Cunning linguists

2 Corinthians 4:1-4

          So, the title is perhaps a bit misleading but this passage notes that we refuse to practise cunning or to falsify God’s word. We are always graced by God's mercy, so it is terribly wrong to try and manipulate Holy Scripture, create man made laws that bind people or try to make ourselves look holier than someone else.

        I am an strong advocate of reading scripture with great clarity. Looking at passages with the eyes of the people at the time, their original language, their philosophy and the social context. It brings scripture alive. It also leaves less room for cherry picking scriptures to fit our own agenda or to justify our own lives or practices of faith.  For millennia Scripture has been mistranslated, misinterpreted, misused and sworn by. When that fails you can then bolster your position with spurious arguments, old philosophies and 'tradition'. This is not the path to holiness for anyone.  This is cunning and this is falsifying God's word. To what end? Maintenance of power? Setting yourself up as holier and more righteous than others?

         It is necessary to read Scripture in simplicity and simultaneously understanding the depths and richness of its cultural context. What is really necessary to be faithful and holy is to love as Jesus loved and obey the two great commandments that Jesus gave.  All the rest are stories and background information of faithful people and faithful lives, stories of a love story of God and her people.

         For some, being a cunning linguist seems a natural and perfectly acceptable way to holiness. In truth, holiness comes from mercy, faith, hope and love.

Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practise cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.