NOT CORRUPTING THE WORD OF GOD

‘For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God,’ 2 Cor. 2:17. When can it be said of us, that we corrupt the Word of God in the present day? What are the rocks and shoals we ought to shun, if we would not be of the ‘Many’ who deal deceitfully with God’s truth? A few suggestions on this head may not be without use.

We corrupt the Word of God most dangerously, when we throw doubt on the plenary inspiration of any part of Holy Scripture. This is not merely corrupting the bucket of living water, which we profess to present to our people, but poisoning the whole well. Once wrong on this point, the whole substance of our religion is in danger. It is a flaw in the foundation. It is a worm at the root of our theology. Secondly, we corrupt the Word of God when we make defective statements of doctrine. We do so when we take away from the Bible, for the sake of pleasing men; or, from a feeling of false liberality, keep back any statement which seems narrow, harsh or hard. We do so when we try to soften down anything that is taught about eternal punishment, or the reality of hell. We do so when we bring forth doctrines in their wrong proportions. We do so when we exhibit an excessive anxiety to fence, and guard, and qualify such doctrines as justification by faith without the deeds of the law, for fear of the charge of antinomianism. We do so, not least, when we shrink from the use of Bible language in giving an account of doctrines. We are apt to keep back such expressions as ‘born again,’ ‘election,’ ‘adoption,’ ‘conversion,’ ‘assurance,’ and to use a roundabout phraseology, as if we were ashamed of plain Bible words. I cannot expand these statements for want of time, but leave them to your private thought.

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