Twisted

 "just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

— 2 Peter 3:15b-16

Gracious Lord Jesus, my friend and my King,

Peter recognizes that the encouragement he is sharing about the Lord’s patience meaning salvation is echoed by the Apostle Paul in his letters which he wrote with God’s wisdom. Peter acknowledges that some things Paul writes are hard to understand and that unlearned and unsteadfast people distort these Scriptures as they do with other Scriptures. The word Peter uses means “to twist, to torture, to put to the rack, to pervert.” These false teachers who do not correctly interpret what Scripture says are twisting it to say what they want. They are forcing Scripture into an unnatural position and making it say something it was never intended to say.

These false teachers twist Scripture to their own destruction. Their false teaching is leading them astray and the result is damnation and eternal hell. In order to not twist Scripture or to become twisted by false teachers, we are to be like the Bereans, who “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).

Lord Jesus, may I be diligent to study and understand Scripture so that when I teach, I am being true to what Your Word says. Keep me from relying on my own wisdom and understanding when I interpret Your Word. Give me good tools and community to understand it correctly and to be like the Bereans who listened to the Apostle Paul and searched the Word to understand and confirm what is taught.

— In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen!