Are We Peddling or Tampering With God's Word?

By: Dr. Jimmy Young

I was struck earlier this week with a couple of statements made by the Apostle Paul about people who handle God’s Word, of which I am one, and maybe not a very good one at that. He talked about being a “peddler of God’s Word” (II Corinthians 2:17), and two chapters later in 4:2, he spoke of refusing “to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s Word.”

You can understand, I hope, why statements like that would give me pause. Am I “peddler”? Do I “tamper”? What is a peddler? How does one tamper?

A peddler is one who sells a product for a profit. I do get paid to do what I do. To tamper is to modify or change in subtle ways. So, am I guilty of either of those? I’ll have to let you decide, while I wrestle with God over those matters.

I do know that what I think is tampering with God’s Word, I see in this whole ordaining of women, and, of course, the gay marriage issue. Realizing that my positions on both of those issues are not “politically correct,” I must, nonetheless, speak out against both of those things, because to fail to do so would make me guilty of tampering with something that I’m not supposed to tamper with. I also feel that to cave on issues that I think are clearly denounced in Scripture would mean that I have a tendency to “peddle.”

So, my only solution is to continue to ask God about His Word, and about my heart. That’s all I can offer you. But it might be sound advice for all of us.