December 22

False doctrines, like false witnesses, do not agree among themselves. We might well name them "Legion," for they are many. But truth is whole, and one Scripture harmonizes sweetly with another. Thus, although God used many different men to pen His sacred Word, He made sure they all had but one mouth: "As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began" (Luke 1:70). The best way, therefore, to know the mind of God in a particular text is to compare it to another text. The stonecutter uses a diamond to cut another diamond. Like crystal glass set next to each other, each Scripture casts a peculiar light on the others.

Now in comparing Scripture with Scripture, be careful to interpret the obscure by the more plain, not the clear by the dark. Error creeps into the most shaded places and takes sanctuary there: "Some things hard to be understood, which they that are... unstable wrest" (2 Peter 3:16). But no wonder people stumble in these dark places, when they have turned their backs on the light of plainer passages offering to lead them safely through.

"Whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not" (1 John 5:18). Some people run away with this text and rationalize that they can claim perfection and freedom from all sin in this life; but a multitude of plain Scripture like 1 John 1:8 testify against such a conclusion: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." So we must understand, then, that it is in a limited sense that one "born of God sinneth not." In other words, he does not sin finally, as the carnal man does. And notice a similar example: "...that wicked one toucheth him not" (1 John 5:18)-- this means Satan cannot transfuse his nature into the Christian, as fire touching wood or iron changes and absorbs it into its own nature.

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