I’ve noticed that I have a tendency toward a corrective bent in my teachings and studies, even in articles that don’t come across as correcting the reader. If I hear something that I think is Biblically wrong, particularly in a church setting, I want to then pick it apart, present a counter argument, and fix the mistake. A lot of my blog posts grew out of this tendency. My extensively researched post on agape started as irritation at someone in a sermon quoting an (inaccurate) AI-generated historical definition rather than doing actual research. My most recent post on women’s roles in the church was sparked by a social media post. And those are just two examples.
While this desire to correct mistakes has prompted some good studies, I’m starting to think that it’s not always a good tendency. I catch myself looking for mistakes, then getting upset about them and wanting to correct them. Did you notice that speaker only quoted half the verse, presumably because the second half would have undermined his point? Or that this speaker doesn’t understand the nuances of Greek or Hebrew grammar? Or that the person over there didn’t take the culture in 1st century Rome into account with his interpretation? I need to tell everyone that they’re wrong!
But do I really? And, perhaps a more important question, what makes me think I know everything or that I’m always the one who’s right in these situations? My knowledge is actually very limited. I don’t know why he quoted half the verse, I’m not fluent in ancient Greek or Hebrew either (though I do know how to use research materials to make up for part of that deficiency), and just because I’m obsessed with historical New Testament context doesn’t mean everyone has the time to read books about it.
The last time I heard something from a church speaker that seemed wrong to me, I reminded myself of Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” That might have helped me remember that he could be wrong because he didn’t check the context rather than because he was trying to undermine Biblical truth, but it’s still not a truly charitable assumption. A far better option is to approach people–either in-person or in our minds–with an assumption of positive intent. I wrote about this a couple of years ago in my post “The Necessity of Godly Conflict Resolution and Forgiveness.”
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I know from my English studies, particularly learning how to peer review other people’s writings, that approaching someone else with the attitude “I can fix you/your writing” is completely unhelpful. To be helpful, criticism must be constructive and you should spend just as much time (if not more) pointing out what works as you do correcting what doesn’t work. Maybe the same thing is true when interacting with other Christians, including the people who we think “should know better” already.
Christians are explicitly called to love one another the same way that Christ has loved us and to maintain peace within the body of believers. That doesn’t mean there’s never a time and place for setting things right (Jesus corrected plenty of people), but it does mean that our first impulse should be to extend grace rather than express irritation. And maybe when we ask, “What did they get right?” before asking “What did they get wrong?” we might even find that our initial impulse that they’re wrong was (at least partly) in error. At the very least, we can revise our knee-jerk reaction to be one of grace that assumes positive intent rather than one of criticism that seeks errors.
For the culmination of all things is near. So be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of prayer.Above all keep your love for one another fervent, because love covers a multitude of sins.Show hospitality to one another without complaining. Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God. Whoever speaks, let it be with God’s words. Whoever serves, do so with the strength that God supplies, so that in everything God will be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:7-11, NET (bold italics mark a quote from Prov 10:12).
It’s a question associated with overly enthusiastic or exceptionally earnest evangelists, knocking on doors and chatting you up in coffee shops. But it’s also a question that haunts many Christians. Like many things, we often fall into two extremes related to this question. On the one hand, we have people who say, “Once saved, always saved, so it doesn’t matter what I do now.” On the other hand, we have people who are terrified that they’re not actually saved and spend their lives struggling to measure up to God’s perfect standard with no assurance that they’ll make it in the end.
A few weeks ago, our pastor gave a message about the three ways that the Bible talks about salvation: we are saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. He also mentioned an analogy that I’ve been mulling over for a couple weeks now. Like all analogies, it breaks down if you carry it too far, but I think it gives us a good starting point.
People who say they are already saved by Jesus are correct. But so are people who say that you can “lose” that salvation (though “reject” would be a much more accurate term). It’s like if a firefighter pulls you out of a burning building. Once you’re out of the fire, you’ve been saved. The salvation has already happened and it’s not going to be undone by the person who rescued you. But you can still run back into the burning building. It would be phenomenally stupid, but you have the free will to reject salvation. Knowing that can lead to anxiety for many people, but how worried should you actually be about this knowledge?
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Be Confident
In my church, we spend quite a bit of time refuting the “once saved, always saved” heresy. No, you didn’t do anything to earn salvation–it’s a gift of God–but once you’re saved by grace, you owe God loyalty, faithfulness, and obedience. You can even choose to reject salvation, either verbally or by actions that deny your relationship with God (see, for example, 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Heb. 10:26-31). We are currently saved, but it is also an ongoing process of walking with God that He will finally accomplish at Jesus’s return.
It’s an important point to understand, but I think perhaps we should spend just as much time countering the mistake that is more pervasive in our church, namely, the fear that we’re not good enough for God and might not really be saved. I’ve known people paralyzed by anxiety and fear that they don’t measure up to God, that He won’t give them salvation, and that they won’t be good enough to be in the kingdom. While we should have a great deal of respect for God, He does not want the people He welcomed into a relationship with Him to cower in fear!
You’re not supposed to feel guilty that you needed God’s grace. You should realize that you’re guilty of sin and can only be saved by His grace, but you shouldn’t beat yourself up because you couldn’t earn salvation. You were never meant to earn it! Reading through all of Paul’s letter to the Romans (preferably in one setting) is a beautiful exploration of these facts. None of us can earn salvation, but God knows that and in His great mercy, He worked things out so we don’t need to; we just need to believe in Jesus and commit to following Him. None of our works earn God’s favor or pay Him back for His grace, but good works (and refusing to go back to living in sin) are the correct response to His work in us. Confidence that we’ve received salvation is a topic Paul kept coming back to again and again in his letters.
And so, since we have been justified by his grace, we become heirs with the confident expectation of eternal life.
Titus 3:7-8, NET
This was according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access to God by way of Christ’s faithfulness.
Ephesians 3:11-12, NET
God wants us to be bold and confident in relation to our salvation. He accomplished it, and He wants us to realize that it’s something He will not revoke and no one else can revoke. Jesus pulled us out of the fire when we accepted His sacrifice on our behalf. He’s not going to throw us back in. At the same time, that moment of salvation starts a participatory process. We’re meant to be fully involved in the transformation that salvation starts in our lives.
Balancing Humility and Certainty
We can have great confidence and boldness in the fact that “God did not destine us for wrath but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thes. 5:9, NET). He doesn’t set us up for failure. In fact, He wants us to succeed! He’s already proved how invested He is in saving us by Jesus literally dying in our place. We don’t need to worry that God thinks we’re not good enough (Jesus cared enough to die for us while we were yet sinners [Rom. 5:8]) or that He’ll give up on us partway through the salvation process (Phil. 1:6).
Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory. …
Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath.For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?
Romans 5:1-2, 9-10, NET
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Here, Paul uses the term “reconciliation” for the salvation already accomplished–the restoration of relationship between us and God when Jesus’s sacrifice covered our sins–and “we will be saved” for the final salvation that we look forward to when Jesus returns and we become fully part of God’s family. We are assured without a doubt that Jesus accomplished salvation in our lives when we entered a covenant relationship with Him, and that God will finish the work that He started in us unless we choose to stop working with Him (Phil. 2:12-13; Heb. 2:1-3).
There is a delicate balance we must maintain between humility and confidence. We must confidently expect that God will deliver on His promises of eternal life while at the same time recognize that we could be disqualified from receiving those promises if we reject and abandon God. Even the apostle Paul didn’t dare say he’d already attained the resurrection during most of his life (1 Cor. 9:27; Phil 3:10-14); it was only right at the end of his life that he could say, “I have kept the faith” and will inherit the crown (2 Tim. 4:6-8). Self-righteous confidence is a danger we must be careful to avoid; our confidence should rest in God, not ourselves (Luke 18:9-14; Rom. 2:17-29). And when our confidence is placed firmly in God, then we have nothing to fear.
Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? … Though war should rise against me, even then I will be confident. …
I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living. Wait for Yahweh. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for Yahweh.
One of the interesting, seemingly contradictory, things about Christianity is that it is both very simple and deeply complex. The basics of following God are easily grasped once He opens your mind to understand, and at the same time there’s so much depth to His truth that you’ll never exhaust the possibility for learning more.
At its most basic, God’s way is simple and it’s all contained in the Bible. We can read the scriptures and see that God created all things, He wants a relationship with people, and that under the Law governing the universe people deserve a death-penalty for sins, but that Jesus Christ died in our place so that we could live forever as part of God’s family. All we have to do is repent (turn away from) our sins (which we can recognize as sin by comparing our actions to God’s law), believe in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God, and commit to following Him the rest of our lives.
Then, we have the rest of our lives to study the Bible, learn about the culture and languages it was written in, pray to and talk with God, and figure out just what’s involved in following Him for the rest of our lives. We get to experience the same feeling Paul did when He wrote, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how unfathomable his ways!” (Rom. 11:33, NET). As we dive deeper into those riches, though, we need to be careful we don’t get distracted from the foundations of our faith.
Remember The Foundations
I did a study 10 years ago (can’t believe it’s been that long!) on the concepts the author of Hebrews calls foundational: “repentance from dead works, of faith toward God, of the teaching of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment” (Heb. 6:2-3, WEB). Those are core doctrines of Christianity. Repentance is what you’re supposed to do when you first enter a relationship with God, and involves turning away from your sins. Faith is key to the next step: actively believing (or faith-ing) in Jesus Christ and accepting His sacrifice. Baptism is when we commit to God in covenant, and there’s an ongoing aspect as well. Laying on of hands is linked with setting us apart for God (along with a few other things). Understanding the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement aligns our perspective for the future with God’s plan.
We need to be careful not to forget the simple foundations as we continue our Christian walk. Sure we want to learn more about what God expects of us when we’re in a relationship with Him and how to follow Him whole-heartedly, but that doesn’t mean we should forget that repentance, belief, and commitment are the core things (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 16:31; 19:4; Romans 10:9). Following God isn’t hard (Matt. 11:30). It can be challenging to stick with it, but figuring out what God wants or how to follow Him isn’t complicated.
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Appreciate The Depth
I am very thankful that God both keeps things simple and invites us to keep learning and growing. I would get so discouraged if God kept changing the requirements, expected perfection with no slips, or hid something that’s key to pleasing Him and earning the rewards He promised. At the same time, I’d get so bored if there wasn’t more to learn and discover in the Bible.
Ironically, the most famous verse talking about “simplicity in Christ” is one of the places that we can dig deeper and learn something that isn’t immediately apparent (at last in English translations). Let’s start by looking at the verse in two different translations.
But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2 Cor. 11:3, WEB (bold added)
But I am afraid that just as the serpent deceived Eve by his treachery, your minds may be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:3, NET (bold added)
Already, just looking at this verse in two different translations shows us there’s something more to learn. One says “simplicity that is in Christ” and one says “sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” The NET has a footnote on their translation pointing out that most manuscripts don’t have “and pure,” but several early ones do and that provides strong evidence that the original letter included both haplotētos (“sincerity”) and hagnotētos (“purity”) (NET translation comment on 2 Cor. 11:3). It doesn’t change the meaning much, but it does give us something to think about.
Then we have the difference between “simplicity” and “sincerity.” We often look at the Greek and Hebrew behind the English translation when trying to puzzle out a meaning, but I think we often forget that English words can also change meanings over time or have multiple meanings. In the Oxford English Dictionary, “There are 13 meanings … for the noun simplicity, three of which are labelled obsolete” (it’s behind a paywall, though, so we can’t access those definitions). Perhaps the meaning of “simplicity” has changed since 1611 when translators used it in the King James Version. Even today, though, there are four common meanings: 1) “the state of being simple, uncomplicated, or uncompounded,” 2) “lack of subtlety or penetration,” 3) “freedom from pretense or guile,” and 4) “directness of expression.” In this case, it’s the English word “simple” that has multiple meanings and leads to confusion, not the Greek or Hebrew words.
Following With Sincerity
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Most people I’ve heard talk about this verse assume that “simple” means “uncomplicated.” But the fact that another translation used “sincerity” indicates that perhaps we should read “simple” as meaning “freedom from pretense.” A Greek dictionary confirms that we’re on the right track with this interpretation. Thayer defines haplotes (G572) as ” singleness, simplicity, sincerity, mental honesty,” including “the virtue of one who is free from pretense and hypocrisy.” So this verse isn’t actually talking about how easy it is to follow Christ. It’s about following Him with integrity and devotion, which also fits the context better.
I wish that you would be patient with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you are being patient with me!For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy, because I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that just as the serpent deceived Eve by his treachery, your minds may be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus different from the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the one you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough!
2 Corinthians 11:1-4, NET
Here, Paul’s focus isn’t on how uncomplicated or easy Christianity is. He’s concerned about his readers being lured away by people who spread false teachings. He doesn’t want us to become like those who “will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things.And they will turn away from hearing the truth” (2 Tim. 4:3-4, NET). There is plenty of depth within God’s truth to satisfy our desire to learn without us running off after some counterfeit teaching that adds to or takes away from God’s word (Deut. 4:2; Prov. 30:5-6; Ecc. 3:14; Rev. 22:18-19).
As we progress in our Christian walks, we need to be on guard against several dangers in relation to the knowledge that we’re given. We might become haughty, thinking we understand everything and that there’s nothing new for us to learn, when in reality we’re someone who “does not yet know to the degree that he needs to know” (1 Cor. 8:2, NET). On the other hand, we might become discontent with the basics of God’s way and start adding things on, having “itching ears” that seek out whatever new thing or controversy catches our attention (1 Tim. 6:3-4; 2 Tim. 4:2-4). We must guard ourselves, neither straying from the foundations of God nor forgetting there is always more to learn from Him.
The more I study the Bible, its historic context, and the languages it was originally written in, the more I realize that native English speakers are not well equipped to wrap our minds around Hebrew. I’ve been writing quite a bit about this recently as I look at specific topics like “Waiting in Hope” and “Putting ‘Spare the Rod’ In Context.”
I’ve heard a lot of people, especially those who love the KJV Bible translation, express that they want as close as possible to a 1-to-1 translation of the Bible. They think it’s most accurate if there’s a Hebrew or Greek word directly translated to an English word without anything taken away or added in the number of words. I lean that way with most of my translation preferences, too, but I’m starting to think that while that might be a fairly good way to translate Greek, it’s not all that helpful for Hebrew.
Painting With Words
If you don’t count proper names, Biblical Hebrew has about 7,000 distinct words. Modern Hebrew has about 33,000 words, which is a much expanded vocabulary pool but still significantly smaller than English. Webster’s dictionary currently includes about 470,000 entries for English words and some estimates place the number of English words close to 1 million. That doesn’t mean that Hebrew is a more limited language, though. One of the things that it means is there are a lot of Hebrew words where one word represents concepts that English splits up into multiple words (e.g. “wait” and “hope” are distinct in English, but they’re both valid translations of a single Hebrew word).
Hebrew is full of desert browns and burnt umbers of a nomadic, earthy people who trekked through parched deserts and slung stones at their enemies. Overall its palette only contains a small set of colors … Because of its small vocabulary, each word has a broader possible meaning.
The Hebrew of the Bible … expresses truth by splashing on rich colors with a thick brush, like Van Gogh. … even though the details are quite rough, you mentally fill them in, inferring them from the context. Your mind is used to doing this – figuring out meaning from context. Even when you communicate in English, you rely on common experience to fill in the gaps. You sketch out a scene with a few word-strokes, and let people figure out the rest. Hebrew simply relies on this much more than we do.
I really like Lois Tverberg’s comparison of languages to painting styles. Hebrew uses broader brush strokes and a more limited color pallet while English uses a fine-tipped brush, different colors, and more colors. No English translation will ever be perfect because Hebrew and English are so different; that’s one reason it’s helpful to look at multiple translations when studying. It’s also helpful to learn at least a few important Hebrew words even if you can’t devote the time needed to learn the whole language.
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An AI-Assisted Case Study on Exodus 20:7
As I’ve been pondering this topic again recently, I keep mulling over a specific question: If there isn’t a 1-to-1 correlation for most Hebrew-to-English translations, would it be helpful to think of key Hebrew words as multiple English words. For example, in English we have “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” for Exodus 20:7 (NET). But would it be more accurate to say “You shall not take/carry/use the name/reputation of Yahweh your Elohim in [a] vain/empty/worthless [way]”?
I thought I was on the right track, but I wasn’t sure who to ask about it. I don’t have access to a Biblical Hebrew scholar that I’m aware of, or the time to devote years to really learning the language. Then I remembered I’d been reading about and listening to podcasts on Artificial Intelligence (AI) recently, and one of the things people agree it’s a good tool for is research (some saying it’s a better search engine than Google now). I had been in the “I’m a real writer; I don’t use AI!” camp but the more I read about it, the more I’m convinced of two things: 1) ignoring it won’t make AI go away, and 2) there are some situations where it can be a helpful tool. In this particular case, an AI model can process vast amounts of information on Biblical Hebrew in a matter of seconds that would take me months or even years to work through.
Now, there is something we need to keep in mind as we look at the AI response. AI models like ChatGPT (the one that I used) can “hallucinate,” or make up information. That’s why I asked it about Exodus 20:7 and Proverbs 29:15. These are two verses that I’ve already studied quite a bit, so I’d be more likely to recognize if there was something wrong with the AI response. The AI response matched everything I’ve found in my own studies, so I’m reasonably confident that the additional information it provided is also accurate. Here is the link to my full chat if you want to check it out for yourself, and here are some highlights from the AI response:
Biblical Hebrew is a compact, context-dependent language with far fewer words than English. A single Hebrew word often holds multiple layers of meaning, depending on context, syntax, and cultural backdrop. English, by contrast, tends to slice meanings more finely, distributing them across many distinct words. So, when translating Hebrew to English, it’s not just about replacing words — it’s about reconstructing meaning.
This is why your suggestion — to think of Hebrew words as mapping onto multiple English possibilities — is both linguistically sound and theologically wise.
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After unpacking my specific example, the AI model suggested two possible expanded translations of Exodus 20:7.
A Fuller Rendering: “You shall not lift up or invoke the name/reputation of Yahweh your Elohim in a false, empty, or worthless manner.” …
This approach does not clutter the meaning — it actually recovers the ethical and relational weight of the command. It’s not just about speech. It’s about how we represent God’s character in our lives, words, oaths, and actions.
I was honestly surprised that ChatGPT gave me such a nuanced, thorough response to my question. It was eerily similar to talking with a knowledgeable, personable professor or scholar who genuinely takes pleasure in helping other people broaden their understanding. It didn’t really tell me something brand new, but it was nice to get confirmation that I’m on the right track as I try to wrap my head around Biblical Hebrew. I hope it gave you some food for thought too.
There is great depth to the entire Bible, but for me, Paul’s writings in particular are something I can come back to over and over again and keep discovering deeper meaning. I wrote about Philippians 3 nine years ago, and I want to go there again today to dig deeper into one particular phrase.
I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.
Philippians 3:12, NET
This is such an evocative phrase. Other possible translations include “I am apprehended of Christ Jesus” (KJV), “the Messiah Yeshua took hold of me” (CJB), “I have been taken possession of by Christ [Jesus]” (DARBY), “Christ grabbed hold of me for just this purpose” (CEB), and “Christ Jesus has made me his own” (ESV). There’s a forward-focus and intentionality here that makes me want to learn more about how and why Jesus laid hold of Paul and, likely, us as well.
Setting the Stage
Let’s start by putting this phrase in context. It’s in the letter that “Paul and Timothy” wrote “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi” (Phil. 1:1, NET). Paul was imprisoned at the time of the writing (Phil. 1:12-14), but it’s a very encouraging letter. It’s full of confidence, hope, and an exhortation to keep living faithful lives. Unlike some letters, Paul wasn’t focused on correcting a problem in this church. Rather, he urged them on to Godly living and unity in the church.
In the section we call chapter 3, Paul talked about his own walk in more detail than we often find. He summarized the earthly credentials that he could have been proud of (Phil. 3:3-6), then said he now regards them as “liabilities” and “dung” compared to the far higher value of knowing Jesus (Phil. 3:7-9).
My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let those of us who are “perfect” embrace this point of view.
Philippians 3:10-15, NET
Here, Paul was talking about himself but then he expands it to others. All those who are “perfect” should embrace the same point of view he has about striving toward the goal and laying hold of the thing “for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of” us. Paul then continued with exhortation to imitate him and others who are faithfully living this way (Phil. 3:17). He concluded with more appeals to unity and more encouragement, urging his readers not to give up and to embrace the peace that God offers (Phil. 4:1-9). Even his appeal for support emphasizes contentment and mutual aid rather than his own pressing needs (Phil. 4:10-20).
The Greek word translated “lay hold of” is katalambano (G2638). Spiros Zodhiates lists three primary meanings: 1) “To lay hold of seize, with eagerness, suddenness,” 2) “In allusion to the public games, to obtain the prize with the idea of eager and strenuous exertion, to grasp, seize upon,” and 3) “Figuratively, to seize with the mind, to comprehend.” He links Phil. 3:12 with the second meaning. The word is used 15 times in the New Testament, and looking at some of the other uses can help us get some additional context for the meaning here in Philippians.
One thing we learn from looking at the other uses of katalambano is that it’s not an extremely specific word. Like the English words “take hold of,” the meaning depends a lot on context. Sometimes it’s a bad thing, as when a demon seizes a child (Mark 9:18), being caught in the act of adultery (John 8:3-4), or being overtaken by darkness (John 12:35, see also John 1:5 and 1 Thes. 5:4). Several times, it’s used in the sense of that third, figurative meaning that Zodhiates highlights (Acts 4:13; 10:34; 25:25; Eph. 3:18). The second meaning, the one we’re focusing on today, appears in three of Paul’s letters: Romans 9:30, 1 Corinthians 9:24, and Philippians 3:12-13. The one in 1 Corinthians is particularly relevant to our study today.
Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win (katalambano). Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.
So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air. Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27, NET
This is katalambano in the sense of obtaining or attaining (two words used in other English translations) a prize. When we’re looking at verses where Paul uses the word in this sense, there is an emphasis on continuing on toward a future goal. Jesus called us with purpose and set us on a path toward a prize that everyone can win if we continue striving for our imperishable crown. It’s not a prize that we’re competing against others to win, but one where we all compete together, striving to get ourselves and our brethren to fully grasp that prize.
Yet, my brothers, I do not consider myself to have “arrived”, spiritually, nor do I consider myself already perfect. But I keep going on, grasping ever more firmly that purpose for which Christ grasped me. My brothers, I do not consider myself to have fully grasped it even now. But I do concentrate on this: I leave the past behind and with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead I go straight for the goal—my reward the honour of being called by God in Christ.
Philippians 3:12-14, PHILLIPS
This version translates katalambano as “grasped” three times here in verses 12 and 13. The image of us grasping for eternal life (Phil. 3:11) like a runner racing toward a prize is a familiar one, but I think this is the only time that we have it paired with Jesus grasping on to us. That’s a really amazing thing to think about. He grabs us for the purpose of getting us to eternal life just as eagerly as we strive to grasp onto that prize.
“There are many dwelling places in my Father’s house. Otherwise, I would have told you, because I am going away to make ready a place for you.And if I go and make ready a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be too. …
“Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; remain in my love. …No one has greater love than this—that one lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. …You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit”
John 14:2-3; 15:9,13-14, 16, NET
We can see Jesus’s focus on bringing more children into His Father’s family throughout His life, but perhaps it’s illustrated most clearly in the dialog during this final Passover with His disciples and the prayer that follows. Jesus doesn’t use the phrase “take hold of” here, but it’s a similar idea. He loves us so much He laid down His life for us, and He wants us to walk with Him in this life and finally join Him and His father in their kingdom. He wasn’t just talking about His disciples at the time, either; He makes clear in His prayer that we’re included as well.
“I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony,that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. …The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one—I in them and you in me—that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they can see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”
John 17:20-24, NET
Jesus’s desire that those who belong to him will “be with me where I am” will be fully realized when we finally “lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of” us. He wants us to become part of His family and “attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3:11, NET). God has grasped onto our lives for an eternal, life-giving reason. They want us to firmly take hold of that same vision for the future and keep moving forward with focus, hope, and commitment. “With this goal in mind,” we should imitate Paul and “strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14, NET).
Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been pondering a topic that I’ve had such a difficult time writing about that I skipped one of my regular posting weeks and then picked another topic for my end of May post. It all started when my husband pointed out a Bible commentary that condemned Rahab for her lie even though it saved the lives of the two spies, and maintains there is never any acceptable reason for a lie (see Beyond Today Bible Commentary: Joshua 2). This stance comes down absolutely on the subject of sin and lies: lies are always a sin and never excusable under any circumstances. Then just a few days later, I read about Christians online sharing made up statistics and excusing it because the lie might encourage people to pray (see “Lying for Jesus: When Did Truth Become UnChristian?” by Sheila Wray Gregoire). This is a completely opposite view, one that approaches truth lackadaisically without any respect for the Bible’s teachings on truth and lies.
The Bible is very clear that lying is a sin and God hates it when people deal falsely. Framed in more positive wording, God’s people ought to follow the Truth and speak only truthful things. And yet we have that example of Rahab, where it seems that a good thing came from her lie, and also the example of the midwives who defied Pharaoh’s command to kill baby boys then concealed the truth, whom God rewarded for their actions. Does that mean they didn’t actually lie? Or that God is sometimes okay with lying? Or might there be some thing else going on, something that hits on a deeper topic of how we approach God’s rules and–more importantly–how God wants us to see His rules and understand His grace.
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The Midwives In Egypt
Rahab is probably the most famous Biblical example of a lie that makes us question whether or not God approved of the deception. In that situation, though, the story does not explicitly state either way what God thought of the lie. It is probable that God did consider this a sin and that it would have been better to find another way to redirect the soldiers, but that because she did the best she could and because she was learning to fear the Lord, God extended grace. There’s one other story, though, where it’s harder for us to condemn the lie.
The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah, and he said, “When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” But the midwives feared God, and didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive. The king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, “Why have you done this thing and saved the boys alive?”
The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women aren’t like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”
God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and grew very mighty. Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
Exodus 1:15-21, WEB
Only one of the commentaries I looked at comes down on the view that this was a lie and dogmatically says, “Their disobedience in this was lawful, but their deception is evil” (Geneva Study Bible). Commentaries on this passage tend to hedge the midwives’ response by saying it “was probably true; but it was not the whole truth” (Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers; see also Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary, Pulpit Commentary, and Matthew Poole’s Commentary). However, the commentaries’ justification for saying it’s a half truth smacks of racism or at least incomplete information (i.e. European writers in the 1800s saying Arabic women are reported to deliver babies easily). It’s also countered by the text itself saying the midwives, “didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive,” which heavily implies that they were there for the births or at the very least could have obeyed the king if they so chose. If they were, in fact, present for the births then saying that the Hebrew women “give birth before the midwife comes to them” was not true. Yet despite this untruth, we are told very clearly, “God dealt well with the midwives” and “Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.”
In this particular situation, it seems that the midwives had a choice between concealing the truth or participating in murder. I suppose they did have a third choice of telling the king that they disobeyed his command, but that would have also lead to death (and possibly not just for them). This sort of situation is rare, but it’s not unheard of. If someone’s life is in your hands and you’re talking to someone who wants to kill them, telling the whole truth could very easily mean you’ve betrayed someone to death (which is not looked on well in Matt. 24:10). It sounds almost heretical to type this, but it seems from this situation that there was at least one time when God was flexible with His command against lying. At the very least, He extended grace to cover the lie and it was neither condemned nor held against the midwives.
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Is There Ever A Lesser Evil?
As I’m pondering the midwives’ situation, I wonder if the person who asked Jesus about the greatest commandment might have had similar questions as I do about what to do when you’re stuck in a situation where you can’t clearly see a good choice. If you’re in a situation like the midwives where you have to choose between obeying God’s commands to respect human authority, not commit murder, and to tell the truth, how do you decide which command is most important?
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus said to him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:36-40, NET
The Hebrew midwives never read this verse, but it might give us a clue to their thought process. We can’t obey human authority if they tell us to disobey God; God is a higher authority and we must love Him and follow Him will all our heart, soul, and mind. We cannot commit murder, firstly because God tells us not to but it is also completely incompatible with loving your neighbor as yourself. In the midwives’ situation, it seemed that telling the whole truth had to take a backseat to following the greatest commands. Could they have handled it in a more truthful way and still had a good outcome? Possibly, but whether it’s the case that they didn’t sin at all or they sinned in lying because they didn’t know what else to do, God still rewarded them for their actions. He has the right to extend grace in whatever situation He wants.
On a cosmic, eternal scale, there are not levels of severity to sin. If you keep every command except one, “you have become a violator of the law” and have “become guilty of all of it” (James 2:10, 11, NET; see James 2:8-13). The law gives us “the knowledge of sin” and ensures that “the whole world may be held accountable to God” by clearly showing how God defines sin (Rom. 3:19-20, NET). We’re all guilty in God’s eyes, no matter how “small” our sins might seem, and we all need Jesus’s sacrifice. Paul says that this truth helps show the righteousness and justice of God, who holds all accountable yet freely offers forgiveness and grace through Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:19-26).
No matter which of God’s laws you violate, “the payoff of sin is death” on an eternal timescale and you need “the gift of God [which] is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23, NET). But on an earthly level, we also know that some sins are less destructive than others and God’s laws for ancient Israel reflected that. Every sin would earn you an eternal death penalty (i.e. you can’t live forever unless you accept Jesus’s Christ’s sacrifice on your behalf) but not every sin earned you a physical death penalty when living in a nation ruled by God’s law. For example, murder was a death-penalty sin (Lev. 24:17; Num. 35:30-31) but theft required you pay back more than you stole (Ex. 22:1). If someone lied in a court of law, then the false witness was punished the same way “he had intended to do to the accused” (Deut. 19:19, NET; see Deut. 19:16-19). God didn’t order the same legal penalty for every sin; there was more nuance than that.
We should never think, “I can get away with breaking this one of God’s laws because it’s not a big deal,” but if we’re legitimately in a position where we have to choose between participating in murder or lying about something, I think the choice is clear. You would still need to repent of the lie, but God has a great deal of mercy for people, especially when they are not flagrantly defying Him because they think His laws don’t matter or that they can get away with it.
Maintain Careful Respect For God
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Scripture is clear that God’s laws are very important and He acts justly at all times. We can rely on Him not to go around changing His laws willy-nilly. He has the sovereign right to deliver and enforce laws, and when we agree to live in relationship with Him, part of our covenant obligation is obedience. At the same time, one of the consistent things we know about His character is that He extends lots of mercy and grace to people who slip, and that He reserves the right to amend His plans in response to human behavior (e.g. withholding destruction from Nineveh after the city repented).
For lying in particular, we’re told in no uncertain terms that it originates with the devil and that those who live untruthful lives are abominable to God (Prov. 12:19, 22; John 8:44; 1 John 2:21). We can count on Him to cover that sin in some very specific circumstances, like for Rahab and the midwives, but we ought not take the grace that He shows to people who lied to save a life as license to lie for anything we think is a good cause. This is where those people we mentioned who spread false research even after knowing it was fabricated made a mistake.
Absolutely not! Let God be proven true, and every human being shown up as a liar, just as it is written: “so that you will be justifiedinyour words and will prevail when you are judged.”
But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? (I am speaking in human terms.)Absolutely not! For otherwise how could God judge the world? For if by my lie the truth of God enhances his glory, why am I still actually being judged as a sinner? And why not say, “Let us do evil so that good may come of it”?—as some who slander us allege that we say. (Their condemnation is deserved!)
Romans 3:4-8, NET (bold italics mark a quotation from Ps 51:4)
The Bible does not give us license to lie whenever we think we have a good reason. Here, Paul specifically addresses a situation where people thought to forward the gospel by lying, and shows that you are still a sinner if you violate God’s law thinking to do good. We need to obey God the way He tells us to. But it is also worth mentioning here if you lied for what you thought was a good reason, you can still realize your mistake and repent. God is always ready to respond to sincere human repentance with forgiveness and grace.
I almost didn’t share this post because it’s such a tricky thing to write about, but I think it’s good to have these types of conversations because they do come up in hypotheticals and sometimes in real-life. I have heard people say that they worry about being in a situation like Europeans who hid Jews during the Holocaust because they’re concerned that God would condemn them as sinners if they lied when asked, “Are there Jews hiding here?” I don’t think we need to worry about that so much. God is not up there waiting to pounce on us, watching for us to fail if we’re in an impossible situation and can’t think of a better way out.
To directly address the title of this post, “Is There Ever A Good Reason To Lie?” I think the answer is both no and yes. “No” in the sense that lying is always a sin, but “yes” in the sense that there are rare situations where you can’t see any other way to obey another of God’s commands (e.g. “love your neighbor as yourself”) than to conceal the truth. God always looks on our hearts, and there’s a big difference between lying because you can’t think of any other way to save a life (and then repenting of the lie) and lying because you’re too proud to admit your were wrong (especially if you then convince yourself you don’t need to repent).
![Image of a man studying the Bible overlaid with text from Ex. 20:7, AMP version: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain [that is, irreverently, in false affirmations or in ways that impugn the character of God]; for the Lord will not hold guiltless nor leave unpunished the one who takes His name in vain [disregarding its
reverence and its power]."](https://likeananchor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/bibilical-hebrew-1.jpg)
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