The Inconvenient Faith - Peter Part 3

"...there are some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other scriptures. Therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall from your own stability. (2 Peter 3:16-17)"

The warning here is clear. Be careful of what you read and interpret from scripture, be sure study and obey it in light of the Word of God. It is easy to read snippets of a manuscript and derive a separate meaning, than if you read the whole in the light of what the author is trying to convey.

It would be like taking Matt 26:11, "The poor you will always have with you...". So some may jump to conclusions and say since the poor will be always with us, I guess we shouldn't do anything to help. Nonsense! Of course not!

Through the centuries, some have fell from the Church and to find a more "convenient" interpretation of scripture. We can not afford to fall into this trap. Christ gave his Church the teaching authority through the office of Peter to help us understand these things that may be "hard to understand".

The harsh reality is that what the Church may say, won't be convenient to how we would rather have the scripture worded. I heard Steve Ray say when discussing John 6 to someone, "If you don't agree with the scripture, why don't you tell Jesus how he should have said that."

We must let our Theology shape who We are, not shape our Theology to who We want to be.

"Happy those who do not follow the counsel of the wicked, Nor go the way of sinners, nor sit in company with scoffers.
Rather, the law of the LORD is their joy; God's law they study day and night.
They are like a tree planted near streams of water, that yields its fruit in season; Its leaves never wither; whatever they do prospers.
But not the wicked! They are like chaff driven by the wind.
Therefore the wicked will not survive judgment, nor will sinners in the assembly of the just.
The LORD watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin. (Psalm 1)"