Right Sermon; Wrong Text

To begin a sermon on simplicity today, my pastor used a paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 7:29:

“This is all that I have learned: God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.” (Good News Translation, previously called Today’s English Version)

Here’s a literal translation of the same text:
"Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices." (New American Standard Bible)

Sure, the many devices men seek out may also complicate their lives, but this isn’t the point of the text. The point of the text is that men seek many ways (an alternate translation is “inventions”) to commit sinful or foolish or unwise acts (See Eccl. 7:19-29).

What’s so insidious about this particular use of a poor paraphrase is that it was brought into service of a true message. Should we seek simplicity in certain aspects of our devotion to Christ? Sure.

If the message had been instead, “God doesn’t want you to wear complicated patterns in your clothing – you should only wear plain, solid-colored clothes,” then the congregation would have been on the alert and would have detected the corresponding mistreatment of the text.

But since the pastor preached a true message from a verse that had nothing to do with the message, the congregation learned something in addition to good ideas about simplicity. We also learned a dangerous Bible study method: Any use of Scripture is legitimate as long as we somehow connect the text to a true idea somewhere in the sermon.

Comments

[Tom Taylor]

Thanks, Steve, for such a concise description of the "dangerous Bible study method: Any use of Scripture is legitimate as long as we somehow connect the text to a true idea..."

Just yesterday I was talking to a friend about concerns I have about the pastor of a certain church here in south Florida. He is a wonderful evangelist, but everytime I hear him teaching the Bible, I come away thinking "Man, that guy needs a theological education."

Now I see that's exactly what he does - his point is valid, but the scripture he uses to get there is often mangled in the process.

In doing this, is he not holding the truth of Scripture in lower regard than the truth of his sermon point, and if so, then what is he really teaching his people?

[Michaelé LePenske]

This looks like an example of a the backwards approach to preaching that seems to be so common today. A pastor has a point to make and then searches out a single verse in just the right translation to validate his point, rather than teaching a passage and expounding on the Scripture's point.

[Eric]

Yes. Isn't that exactly the problem that was modeled in the "Purpose Driven Life"?

[Red Loser]

Yep, and it's an unfortunate pattern that is present at a Vineyard church in Indiana which my parents attend. Nobody brings his or her Bible to the church because the Bible verses--which merely act as crutches to the sermon--are displayed on a screen. This has the added "advantage" that people no longer examine the context nor look at a more precise translation to evaluate the preacher's (usually true) message.

[Alan Grey]

Indeed Eric, that is just what I was thinking. Agreed with almost every one of the conclusions in purpose driven life, but the logic and scripture used to get there was badly flawed.