold yet kind.
Boldness is seen as threatening and kindness is seen as weakness among those who are insecure. No one who is kind, rational and reasonable will feel a need to control anyone other than themselves. Those who love Christ will want to be controlled by Him, they want to walk as Christ walked.
This is why we see so much anguish in personal relationships today, most people are living according to their feelings and their own mindset rather than attempting to understand how others think and what they meant.
People interpret the Bible and people according to their own mindset and not according to God's meaning or the meanings of others with whom they are communicating.
In this modern world, people are so selfish and full of anger that they do not want to be bothered with understanding God or their friends and family. The only way the world has learned to get along with others is to "say nothing, do nothing and be nothing."
This is why Christians are perceived as troublemakers, they tell the truth in a kind way and the battle is on. They live according to God's Word and the jealousy of the unregenerate heart rages against us.
John 15:17-19 "17 This is My command to you: Love one another. 18 If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. 19 If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.…"
The world will hate us when they do harm to us because we do not respond in a way that makes them feel justified in their anger toward us. They will hate us because we don't retaliate but rather return love and kindness for their hatred. This angers them, they want us to be just like them so they can feel validated in hating us.
We know this is true because Christ did only good and showed only love to everyone and yet He was murdered by the very people He died to save.
Don't expect your kindness to change hearts in these end times, remain kind anyway. Don't expect people to appreciate your desire to walk with Christ, but walk with Christ anyway.
We are not called to change the minds of others, we are called to tell the truth, treat everyone with respect and reflect the love of Christ even when no one is loving us.
This is how we defeat the devil, we do not allow him and his minions to goad us into becoming like them.
Hallelujah, this is where the victory is, in our loving hearts where Christ dwells.
