Do Not Know the Bible According to the Flesh
2 Corinthians 5:16: “Therefore, from now on we know no one according to the flesh; though we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer.”
The Bible is the Word of God, but the way we read and understand it will reveal our true nature before Him. Many people read the Bible only with their fleshly reason, without the revelation of the Holy Spirit, so they misunderstand, mispreach, and lead others astray.
- Reading the Bible with an Unclean Mind
Some people consider the Bible to be “pornography” just because they pay attention to passages that talk about fleshly sins such as incest, fornication, etc. They even take the book of Song of Songs and write love poems with a perverted tendency. They do not realize that it is a profound spiritual song describing the pure love between Christ and the Church. - Reading the Bible with Worldly Knowledge
Highly educated people, but lacking the Holy Spirit, see the Bible as a work that is disorderly and difficult to understand, and want to cut and rearrange it to make it more reasonable. They “squeeze” outside the text without touching the spirit of God’s Word.
The Bible is like a vast database, in which the Holy Spirit has hidden 100 golden links – the key links that reveal Himself and His program in Christ. Whoever finds a few of these links and assembles them correctly through the Holy Spirit will receive life, light and liberation.
But whoever assembles them incorrectly or misunderstands them will fall into darkness and death. For example, Seventh-day Adventists confuse law and grace, wanting to add works to the salvation of the cross. They are those who trample on the blood of the Son of God.
- Misrepresenting God in the Old Testament
People without revelation think that God in the Old Testament is a murderous god, because He ordered the destruction of the Canaanites. But in fact, their sins were full: they worshiped idols through mass fornication, committed abominations such as incest, homosexuality, and lewd acts in worship of false gods.
God waited patiently for 400 years (Gen. 15:13-16), but when they did not repent, He used Israel as an instrument of judgment against them. This is holy justice, not murder as the carnal people think.
- The Bible Is God in Letters
Jesus is the Word made flesh. The Bible is the written Word – God in letters. If you look at the Bible only through your intellect, emotions, or carnal needs, you will distort and misrepresent the truth. The Bible is not a book to be criticized as a work of literature, but a vessel for God.
Anyone who does not recognize Jesus correctly – the Word made flesh, the eternal God in human form – will perish eternally in the lake of fire. Anyone who reads the Bible in the flesh “will bring destruction upon himself” (2 Peter 3:16). The “destruction” here does not mean eternal loss of the soul, but punishment, imprisonment in darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth throughout the Millennium – for abusing the Word of God.
- The Church Is Not a Cover-up for Sin
In the church, men and women will have fellowship with each other. But remember the warning: “Treat young women as sisters, in all purity” (1 Timothy 5:2). Do not use the church life as a cover-up for illicit relationships. Fornication and adultery are both detestable to God, and will be severely judged (Hebrews 13:4; Ephesians 5:5).
Conclusion:
May God open our spiritual eyes, to:
Recognize Jesus for who He is – God incarnate, not just a historical person.
Read the Bible with spirit and truth, not with flesh, reason or emotion.
Fear the holy God, avoiding the abominable sins that abound in the last days.
For the hour of His judgment is near. And this unclean earth is about to “vomit” humanity, to be cleansed, in preparation for the coming millennial kingdom.