OceanSide church of Christ

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Should We Give More Weight to the Words in Red?
by: Dalton Gilreath

More and more alleged Christians are ignoring words of the Bible that are not printed in red. They suggest that God’s people should focus more on Christ’s teaching than the writings of “ordinary men” like Paul. This attitude has really penetrated Christendom as more people are attempting to justify homosexuality using the Bible. The argument suggests that because Jesus never personally condemned homosexuality and instead focused on love, that Jesus has no issues with the LGBT agenda. However, there are at least two major problems with this line of thinking.

First, people are forgetting that the words in red were written by ordinary men as well. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the men who wrote the four gospels which are filled with the words of Christ. In addition, Paul quotes Jesus as well in his letters (2 Cor 12:9). Therefore, to suggest that the words of Christ require more respect than any other words in the text is to misunderstand the way God used man to pen His will (2 Pet 1:20-21).

Secondly, Jesus often references comments that are not direct quotations from God or Christ as being His Word. For example, Jesus says in Matthew 19:4-5, “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?” (KJV). Interestingly, Jesus is referencing a statement made by Moses in Genesis 2:24 that is narrative in nature. Why would Jesus reference that “he”, being God, actually said that marriage worked in this manner even though an ordinary man, Moses, was the one to write them down? The truth of the matter is that anything written by inspired men constitutes being a direct quote from God.

To suggest that the words of the Bible written in black are second to the words written in red is foolishness. This line of thinking denotes a lack of understanding in the penmanship of the Word as well as its nature. Everything written in the sixty six books of the Bible is “given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim 3:16). Therefore, if the scripture teaches anywhere in the New Testament, our binding law today, that homosexuality or anything else is contrary to God’s will, then it is as true as though Christ spoke it Himself. In fact, it would mean that He did.