Time magazine published 10 top fears in 2007, they included flying, being alone and death, amongst others.
I’m not afraid of any of those things.
I’m afraid of getting the gospel wrong.
In the first chapter of Galatians, Paul slams the Galatians for turning to a different gospel (Gal 1:6). In most of his other letters, Paul starts off by thanking God for the church (Eph 1, 1 Cor, Phil 1). But in Galatians, he gets straight to the point, and he makes it a number of times throughout the book. He finishes off this part of the letter by saying:
If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
It is a full on message that Paul is preaching.
Getting the Word of God wrong is something that we all must avoid! We must strive in our teaching to be sound in doctrine and make sure that what we teach is the truth, so that as many as possible can come into a relationship with Christ.
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What do you think about words of wisdom that are created today? (non-biblical ones). That’s something I’ve been thinking about, how they can be really helpful, and often more attractive than biblical messages, but potentially dangerous?
e.g. One I’ve recently heard, that I like a lot:
Love a few people a lot ways,
Love a lot of people a few ways.
and then there’s the danger that you start treating it as doctrine.
Especially when you create a study with an agenda, and then go about looking for relevant bible verses, I think that can be quite dangerous as well.
It’s always dangerous to try and fit the Bible around what you want to say.
A good understanding of the Bible as a whole is very important in trying to answer questions like that. And making sure that whatever verses you do match to your topic, that you use them in context.
That being said, I think it is helpful to critique quotes like that from the Bible, so that you can still get good meaning, but understand that those quotes aren’t doctrine.
Thanks for your thoughts!
I was really surprised by some of the things that made it into Time’s Top 10 Fears. Intimacy at No. 2? Love? Success? Hmmmm…
Yeah, the way they got the fears was strange, they explain it in the article.
I found it quite interesting that even some people would view success as a fear…
On the fear of success, there’s this great episode of Seinfeld in which George confesses to a counsellor he’s afraid of success, but only because he is convinced: “God would never let me be successful. He’ll kill me before he’ll let me be successful!”
George’s fears: God, death, success…all in the top 10
Nice connection, I must admit, I am not much of a Seinfeld fan…