The Wisdom Of Man

He showed me another vision. I saw the Lord standing beside a wall that had been built using a plumb line.

Amos 7:7

THERE ARE A LOT OF HELPFUL Christian books available, and we encourage you to read as many of them as you can. A reliable Christian author can offer valuable insights about the life of faith that God can use to help grow your faith.

But is there any danger in reading how other men interpret and apply Scripture? Possibly. We need to measure a man’s words against the Word of God, just as we would use the builder’s plumb line, mentioned by the prophet Amos, to build a wall.

In his classic The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer uses a similar illustration from music. A piano tuner doesn’t tune one piano to another piano, because differences in tone would still occur and both pianos would still be a little bit out of tune. Instead, he tunes each piano to a tuning fork—a reliable and consistent standard—and thus even a hundred pianos, all tuned to the same tuning fork, will be perfectly tuned to each other.

What can we learn from that example? When we read our favorite, trusted authors, we shouldn’t automatically take their interpretation of Scripture as the final word on the subject. Rather, we must apply God’s “tuning fork”—His inspired and holy Word—to find His truth, measuring all things against Scripture. At the same time, we should recognize that our own interpretations are fallible as well, and it is wise to prayerfully study the Bible with other Christians.

BOTTOM LINE

Read your favorite authors, but look up the Scriptures they cite and see whether their ideas line up clearly with the Word of God.

Moment of Strength: Amos 7:7-9