CONTEXT, People! Context!

Hat tip to Aaron over at Aaron's Corner for this one. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.

At the very top of the web site for St. James United Church of Christ in Limerick, PA is a Scripture quotation. Luke 4:7 -- "If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Sounds like a great promise to claim, doesn't it?

But there's a problem, and it involves taking verses out of their Scriptural context.

4:1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written,‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’

So St. James UCC is, on it's web site, quoting the words of Satan as he tempted Christ in the wilderness. I leave you to write your own punchline.

{edit: I was not able to find an email address for the webmaster of the site. I just did, and have emailed him to let him know that he might want to change the verse. I was NOT sarcastic or anything like that to him -- I approached him the way a Christian should a fellow Christian.}

Posted by Warren Kelly at February 12, 2006 09:02 PM | TrackBack