A number of Bible verses are misinterpreted and taken out of context.
On one side, its quite common to come across such misinterpretations from people with anti-theistic, atheistic views, and people from non-Christian, theistic worldviews. On the other side, the Christians also do misinterpret Bible verses by giving a carnal meaning to verses that were written from a spiritual perspective.
In Bible-Literacy, we share why and how some specific Bible verses are misinterpreted, along with the correct interpretation.
In this blog post, let's see how Romans 3:7 is misinterpreted especially by people practicing non-Christian faiths.
To understand better, let's see the verse Romans 3:7 below (in bold fonts):
Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?”
Here, the beginning of the verse is often ignored. It starts with Someone might argue, and then the rest of the verse is written within double quotes. However, these first three words are missed by most people in their arguments against Christianity, and they conclude wrongly that Paul is justifying sinning.
But when we read the entire verse, its evident that they misinterpreted the verse, thinking that Paul is telling “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?”.
By taking the words "Someone might argue" into context, its easy to understand that Paul himself is not justifying the sinning, but he talks about those individuals who question why they are condemned as a sinner if his/her falsehood enhances God's truthfulness.
When we read the verses 7 and 8, its clear that Paul is actually warning those who argue (that their sins enhances God's truthfulness) will be condemned. Hence, Paul makes it clear that we cannot justify sinning by saying it increases God's glory, and the claims (by both Christians and non-Christians alike) that Paul justifies sinning in Romans 3:7 is false.
In conclusion, the non-Christians point to Romans 3:7 to refute Christianity (knowingly or unknowingly), while some Christians point to this verse as they deceptively think that this verse tell them that their sins are justified to glorify God. The Bible is always against sinning no matter what, but the sinners who truly repent (with a strong desire to refrain from sinning again), and seek God's forgiveness by accepting Christ as their personal savior are forgiven through the blood of Christ.
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