There is a difference between what is right and what seems right. Over the past two weeks we studied the effect of the words we say. Some of the “Christian” things we say actually fall under the same category; they aren’t entirely scriptural and they can affect our walk with God, in a bigger way than we ever imagined. That a phrase is popular in the church or catchy does not necessarily make it scriptural. Here are some unscriptural sayings that we must stop saying from now!

The first is “I am a sinner” or it’s variations like “a sinner like me, we sinners” etc. I find this statement quite contradictory and I believe I have the scripture to back me up on this. First off, who is sinner? A sinner is someone who is perpetually disobeying God, this is someone who has made it a habit to do what is a sin; what God doesn’t approve of. A popular scripture that is quoted to back up this phrase is Romans 3:23KJV; “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. This scripture is most often quoted out of context but did you notice that it says:

“all have sinned” and not “all are sinners”. The full context of that scripture says “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins” Romans 22-24 NLT”.

We have all wronged but by faith in Christ Jesus, we have been made right in God’s sight. If God does not see you as a sinner, why do you see yourself in such manner? Making a few mistakes (of the head and not of the mind; preconceived and meditated) does not return you to square one of being a sinner. It means you have sinned and all you need to do is receive God’s forgiveness and never go back to it. When we believe the unscriptural phrase that we are all sinners, we diminish the effect of salvation and that in turn affects our relationship with God. We’d find ourselves falling in and out of sins because we never really saw ourselves as “not sinners” or worse, we’d become self-righteous Christians who think they worked hard to becomes sinless and every other Christian who sins is not “worthy” to hold that title.  

“God is in control”. Nope. You are. Now, if the phrase was “God is sovereign” then there’d be no problem but saying God is in control is not in accordance with what we see in the scripture. In the garden of Eden, God gave dominion to man but when man fell by sin, that dominion was lost to the devil. Thankfully, Jesus came and restored the dominion to us and He said “…all authority I have given to you…” Luke 10:19. The control pad was handed back to us. As in, God’s plan was to make miniature copies of Himself on earth, (know ye not that ye are gods?) why do you think God brought the animals to Adam to name? He was with the control; we are also with the control. Scripture says for as Christ is, so are we on earth. Your finances or health or academics are not in God’s control but in yours…the ball is in your court! To further prove to you that you are in control, remember when Jesus said whatever you bind here on earth is bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth is loose in heaven. That God is entirely in control is a lie that the devil is selling to you so that when things go wrong, you’d begin to wonder “what was God doing”. It’s his tactic to make you lose faith. But don’t fall prey by ignorance. This control goes in hand with our free will. If God was truly controlling everything then we would not have free will. He has given us control hence the ability to choose whether or not to submit to His will. [Genesis 2:15-20; 1 John 4:17; Matthew 16:19; John 10:34-35]

“Come and dwell in us, Spirit of God”. This phrase is popularly found in “gospel” songs. Who says the Spirit of God is not in you? Every believer at the point of belief, receives the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Except you are unbeliever or a sinner (cue paragraph 2), you have the Spirit of God in you! It is the lack of this knowledge that causes a person to fall victim of the enemy. For one, you would find it harder to sin when you know that God is not somewhere far away but right there in you. You would comport yourself better knowing fully well that you are the temple of the living God. When you find yourself in trouble, you would fear less when you know that God lives inside of you. Salvation has brought God nearer to us than we have ever imagined. Stop calling God to come and dwell in you, He already does! [1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 2 Timothy 1:14; John 14:23; 1 Corinthians 3:16]

Saying these things won’t take you to hell, why then, is it even important that we correct ourselves and stop saying these things? For knowledge’s sake. The Scriptures lay much emphasis on the need and importance of knowledge. If we do not have the right knowledge of these things, abuse of the Scripture and distrust in God can set in. Also, the more we make these statements, the more we internalize them…we might not realize it but there is a gradual internalization of these things and for baby believers (those new in the faith), it can be quite misleading.