There are quite a few sayings that Christians like to quote as if they are from the Bible when in actuality they do not. Some even blatantly contradict the Bible. While our nation’s biblical illiteracy shows up in our inability to recognize phrases that come from the Bible, many struggle with phrases that “sound biblical” but come from somewhere else.
For instance:
”God will not give you more than you can handle.”
Not in the Bible anywhere. If you believe this saying, you need to talk to the early Christians. They were hated. They were beaten, imprisoned, tortured, and executed for their faith.
What about the reformers? Thousands of them were exiled, tortured, imprisoned, and executed, why? For defying the wicked, Roman Catholic Church and for trying to give people the word of God in their own language.
For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 2 Corinthians 1:8
So, despite what we might say, God will give us more than we can handle. The Bible is chock-full of instances where God gave people more than they could handle. Rather, God will never allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to resist. He will always provide a way for us to be faithful to him, even when the pull toward a different path is as strong as it has ever been.
“Love the sinner and hate the sin.”
let me underline that this phrase is NOT IN THE BIBLE.
The first time the Bible cast this saying out of me was when I was reading through the Psalms for the first time. (And by that I mean a serious and intentional reading of the Psalms—not just hopping around, picking a verse here or there).
Early in the Psalm, we encounter some bold, and frankly, intolerant language for our tolerant age:
“The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” (Psalm 5:5–6)
Here, David says of the Lord that he doesn’t just hate the evil that people commit, but he explicitly hates those who do evil—” evildoers.” In other words, God hates sin and the sinner. At first sight, this sounds awful, but it makes total theological sense. God is holy. He cannot love evil.
The Lord tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. (Psalm 11:5)
What’s so outstanding about the gospel, though, is that in Christ, God hated sin so much that he became sin himself to pay the penalty for it. And in doing so, he could love and be with his people forever.
As Christians, we do not hate people but love them. And we display love for all people when we encourage them to turn away from sin and believe in the gospel.
“We are all Gods children”
People who make this statement really mean, “God created us all,” which is accurate. God is the Father of us all in the sense that he formed us and gave us life. We are not, however, all God’s children.
Because God is a relational being, until we accept his gift of eternal life by confessing and repenting of our sin, accepting Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, our behalf, and surrendering our lives to him, we cannot be his children in the truest, most biblical sense of the word. We are just one of his created beings.
"Money is the root of all evil”
This is a common misconception with an easy fix. 1 Timothy 6:10 actually says, "For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil…" Money is not good or bad, and being wealthy is not a sin; Job was wealthy and described as a man who was "blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil" (Job 1:1). Loving money, which in the Greek is "avarice" and implies an emotional affection, is the root of all sorts of evil as the desire to accumulate wealth is placed above God and others.
“God helps those who help themselves.”
If I could pick one phrase to erase from the memories of every Christian, it would be this one. This falsely remembered Bible verse is a blatant contradiction to everything Scripture actually teaches us.
Where does the phrase actually come from? Variations are proverbial statements in ancient Greek tragedies. The Quran (13:11) has something similar. An English politician gave us the exact wording, which Benjamin Franklin quotes in Poor Richard’s Almanac.
The message of Romans 5:8 is the exact opposite. While we were still sinners and unable to help ourselves, Christ died for us—proving how much God loves us, how amazing grace is, and how incapable of helping ourselves we truly are.
“GOD WANTS ME TO BE HAPPY.”
God doesn’t want you to be happy. He wants you to be obedient. Happiness allows emotions to drive the train, while obedience is driven by commitment.
Imagine Jesus saying this, “Hey Frank, God really values your happiness. He wants you to feel good. So, if it doesn’t feel good, don’t do it.”
Happiness flies in the face of difficulty and hardship. Happiness sees hard times and runs the opposite direction…with lightning speed. But God sees hardships as a launching point to show the world his glory and mold you into his image. Find me a man or woman in the Bible who accomplishes something great for God, I will show you someone who endured severe difficulty.
If God valued your happiness, there would be no salvation because there would be no cross. Let’s drop this lie.
While Christians mean well when using these quotes, it would be best if Instead of offering people more bad advice via Cliché-anity, let’s turn to offer them the whole truth, being fully honest so that we can always lead them toward the good news of Christianity. Let’s refrain from using clichés in our conversations with others. Let’s put “Christ” back into Christ-ianity.
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