Using the Bible as a Sword Instead of a Mirror
Using the Bible as a Sword Instead of a Mirror
Some people don’t read the Bible to live. They read it to argue. To win. To prove they’re right and you’re wrong. I’ve met them. We’ll call one of them Erica. She’s combative. She leads with her MBA, then with her King James Bible. Verse after verse, not as bread, but as stones.
I think a lot of people who only read the King James get it wrong. Not because the words aren’t holy. They are. But because that Bible is English from 1611. The language is beautiful and it’s also a barrier. “Thee” and “thou” and “suffereth” can make God feel far away, like a king on a throne instead of a father in the room. It’s hard to live by a translation that wasn’t written for your century when there are other versions — NIV, NRSV, ESV — that put the same truth in the language you speak to your child, your neighbor, your own heart.
But the problem isn’t really the translation. The problem is the posture. Some folks don’t open the Bible to be changed. They open it to change you. They use “thus saith the Lord” like a gavel. They quote Paul to shut a woman up. They quote Leviticus to judge a person’s clothes and skip the part about loving your neighbor. They say “Jesus is God” with their chest out, but they don’t act like they’ve ever met Him.
I read the Bible and I try to live it. It’s engraved in me. I fail. I get angry. I walked away from men who said “love” too fast. I sat in a jail cell in 2023 and said “Lord have mercy” because those were the only honest words I had. I got baptized in Salem. I’m celibate. I’m 51 and starting a Ph.D. None of that makes me better. It makes me accountable.
The Bible isn’t a weapon. It’s a mirror. If you read it and you’re not convicted, you’re not reading it, you’re wielding it. If you finish a chapter and your first thought is who to correct, you missed the point. The Holy Spirit doesn’t transform us so we can dominate debates. The Holy Spirit transforms us so we can do the work God gave us.
I hope that when you read the Bible — King James, NIV, whatever gets you to the feet of Jesus — you let it read you back. I hope you allow the Holy Spirit to transform you. I hope you ask God for wisdom and then use your talents for good, rather than waste your talents in man.
We don’t need more people who can quote scripture to win an argument. We need more people who live it quietly. Who feed someone. Who stay when it’s hard. Who don’t use “Jesus told me” as an excuse to abandon people. Who know the difference between correction and combat.
Erica can keep her King James. I’ll keep my “Lord have mercy.” Both of us will stand before the same God. I just hope when He looks at me, He sees someone who tried to live the Word, not just recite it.
Because the goal was never to be right. The goal was to be made new.
***cathryn m harris
