OUT OF CONTEXT
Examples:
-Money is the Root of all evil
Close, but the frequently quoted phrase is missing a few important words. 1Tim 6:10 actually says that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
God doesn’t want you swimming around in gold coins in a gigantic money bank like Scrooge McDuck, but He may bless you financially so that you can bless others.
-Cleanliness is next to Godliness
Sure, the Old Testament contains lots of rules about ritual cleanliness, but this biblical-sounding proverb is nowhere to be found in Scripture. Some form may have originated in ancient Middle Eastern religious writings.
Scientist Francis Bacon had a version, but the modern quote first originated in a John Wesley sermon. If it helps you to get your kids to take a bath, go ahead and use it, just don’t say it’s from the Bible.
-Be In the World, but not of the World
This one may surprise you, but that phrase is nowhere in the Bible. As much as you may think it’s an exact quote from the Sermon on the Mount or another verse, it’s not there.
Parts of the sentiment are, however, expressed in various places in Scripture (John 15:19, John 17:14-15, Romans12:1-2). Just don’t try to find that word-for-word as a verse in your Bible.
-God Will Not Give You More Than You Can Handle
This is the result of some presumably well-meaning person trying to sum up 1 Corinthians 10:13 as a way of comforting a person going through a trial, but that’s not what that verse or any other verse in the Bible teaches us.
You find countless cases where someone faced something they couldn’t handle—but God could and did. That’s the point, including Paul’s words to the Corinthians where he tells them God will provide a way of escape from temptation.
If we could handle everything that came our way, we could take care of our sin problem. But we couldn’t and we can’t. That’s why we needed (and continually need) Jesus.
-God Helps Those Who Help Themselves
If I could pick one phrase to erase from the memories of every Christian, it would be this one. This falsely remembered Bible verse is a blatant contradiction to everything Scripture actually teaches us.
Where does the phrase actually come from? Variations are proverbial statements in ancient Greek tragedies. The Quran (13:11) has something similar. An English politician gave us the exact wording, which Benjamin Franklin quotes in Poor Richard’s Almanac.
The message of Romans 5:8 is the exact opposite. While we were still sinners and unable to help ourselves, Christ died for us—proving how much God loves us, how amazing grace is, and how incapable of helping ourselves we truly are.