Read
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Reflect
Sometimes the things people are willing to believe blow my mind. Take, for example, the notion of a flat Earth.
People have understood for more than two thousand years that the Earth is spherical. Ancient Greek thinkers argued for it centuries before Christ, and by the time Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition began sailing west in 1519, educated people were not waiting for someone to prove that the Earth was round.
Still, that voyage gave the world one of history’s most dramatic demonstrations of the point. Magellan himself never completed the journey. He was killed in battle in the Philippines in 1521. But on September 6, 1522, one ship from his expedition returned to Spain after continuing westward around the globe. The Earth had literally been circumnavigated.
You would think that would settle things.
Apparently not.
There are still people today who insist that the Earth is flat. Even more surprising to me is that some Christians try to use the Bible to support that belief. They will point to phrases about the “four corners of the earth” or other poetic expressions and treat them as though Scripture were attempting to give us a scientific description of the shape of the planet.
That brings to mind an old saying my stepfather used to quote: “A text out of context is a pretext.”
In other words, when we pull a verse away from its setting and force it to support a conclusion it was never intended to make, we are no longer allowing Scripture to speak for itself. We are making it say what we want it to say.
Flat-Earth arguments may be an extreme example, but the temptation itself is not unusual at all.
We can do the same thing when we are trying to prove a political point, justify the way we are treating someone, defend a decision we have already made, win a theological argument, or convince ourselves that God agrees with something we already want to believe. Sometimes we do not come to Scripture asking, “Lord, what are You saying?” We come asking, “Where is the verse that proves I am right?”
But that is almost the opposite of what Paul describes in today’s passage.
Scripture is useful for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness. Notice that word: correction. God’s Word is not merely something we use to correct everyone else. Sometimes it is meant to correct us.
The purpose of Scripture is not to prove that I am right. One of its purposes is to show me where I am wrong.
That is why we need humility when we read the Bible. We need to understand the setting. We need to pay attention to what comes before and after a verse. We need to ask what the writer was actually saying rather than simply grabbing words that seem useful for the argument we want to make.
The world desperately needs truth, and Christians should be people others can trust to handle truth faithfully. When we misuse Scripture to justify bad arguments, selfish motives or ideas that simply are not there, we do more than make ourselves look foolish. We can bring discredit to the very Word of God we claim to honor.
Today, pray for wisdom and discernment as you read God’s Word. Ask the Lord not only to help you understand Scripture, but also to give you the humility to let Scripture correct you. And before using a verse to prove a point, ask one more question:
Am I allowing God’s Word to speak, or am I trying to make it agree with me?
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Reflection copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt.
