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Looking for the Loopholes

I was reading a story about the comedian W. C. Fields. It said shortly before he died, he was seen flipping through the pages of a Bible. When asked what he was doing, Fields replied, “Looking for loopholes.”

I think we look for loopholes all the time, don’t we? Think about taxes. We try to find breaks and exceptions to paying. When we get a speeding ticket, we go to court and try to fight it using any means that the judge will accept.

But there is another area in our lives that we often try to find loopholes. That area is how we live our lives in light of what the Bible teaches. We are always looking for ways to push the envelope or erase the lines. The sad thing is, we have help to do that.

In the Garden of Eden, the Devil twisted the Scriptures. He took God’s words to Adam, which invited him to eat from every tree in the Garden (with one exception), and he twisted them into a prohibition designed to cast doubt on God’s goodness.

He said to Eve, in effect, “If God really loved you, He would let you eat from any tree you want. But because He is saying that you can’t eat from that tree, He clearly doesn’t love you.”

The Devil’s first words to Eve ended in a question mark, designed to cast doubt on God’s love: “Has God indeed said . . . ?” He was quoting God, yet he completely twisted what God said.

The same was true of Satan’s temptation of Jesus, where he said, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down [from the temple]. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone’ ” (Matthew 4:6). How interesting. The Devil was quoting the Scriptures, though he left out part of the original text.

Notice that with Eve, he questioned God’s Word. He didn’t deny that God had spoken; he simply questioned whether God had really said what Eve thought He had said. That is what the Devil will do with God’s Word. He will misquote it and he will distort it.

Being true to God’s Word requires us to trust what it says. Sometimes the commands of God make us uncomfortable. Sometimes they go against our wills. But in the end, we should allow His Word to speak to us and instead of looking for loopholes, we should respond with obedience.

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