Grow in Grace by Larry Yarrington

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7 Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this (that people distort scripture), be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. 2 Peter 3:17-18
There are those who parse scripture, by taking it out of context, to fit their own desire for what they want it to say. I do that to some extent when I write these devotionals. But, these devotionals are not intended to be an explanation of scripture as much as how the passage hit me personally. My intention is not to build theology. It is to see what the Lord wants me personally to see and grow from. Yet, I must be careful that I don't so distort scripture as to make my personal use of it, untrue.
At other times people just have a grand idea about what is right and wrong and superimpose this idea on scripture and, thereby, distort its meaning in hopes of finding moral high ground..
A third way people seem to distort scripture is to claim what man thinks (though it may contain wisdom) is the same as words inspired by God through the Holy Spirit.
In all these ways, scripture can be used as an excuse for lawless behavior. And though I may claim the high moral ground for my actions, lawlessness that destroys people and property, is not behavior condoned by scripture. There is only one exception to this in the examples we see of Jesus' life. He overturned tables of money changers that were extorting the poor and desecrating the house of the Lord. I can not humanly explain that piece of scripture. I can try to justify it but it would be purely speculation. Jesus was God. My trying to fully understand the mind of God would be foolishness on my part. So, in my opinion, I can't use that scripture to justify lawlessness, no matter how moral my pursuit.
My focus is, rather, on growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is what we see in Jesus' followers, without exception. If they defied authority to bring the message of the gospel, they never did it in such a way as to abuse others and destroy property. We are exhorted to live in peace as far as it is up to us. We are called to be graceful and loving in all our actions. With God's help, that is where I will stand. After all, the battle is not mine but the Lord's. By Larry Yarrington

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