Rev. Christopher Olalekan O. Alawode

Psalm 36: 6 “Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgements are a great deep; O Lord, You preserve man and beast.”

God’s word (the Bible) is His judgement, and it has no edition; therefore His word remains the same forever. Whatever the Bible says on any issue is God’s verdict. God’s word is nonfiction, or a compilation of imaginative stories and characters. It is the true word of God that comes directly from Him. Therefore, it cannot be edited by anyone, and for this reason the Bible writes, “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this Book” Revelation 22: 18-19. Any attempt by anyone to rephrase God’s word for selfish or any reason will incur the anger of God. There are preachers nowadays known and termed as ‘Prosperity Preachers’, such preachers sweet-coat and rephrase God’s word to convince the church congregations to give. The Bible by itself writes enough about the subject of giving – 2 Corinthians 9: 6-12.

Many now preach psychology, which is not related to the Bible in content. God cannot compromise His judgment. The Bible gives us a similar story of two sons of Aaron who insulted God with their profane fire. The Bible writes, “Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.” Leviticus 10: 1-2. The two sons of Aaron contravene the earlier word of God: “You shall not offer strange incense on it (altar) or a burnt offering or grain offering; nor shall you pour a drink offering on it” Exodus 30: 9. Whatever the Bible says is God’s judgment, and God’s word applies to everyone irrespective of status. Preaching an unbiblical message on the pulpit is also as bad as offering strange incense on the Altar. Adulterated word of God compromises God’s judgement; Moses makes it clear to the children of Israel (Deuteronomy 32: 1-4) during the inauguration of Joshua: “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteousness and upright is He.” God is no respecter of anyone, and the Bible makes this clear: The Lord preserves those that are faithful to Him, and He also plentifully rewards the proud doer. The Bible writes, “Blessed is the man who the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit” Psalm 32:2.

We are blessed when we serve the Lord faithfully; and our service will bring us untold blessings. Therefore, believers need to understand what faithful service means. In this sense, lack of Bible knowledge can cause us to offer profane service to God. This is exactly what Job’s friends did when they believed in their own wisdom while they were giving counsel to Job. God made them to realise their folly later; the Bible writes, “The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is aroused against you and your friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has ‘” Job 42: 1-7. When we study the Bible and we do not just read it, it will help us to get closer to God. It is when we do this that we will understand more about God’s supremacy. The disciples knew more about Jesus when they experienced a windstorm while He was in the boat with them, sleeping. Jesus felt unperturbed by the dangerous wind. The Bible writes, “But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Jesus rose from His sleep and commanded the wind, saying, “Peace, be still”. The Bible writes further, “And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” The disciples were wondering who could He be that commanded the wind to stop, and it stopped.  The Bible writes, “And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him” Mark 4: 35-41.

The Bible makes it clear to us that God cannot compromise His judgment; it writes, “Those who trust in their wealth and boast in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him” Psalm 49: 6-7.  It is only the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ that can redeem us; it is written, “But now in Christ Jesus you who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity” Ephesians 2: 13-16. In the light of this, Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 4) 5also admonishes Believers not to judge. The Bible writes, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsel of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.”