Actually, That's Not in the Bible
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
2 Timothy 2:15
Quite a few years ago, NFL legend Mike Ditka, while giving a news conference after being fired as the coach of the Chicago Bears, decided to quote the Bible.
"Scripture tells you that all things shall pass," a choked-up Ditka said after leading his team to only five wins during the previous season. "This, too, shall pass."
Ditka fumbled his biblical citation, though. The phrase "This, too, shall pass" doesn't appear in the Bible. Ditka was quoting a phantom text that sounds like it belongs, yet in reality, is not there.
This happens quite a lot.
Phantom texts
Other phantom passages include, “God helps those who help themselves.” (Actually, that’s attributed to Benjamin Franklin.)
Or, “When God closes a door, He opens a window.” (That one came from the Mother Superior in The Sound of Music.)
Others include, “Money is the root of all evil” and “Spare the rod, spoil the child" and “God moves in mysterious ways.”
None of those passages appear in the Bible. But people rarely challenge them because biblical ignorance is so pervasive that it even reaches groups of people who should know better, says Steve Bouma-Prediger, a religion professor at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.
People rarely challenge phantom biblical texts because biblical ignorance is so pervasive it even reaches groups of people who should know better.
"In my college religion classes, I sometimes quote 2 Hesitations 4:3. I wait to see if anyone realizes that there is no such book in the Bible and therefore no such verse. Only a few catch on."
"Most people who profess a deep love of the Bible have never actually read the book," says Rabbi Rami Shapiro, who once had to persuade a student in his Bible class at Middle Tennessee State University that the saying "that dog won't hunt" doesn't appear in the Book of Proverbs.
More than you can handle
I bring all this up because there’s another statement a lot of people think is in the Bible, but it isn’t.
“God will never give you more than you can handle.”
Have you ever heard that one? It’s nowhere to be found in Scripture.
The Bible does say in I Corinthians 10:13 that God will not allow someone to be tempted beyond what they can stand, but it never says God will not allow you to be given more than you can handle.
In fact, people are given more than they can handle all the time.
“God will never give you more than you can handle.” Actually, that’s not in the Bible. People are given more than they can handle all the time.
In 2 Corinthians 1, Paul’s autobiographical story in verses 8-10 clearly shows that God may give someone more suffering than he or she can handle.
Paul says that he and his companions were “so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.” To be burdened beyond one’s strength is to have more than he or she can handle.
He continues by saying, “Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him, we have set our hope that He will deliver us again.”
I want to propose we adopt that as our go-to text for encouraging sufferers. That we cease saying, “God won’t give you more than you can handle,” and begin to encourage people by saying, “God will give you all the grace you need in every situation you face.”
Let’s cease saying, “God won’t give you more than you can handle,” and begin to encourage people by saying, “God will give you all the grace you need in every situation you face.”
In so doing, we will not only be correctly handling the word of truth, we will be in a position where that truth can in fact impact our lives. And that makes the Bible invaluable.
PRAYER
Lord, Your word has so much truth in it. In fact, Your word IS truth. Alas, all too often I don’t know what that truth is or, worse yet, handle it inaccurately. Help me to become a student of Scripture, a worker who does not need to be ashamed.
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