Which Bible Translation

We often find someone getting worked up over which Bible is being quoted. For example, one may push the King James version as the more correct one, while another is happy reading the NIV. These differences will exist. But if we look down on someone else, God cannot be pleased.

An overly watered-down version of the Bible would not do God much justice. But saying that our accepted version is the only one God likes is not what we are called to do. The servants of God who are stepping right in this world are the ones who are focused on Him. Their hearts resemble the hearts of the One who saves us all. We cannot reflect Christ while we are acting like the Pharisees.

Dear Lord, give us a greater desire to approach You than to tell others what they should do. Direct our gaze again on a place where we are with You always. When pride begins to enter our hearts and make us feel superior to another, show us where we have strayed. Give us new hearts. Ones that beat for You alone. Amen

John 14:6 ESV / Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

2 Peter 1:20 ESV / Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.

Hebrews 10:24 ESV / And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 ESV / For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

Romans 16:17 ESV / I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.

1 John 4:1 ESV / Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 

Matthew 23:1-39 ESV / Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, …

1 Timothy 6:3-5 ESV / If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

Colossians 2:8 ESV / See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.