When God first revealed to me the truth that his law was still applicable and relevant for Christians today, I had a lot of questions. Many of which arose because I was in the habit of using bible verses taken out of context like so many others.
It wasn’t that I was against his Law (or “antinomian”). I had just been taught that it was no longer relevant or necessary for us to follow, because we were now “under grace”.
But the word “law” is a horrible translation, in my opinion. “Law” usually connotes something undesirable, especially to those who don’t like the thought of having to obey authority.
So I don’t like to use it when talking about my Heavenly Father.
Mainly because he is just that – a loving Father. And when you view him as such, you’ll come to view his law (called “Torah” in Hebrew) as his instructions for his children who he loves very much.
If you’re a parent, you can probably relate to it this way: when you tell your children not to do something because you don’t want them to hurt themselves, you genuinely hope they’ll obey that instruction.
And when they don’t – and they inevitably end up hurting themselves, just as you predicted might happen – it stings, doesn’t it?
Depending on the severity of the action, sometimes it downright breaks your heart.
You don’t want to punish them, but you know some sort of discipline is necessary to prevent the action from continuing to habitually recur. In the case of them hurting themselves, that discipline often doesn’t even need to come from you. The natural consequence of them getting hurt is enough to teach them a lesson.
This is what often occurs when we disobey God’s Word. There are negative consequences that naturally happen as a result of disobedience. (Check out this post, “Missing the Mark in the Bible: A Parent’s Perspective” for more on that.)
Some people might accuse us of obeying the Torah because we’re afraid that if we don’t, God will strike us with lightning (or some other form of harsh discipline).
But that’s not why we do it at all!
We seek to obey the law because we love him, and obedience is how we show love to God.
Second to that, we believe his Word, which says his people will be blessed if they obey and cursed if they don’t. (Read Deuteronomy 28!)
Again, those curses are often the natural consequences of doing what’s contrary to his will and how he designed us to live in his creation.
I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather be blessed than cursed.
When I began to read and study the Torah (much of which is summed up in the first 5 books of the Old Testament), like many other Christians, I found myself uttering the words: “But, Paul says…”
The apostle Paul seems to contradict himself often throughout his letters. But if we read the words of Peter, we realize that it’s not actually Paul who’s the problem here:
“And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” 2 Peter 3:15-16
It’s people who are the problem. We who are “ignorant and unstable”, taking bible verses out of context and “twisting” Paul’s seemingly confusing words “to our own destruction”.
In the very next verse, Peter calls this twisting, “the error of lawless people”, and gives a warning to his readers to avoid it.
Most of us aren’t inherently antinomian by nature. Quite the opposite, actually. Clear-cut guidelines are comforting to humans who crave structure and order. Without rules, we’d be wandering around in the dark.
We can’t build a house without a blueprint, regardless of how stiff-necked and determined we might be.
I honestly think we’ve just been misguided.
There are so many bible passages that describe the law as holy, righteous, good, spiritual, perfect, and countless other positive adjectives. You’d have to ignore hundreds of Scripture verses, including the very words of our savior, Yeshua (Jesus’ Hebrew name), to claim the law was abolished or no longer applicable.
Yet, the modern church says the law was only given to us to prove how sinful and in need of a savior we are.
(Uh … manipulation, much?)
That once Jesus came and died on the cross, we were placed under a “new covenant” and no longer need to obey the Torah. (Well, you know, except for that part about tithing … )
This destructive way of thinking is largely the result of bible verses taken out of context. Let’s take a deeper look at some of the most common ones that are used to reject God’s law and justify sin.
(Sin, as defined by 1 John 3:4 is the “transgression of the law.”)
The Most Common Bible Verses Taken Out of Context to Excuse Sin
Bible Verses Taken Out Of Context #1: Matthew 7:1
“Judge not, that you be not judged.”
This verse is often taken to mean that Christians should never judge each other. But if that was the case, then what do we do with John 7:24, which says, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment”. How are we supposed to make “righteous judgments” if we’re not even supposed to make judgments at all.
And what do we do with our justice system, which is built on the premise that people must be trialed and judged according to their crimes? Do we do away with the punishments for rapists and murderers and let them run wild in the streets?
I don’t think most people would support that idea…
We naturally make judgments all the time. It’s part of what makes us human.
This passage in Matthew isn’t saying we shouldn’t judge. It’s a warning against hypocrisy and self-righteousness:
“For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7: 2-5
Yeshua is saying that the standard by which we judge others is the same standard by which we will be judged. So before we correct our brother or sister in Christ for some unrighteous behavior, we better take a look in the mirror first – and make sure we’re living by God’s standards (a.k.a. the Torah) ourselves.
Bible Verses Taken Out Of Context #2: Ephesians 2:8-9
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one may boast.”
This is one of many bible verses taken out of context that is used to support the idea that when it comes to salvation, faith and works cannot coexist. Rather, they are in opposition to one another.
But when considering the context of a verse, it’s important to look at surrounding verses. Verse 10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Taken together, these three verses are saying that salvation happens by faith, which then leads to good works (the fruits of the Spirit) – not the other way around. Faith and works can coexist – in fact they must! Works is the evidence of our faith. This is supported by all of Hebrews 11, which begins with this verse:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” …
And goes on to showcase many examples of how the patriarchs exhibited great faith through their actions. Faith is more than just belief! (“Even the demons believe…” – James 2:19) We demonstrate faith through our works.
Bible Verses Taken Out Of Context #3: John 8:7
“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Often paraphrased as “don’t throw stones”, this is another one of those bible verses taken out of context to say that people shouldn’t judge, because we’re all guilty ourselves.
But if we look at the context of this verse, while also considering what the Torah says, it has a completely different meaning: again, Yeshua is calling out hypocrisy here.
This verse is part of the well-known passage about the woman who was “caught in adultery.” When the religious leaders brought her to Yeshua, they asserted she should be stoned and asked for his judgment on the matter. The text explicitly tells us that they said this to test him, that they might find reason to accuse him.
But Yeshua knew the Torah (and obeyed it perfectly, by the way).
According to the Torah, “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman.” (Deuteronomy 22:22).
Was the woman guilty? We don’t know for sure, but at the end of the passage, Yeshua says, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more” – so it is probable she was.
But where was the man? Surely the religious leaders who caught her in the act must have seen the guy. But either he isn’t present, or none of the men who were present were willing to turn him in. (And what does that tell us about them?)
Either way, if any one of them had picked up a stone to throw at the woman, they would have been in transgression of the Torah, specifically the instruction given in Deuteronomy 22.
When Jesus said “let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her,” he was turning their little “test” right back around on them. And they all had no choice but to walk away in that moment.
Bible Verses Taken Out Of Context #4: Romans 6:14
“For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
As with any single verse, this could easily be quoted in support of antinomianism (or some other biased agenda). But if you read all of Romans 6, it quickly becomes apparent that Paul is in support of the law.
In fact, he obeyed it himself. We see him keeping the Sabbath and the Biblical feasts and obeying the dietary laws in multiple places throughout the book of Acts. Long after the resurrection of our Lord and Savior…
Just as faith and works are not in opposition to one another, neither are law and grace. Paul’s statement, “you are not under the law, but under grace,” is not saying that the law is obsolete or irrelevant. Instead, it emphasizes the transformative power of grace.
Through faith in Yeshua, we are no longer under the condemnation of the law – the penalty for sin – but have been freed to live in obedience to God without the weight of sin ruling over us.
The preceding verses help to make this clear:
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:1-2)
Here, Paul clearly rejects the idea that grace is a license to sin. He explains that grace enables us to live righteously, not to ignore God’s commands.
When Paul says we are “not under the law,” he means that we are not under the law’s penalty—death (Romans 6:23). This does not mean the law itself is abolished. Rather, through grace, we are empowered to overcome sin and walk in obedience.
Paul reinforces this in Romans 6:15-16:
“What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”
Paul’s argument here is that being under grace doesn’t free us from the responsibility of obedience; instead, it changes the nature of our relationship with God. We are no longer slaves to sin but are freed to become servants of righteousness, which means we are to walk in obedience to God’s Torah.
Bible Verses Taken Out Of Context #5: Mark 7:19
“Mark 7:19 – “For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
This is one of several bible verses taken out of context to claim that Christians no longer need to keep the dietary instructions outlined in Leviticus 100. But Jesus did not actually “declare all foods clean” as this particular translation asserts. That part of the verse is in parentheses, because it’s not actually in the text.
The KJV provides a more literal translation, which reads:
“Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?”
The word for “meats” here simply means “food”. The people Yeshua was talking to understood that the definition of “food” did not include unclean animals.
Even so, this passage of Scripture is not about food in the first place! Jesus is, once again, addressing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees – calling them out for placing the traditions of men (in this case, the added burden of a handwashing ritual before eating) above the law of God (which contains no such ritual).
You can read more and get the full context in my post, “Why Was Pork Forbidden in the Bible Old Testament Law?“
Bible Verses Taken Out of Context #6: The Entire Book of Galatians
Paul’s letter to the Galatians is probably the #1 most cited source of antinomian defense. Christians will place the words of Paul above Jesus’ words to claim that obeying the law is not only no longer necessary – it’s bondage and even attempting to keep God’s commandments is sin. Doing so means you’ve “fallen from grace!”
In the words of our Jewish brethren: “Oy vey…”
I’ve listed some of the most popular verses in Galatians that are often used to claim the law was abolished below. But rather than trying to expound on each one as I’ve done with the verses above, I’ll point you to this very detailed bible study by 119 Ministries:
Galatians is one of the most complex and misunderstood books in the entire Bible. I could write an entirely separate post on it. The main thing to know is, it’s important to study the historical context of the book of Galatians before reading it. Understanding Paul’s audience – who he was talking to – is key to understanding this book in light of everything Paul says. Especially when you consider that he obeyed the Torah his entire life.
The video I posted above does a great job of explaining all that and more. If you believe anything I’ve said so far has merit, and you genuinely want to study this out – to “test all things” (1 Thessalonians 5:21) – I highly recommend watching that video and diving into their in-depth series, The Pauline Paradox, as well.
For now, here are some of the bible verses taken out of context from Galatians that are more thoroughly explained in that study:
- “A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” Galatians 2:16
- “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.” Galatians 3:23-25
- “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.” Galatians 4: 8-11
- “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” Galatians 5:4
- “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” Galatians 5:18
Bible Verses Taken Out Of Context #7: Hebrews 8:13
“In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”
Notice how that word “covenant” is italicized? That’s because it doesn’t appear in the original text. This verse is one of many bible verses taken out of context to say that the Torah, which was part of the “old covenant” is now obsolete. But this isn’t referring to the Torah or the old covenant at all.
We see a “new covenant” elsewhere in Scripture, specifically in the context of Jeremiah 31:31-33, which says:
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
It’s easy to see how some people might see the words “new covenant” in Hebrews and immediately think of this passage. But Jeremiah says that the new covenant involves writing the law on the hearts of God’s people – not abolishing it and taking it away! If it’s going to be written on our hearts in the kingdom, why would it be considered obsolete in the book of Hebrews?
The writer of Hebrews is not referring to a change in God’s loving instructions for his children. He’s referring to a change in the Levitical priesthood – specifically that it’s being replaced by our Messiah, who is now our high priest. If you read the entire chapter in context, this becomes clear.
Bible Verses Taken Out Of Context #8: 1 Timothy 4:4-5
“For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”
This is another one of those bible verses taken out of context and used in the “clean vs. unclean foods” debate.
In the preceding verses, the writer speaks of people who “in latter times … will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”
Once again, we have to read this through a Hebrew lens. No one in the original audience would have equated unclean meat with “food.” Foods in this passage are only those things which were permitted by the Torah as outlined in Leviticus 11.
I talk about this in more detail in this post: “40 Days of Repentance – Day 12: Pigs“
If prayer and thanksgiving could sanctify anything, we could use that to make any abominable action permissible. Most people would probably agree that we can’t just pray and give thanks for things like murder, adultery or sexual immorality and suddenly they become “clean”.
Why is it any different with food?
Bible Verses Taken Out Of Context #8: Hebrews 4: 9-10
“There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.”
Unique among many bible verses taken out of context, this passage is often misquoted as the commonly used paraphrase, “Jesus is my Sabbath rest.”
In other words, “I don’t have to honor the Sabbath day anymore, because I rest in Jesus every day. He is my Sabbath.”
Nowhere in the Bible does it actually say, “Jesus is our Sabbath rest.” In fact, one could argue that this verse illustrates exactly why we should keep the Sabbath! As God rested from his works, so should His people.
It honestly baffles me that some Christians consider the commandment to rest on the seventh day a burden. Our “Hustle 24/7” mindset has made it difficult for us to take a break from work for even one day each week. We’ll go so far as to twist passages like Hebrews 4 to justify our selfish desires.
Bible Verses Taken Out Of Context #9: Romans 13:1
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.”
This is one of the more interesting bible verses taken out of context. On one hand, it’s not really antinomian. But I’ve heard people who seem to lean toward the idea that the Torah was abolished misuse it to say we should basically bow down to those in power today. Which is a bit ironic if you ask me…
They claim that anyone who is put in a position of power was put there by God, according to this verse.
But who was Paul talking to here? (Again, it’s important to consider the intended audience of the specific time.) The book of Romans was written to both Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome. These are people who most likely operated under the authority of synagogue leaders – people who taught and kept Torah.
119 Ministries has another fantastic teaching on this:
“Governing authorities” in this passage doesn’t refer to our corrupt modern-day elites. He’s not saying we should be subject to people who are anti-Torah and anti-Christ. That would be absurd. There are many false prophets and false teachers in positions of power; that doesn’t mean they were put in those positions by God so that we would obey them.
There are many more bible verses taken out of context and misquoted by modern readers. As I stated earlier, I honestly don’t think Christians are antinomian by nature. It’s more likely that we’ve been indoctrinated by “Churchianity”, and the false dichotomies of “law vs. grace” and “faith vs. works” have been so long ingrained that we have a hard time seeing it any differently.
If that’s you, and this post has made you reconsider these ideas in any capacity whatsoever, I’d like to encourage you to continue studying it out…
Which of these bible verses taken out of context stood out to you the most? Let us know in the comments!
