Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elemental spirits of the world, and not after Christ.
–Colossians 2:8

Have you ever played “Telephone,” aka “The Gossip Game?” If you have, you know how funny it is to hear how the message whispered from one player to the next has changed by the time it gets to the last person.

For example, I remember one time I played this game and the original message was, “Here comes the bride.” The last person to get this message announced that she thought it was, “Help me feed the birds.”

It’s easy to laugh about a game, but when the words being misspoken and misunderstood are God’s Words from the Bible, there is nothing funny about it.

That is why we cannot let someone else be solely responsible for teaching us what we know about Scripture. We must go straight to the source. We must read and study the Bible for ourselves.

Preachers and Bible teachers are very important to our spiritual growth, but they are not all we need. We cannot depend on them to be our sole spiritual guides. We need to make sure their words are God’s words, and the only way we can do that is to know God’s Word for ourselves.

Prayer

Dear God, Please give me the wisdom to understand Your Word. Help me to tell truth from lies and help me separate your commands and expectations from those of men. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Reflection

What one thing do I struggle with most about knowing and believing God’s Word? How can I be certain that I am not fooled into believing something contrary to God’s Word?