My family members have tried to convince me of the legitimacy of the "five-second rule." You are welcome to eat your floor sandwich, but I’ll pass because the "five-second rule" has no basis in reality.
Unfortunately, society has taught us to believe a lot of "rules" that aren’t true. Will swimming after a meal automatically give you cramps? No. Does human urine heal jellyfish stings? Absolutely not.
We have the same kind of folklore for our faith. Not everything the world tells us about God is true. For instance, Jesus gets credited with a lot of statements or ideas that He never said.
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Here are a few of the worst ones:
Sometimes we think of God as a cosmic accountant tabulating our sins and getting angrier and angrier with each failure. Nothing could be further from the truth.
God is not mad at you. He is mad about you! The Bible makes this abundantly clear: "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God" (1 John 3:1, ESV).
He wants to bless us and give us an abundant life worth living.
This statement is the converse of "God is angry at you," but it’s still wrong. Yes, God does love you. Yes, God does accept you just as you are. You don’t have to be perfect to give your heart to Him. But He loves you so much He refuses to leave you that way.
He asks us to confess and repent of our sins—not just at the moment of salvation, but daily. This maintains our relationship with God, keeping us open to receiving His love.
Musicians and songwriters love this kind of language and use the heart to represent our emotions, desires or internal guide.
Jeremiah 17:9 has a different message about the heart: "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (NIV). In other words, if you follow your heart, you’ll just be led astray.
Instead, we should follow God’s will. Ezekiel 36:26 says he will give us a new heart and spirit. That’s how we find the truth.
The world tells you to follow your heart, trust your gut and chase your dreams. But God knows the future. His dream for you may not align exactly with your dreams, but it will be far better.
The bottom line is that God loves you, and His plan for you is much better than your own.
Loving ourselves isn’t something most of us need to be taught. When Jesus said the second-greatest commandment was to "love your neighbor as yourself," He assumed that we already know how to love ourselves. We already do that too well.
That’s why Jesus said that anyone who wants to follow Him needs to "deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24 NIV).
Many people follow this line of thinking, including some Christians I know. But who defines what is good? Hint: It’s not us.
The Bible teaches that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23, NIV). That means no matter what "good" things you do, you will still fall short of God’s holiness.
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Jesus makes it clear that some "good people" will be surprised to find themselves in hell. Here are His own words about that terrible scenario: "Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’" (Matthew 7:22-23, NIV).
That’s not something you want to hear from Jesus. It’s not enough to attend church, do good deeds or be an upstanding citizen. It’s not enough to know about God. We need to know God.
What Jesus actually said
These are things Jesus never said. Here is one thing He absolutely did say: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, NIV).
That’s a promise we can stake our lives on. God loves us as we are, but He wants to change us. He wants to relieve us of the weight of our burdens so we can spend eternity in His presence.
Let’s pay closer attention to what Jesus actually said instead of what our culture mistakenly thinks He said. When we do that, it will transform our lives.
