Read the Bible for Yourself!

14 “Verses” not in the Bible – and One that Might Be

14. “Honk if you love Jesus!”
13. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
12. “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”
11. “Spare the rod and spoil the child.”

10. “Money is the root of all evil.”
9. “God moves in mysterious ways.”
8. “Pride goes before a fall.”
7. “Everything happens for the best.”

6. “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.”
5. “Once saved, always saved.”
4. “Love the sinner, hate the sin.”
3. “Be in the world but not of the world.”

2. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
1. “God helps those who help themselves.”
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”

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14. “Honk if you love Jesus!” (1/13/14) Read Jeremiah 7:1-10; Matthew 6:1-6.

What the Bible really says: Matthew 6:1-2 – “Be careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven. Thus whenever you do charitable giving, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, they have their reward.”

Have you ever wanted the scripture reference for “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”? Or maybe “God helps those who help themselves”? We’ll see those two and a dozen others, including today’s nonexistent “verse,” “Honk if you love Jesus!”

I admit that you probably don’t think “Honk if you love Jesus!” is in the Bible. But give it another 50 years, and many people will believe it is. What the Bible actually says is that God is not fooled by noisy displays of false piety. I especially like Matthew 6:2 – “Don't blow a trumpet like the hypocrites do in the streets so that they will be praised by people.” The next time you see this bumper sticker, just wave.


13. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” (1/14/14) Read Mark 9:43-48; Matthew 23:23-33.

What the Bible really says: Mark 9:43-48 – “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life crippled than to have two hands and go into hell, to the unquenchable fire. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out! It is better to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.”

If we have good intentions but things don’t turn out the way they should, we say, “It’s the thought that counts.” If they have good intentions but things don’t turn out the way they should, we say, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” As a matter of fact, the Bible doesn’t say either one of those things. The Bible says pretty clearly that the road to hell is paved with sin. Don’t go there.


12. “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” (1/15/14) Read Mark 7:1-8, 14-23.

What the Bible really says: Mark 7:14-15, 20-23 – Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand. There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles him.” ... He said, “What comes out of a person defiles him. For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly. All these evils come from within and defile a person.”

Fellow-reader Susan writes to say she has a friend who calls these non-Biblical “verses” the book of “Second Opinions.” HAHAHahaha!

Today’s verse from 2 Opinions is “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” I was surprised to learn that this saying, in the exact form that we have it, seems to originate with our own John Wesley (see Sermon 88, On Dress), according to Thomas Kidd, a history professor at Baylor University in Texas. Wesley had it in quotation marks, however, which suggests that it was already widely used. Some websites go on and on about this “verse” and Peter’s vision in Acts 10. Bulletin: Biblical cleanness has just about nothing to do with cleanliness. Clean in the Bible means “ritually acceptable,” and unclean means “ritually unacceptable.” Washing in water is, as a matter of fact, one way of making some items clean, but no amount of scrubbing could make a pig clean. Jesus says the same thing is true of us: if our hearts are not clean, no amount of scrubbing will help us.


11. “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” (1/16/14) Read Proverbs 13:24.

What the Bible really says: Proverbs 13:24 – The one who spares his rod hates his child, but the one who loves his child is diligent in disciplining him.

“Spare the rod and spoil the child” is an old saw that apparently originated with Samuel Butler, 17th century British poet, in his satirical poem “Hudibras.” I think it probably says more about the speaker than about the Bible. One of my sons had to be spanked in order to get his attention, and another one rarely needed more than a strong word. Consequently, I have no particular horse in this race, and I am amused that translation teams are all over the map on Proverbs 13:24. “Spare the rod” clearly comes from this verse, but there’s nothing in it about “spoiling the child.”

Remember that hate/love is a Hebrew idiom that rarely contrasts real hate and real love; instead it normally means “love less” and “love more.”


10. “Money is the root of all evil.” (1/17/14) Read 1 Timothy 6:6-11, 17-19.

What the Bible really says: 1 Timothy 6:9-10 – Those who long to be rich, however, stumble into temptation and a trap and many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evils. Some people in reaching for it have strayed from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pains.

Of course we all know that Paul did not say, “Money is the root of all evil.” Paul said, “The love of money” – which is a very different thing – “is the root of all evil.” In fact, Paul goes on in the same passage to give instructions on how the wealthy are to put money to good use, which he hardly would have done if he thought money was intrinsically evil.

I was surprised to learn today that the Revised Version, daughter of the King James Version, says “all kinds of evil,” and a number of modern English translations follow the RV. I looked at the Greek and at The Expositor’s Greek New Testament, and “all kinds of” just isn’t in there. Paul wasn’t given to qualifying remarks; however, I’m sure that if we asked him, he’d admit that plenty of evil springs from other sources as well.


9. “God moves in mysterious ways.” (1/20/14) Read Isaiah 55:6-9, Isaiah 65:1-3a, and Jeremiah 29:10-14.

What the Bible really says: Isaiah 65:1-2 – “I made myself available to those who did not ask for me; I appeared to those who did not look for me. I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’ to a nation that did not invoke my name. I spread out my hands all day long to my rebellious people, who lived in a way that is morally unacceptable, and who did what they desired. Jeremiah 29:11-14a – For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope. When you call out to me and come to me in prayer, I will hear your prayers. When you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you. If you seek me with all your heart and soul, I will make myself available to you,’ says the Lord. ‘

Isaiah 55:6-7 shows that the reason we can’t understand God is that we are wicked and unrighteous. “My thoughts are not your thoughts” is a criticism of God’s people, not a boast about God’s superiority. (God is superior, of course, but I don’t think that’s what this passage is mainly about.) In Isaiah 65 and Jeremiah 29, God seems to say we could understand his ways if we would just listen. God calls us all the time; we don’t listen. God promises to let himself be found; we don’t search. Is it any wonder that we think “God moves in mysterious ways”?


8. “Pride goes before a fall.” (1/21/14) Read Proverbs 16:18.

What the Bible really says: Proverbs 16:18 – Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

“Pride goes before a fall” is one of those sayings that are close enough to what the Bible says that it may seem like quibbling to point out that it’s not actually in the Bible. The problem is the slippery slope. If we allow this one, what’s next?


7. “Everything happens for the best.” (1/22/14) Read Genesis 50:20, Romans 6:1-2, 8:28-39.

What the Bible really says: Romans 8:28 – And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

You often hear that “Everything happens for the best.” Absolutely not; sin never happens for the best, and there’s nothing good about evil. God can use evil for good, as we see in Genesis 50:20, but all in all, God would much rather use good for good, as Paul reminds us in Romans 6:1-2. Today’s non-verse distorts several scriptural ideas, most importantly Romans 8:28, which tells that everything – which includes God’s use of evil and suffering – works together for good for those who love God. (I’m sorry to say that the Bible doesn’t say that everything works together for good for those who don’t love God.)


6. “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.” (1/23/14) Read Jeremiah 31:29-30, Ezekiel 18:1-4, Romans 3:23.

What the Bible really says: Ezekiel 18:1-4 – The word of the Lord came to me: “What do you mean by quoting this proverb concerning the land of Israel, “‘The fathers eat sour grapes And the children’s teeth become numb?’ “As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, you will not quote this proverb in Israel anymore! Indeed! All lives are mine – the life of the father as well as the life of the son is mine. The one who sins will die. Romans 5:12 – So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned.

“In Adam’s fall, we sinned all”is the New-England Primer’s (1690) summary of Augustinian doctrine on original sin. For an exhausting discussion of “doctrine” vs. “scripture,” go here. The summary is this: scripture is the word of God, and doctrine is something that the Church – or sometimes a church – teaches. When scripture is straightforward, doctrine usually lines up with it, and we should, too. When scripture is obscure or silent, doctrine tends to vary, so read the Bible for yourself, and make up your own mind.

What scripture says in numerous places is that we’ve all committed sins, and we die for our own sins. Augustine taught – and practically everyone in the Western Church follows this teaching – that because Adam sinned, we all inherit sin from him. This supposedly inherited sin is “original sin.” Augustine did not read Greek at all well, and he based his idea on Romans 5:12 in a Latin translation in which Romans 5:12 is simply wrong. Even the revered King James Version says that Adam’s sin resulted in death for all of us, not sin. In fact the doctrinal position of the Eastern Church is that we inherit death from Adam, not sin, so rest assured that whatever you believe on the topic of original sin, lots of Christians agree with you.

However, do not believe that “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all” is in the Bible, because it isn’t.


5. “Once saved, always saved” (1/24/14) Read John 15:1-10; Acts 1:15-17, 24-25; James 5:19-20.

What the Bible really says: John 15:1-2, 6 – “I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit. ... If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and are burned up.

“Once saved, always saved,” like yesterday’s non-verse, is a doctrinal point held by many Christians, even though it’s not stated anywhere in the Bible. Although there are five major points of traditional Calvinist doctrine, this one seems to be held by lots of “one-point Calvinists.” My perso