Following God would be so much more palatable if only we could make adjustments to what He tells us! Some of God’s commands can appear to be harsh. In other cases, we wish God had been more explicit, or had clearly approved certain conducts. The temptation will be to treat our interpretation of God’s word with the same authority as the word itself.
Much of the problem with the Pharisees in Jesus’ day was not that they were lax in their zeal but that they treated their opinions about God’s word as highly as they revered what God actually said. The truth is that God’s word is complete as His revelation to humanity. It lacks nothing. We do not need to add anything to it for it to be applicable to our lives.
Conversely, there are those who pick and choose what they find acceptable in God’s word. They might not take scissors and physically cut out offensive passages (as some have done), but they will blithely ignore those verses or minimize them or explain them away as a cultural oddity that no longer applies to them. The result is that only a portion of God’s word actually guides them or speaks into their lives.
God’s word brings us life. It shines light onto our path. It protects us from harm. It reveals God’s heart to us. It proffers heaven’s wisdom to our daily living. We cannot afford to distort or subtract or to confuse in any way the clear message God’s word speaks into our lives.