Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

People are guilty of lying. That is a known fact. What is often more difficult to recognize is where those lies come from. Some lies are intentionally deceptive. We know the truth, but we suppress it or bend it so we can use it for our own purposes. Other lies are far less obvious. They are absorbed more than chosen. They rise out of poor formation, cultural immersion, painful life experiences, false assumptions, or ideas we have inherited over time.

To give a visual of this, I might liken an intentionally deceptive pastor to someone who knows he is lying, what the Bible calls a wolf. Another pastor may actually believe his lies and therefore be led astray or deceived. The latter is most often formed through what I like to call adoptive practice, the practice of adopting beliefs and values from those around us rather than pursuing truth with careful thought. The greatest causes of this today are a deep aversion to critical thought and an overall laziness of mind.

Regardless, this matters deeply when we approach Scripture.

Whatever lies live in our minds are placed in God’s mouth whenever we open Scripture.

We read the Bible, but instead of letting God speak on His own terms, we pressure His Word to agree with assumptions we already carry. This is why it is not only the deceiver who places lies in the mouth of God. The deceived can do the same. This is one of the most dangerous forms of interpretive drift, because it can look like Bible reading while quietly becoming self confirmation.

We live in a spiritual formation crisis unlike anything the world has ever seen. Never before has culture been so deeply immersed in the opinions of men. From social media to news outlets, blogs, vlogs, and entertainment syndications being pumped into every phone, tablet, and television, we rarely escape the oceanic depth of human opinion. Over time, these opinions become so embedded in our thinking that we no longer recognize them as outside influences. We assume they belong to us, and then we read the Bible through them.

This is why it is so important that we learn to recognize the lies we bring to the pages of Scripture. Not every false assumption announces itself as deceitful rebellion. Some lies sound reasonable, loving, caring, and kind. Some have been repeated so often that they sound like truth. But the moment they begin shaping the way we read God’s Word, they become not only dangerous to the mind but destructive to the soul.

Here are 4 common lies people bring to the Bible. My hope is that they will help you recognize some of the assumptions you may be carrying into Scripture.

Relativism

Worldview
Relativism teaches that truth is not objective but subjective. It is something each individual determines for himself or herself. What is true for one person may not be true for another. People who hold this worldview often use phrases like “my truth” and “your truth,” as if truth can be privately owned or personally adjusted. Relativism forcefully removes God from His rightful place as the source, standard, and arbiter of all truth.

The Lie
When relativism is brought to Scripture, the reader does not ask, “What has God said?” Instead, he asks, “What does this mean to me?” The Bible in the hands of a relativist becomes something to negotiate rather than something to receive. Clear and instructive teaching is softened so as not to wound the ego of the recipient. Commands are treated as suggestions, and doctrine becomes personal preference. In this way, relativism does not always reject Scripture outright. It simply refuses to let Scripture have final authority.

Biblical Correction
Scripture does not present truth as something created by the individual, shaped by culture, or adjusted according to personal experience. Truth is unmovable. It is the most stable force in the universe because God Himself is truth.

Relativism moves truth from the hands of God the Potter and places it in the hands of us, the liars.

Paul writes, “Let God be true though every one were a liar” (Romans 3:4).

Jesus further teaches us, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). He does not invite us to protect our personal version of truth. He calls us to lay it down, follow Him, and be remade by His Word. The path to clarity begins when the self is removed from the throne and Christ is received as Lord over what is true.

Expressive Individualism

Worldview
Expressive individualism teaches that the deepest truth about a person is found by looking within. The overarching goal in life is the full and untethered pursuit of discovering your inner desires and expressing them without reserve. This has become one of the most dominant worldviews in our culture today. It instructs us to treat personal authenticity and self expression as the highest good.

The Lie
When expressive individualism is brought to Scripture, any command that comes up against an individual’s desires is marked as dominating, unloving, and oppressive. This worldview makes subjects like biblical correction feel like harm, repentance like self rejection, and judgment strike like an abusive hand. This causes the reader to accept only the parts of Scripture that affirm the self while rejecting the parts that do not. It prohibits the Bible from defining who we are and uses it to support who we already believe ourselves to be.

Biblical Correction
Self is not the source of truth. Jesus does not call us to express the old self more freely. He calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him (Matthew 16:24). The Christian life is not one of self expression, but transformation into the image of Christ.

Consumerism

Worldview
Consumerism trains people to view life through the lens of personal benefit. It instructs us to assign value to things that bring comfort, increase, satisfaction, convenience, and visible success. This is not only about money or possessions. It shapes how we view relationships, church, worship, obedience, and even God Himself.

When a person holds a consumeristic worldview, the central question is no longer, “What is true?” or “What does God require?” The question becomes, “What does this do for me?”

Church, worship, prayer, and life itself are engaged with a reciprocity driven agenda. Everything becomes a transaction, and every decision is made based on the potential return.

The Lie
When consumerism is brought to Scripture, the reader begins looking for verses that promise increase while avoiding Scriptures that call us to sacrifice. The Bible is used as a tool for personal improvement. Promises are claimed out of context, suffering is treated as failure, and sickness is viewed as evidential fruit birthed from a lack of faith.

This lie is dangerous because it sounds spiritual. It throws around words like faith, blessing, breakthrough, and favor while quietly redefining them in the kiln of comfort and gain. You will hear phrases like, “It’s never God’s will for you to suffer or be sick.” Instead of asking how Scripture calls us to know God, obey Christ, and endure faithfully, consumerism asks how Scripture can help us get the life we want.

Biblical Correction
Scripture does teach that God blesses His people, but it never promises that His blessing will always appear as comfort, money, health, or visible success. Jesus warned, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). This teaches us that life is not measured by what we gain, but by whether we belong to God and walk faithfully before Him.

Therapeutic Culture

Worldview
Therapeutic culture teaches that the highest form of good is our overall sense of wellbeing. Happiness, comfort, peace, and emotional status become preeminent. In this worldview, God becomes your personal therapist on retainer to heal your pain, remove your difficulty, affirm your identity, and support all your personal dreams.

The Lie
When you hold a therapeutic worldview and bring that to Scripture, every passage is filtered through your ultimate desire for personal healing and happiness. Difficult commands drive us to cry rooms, suffering seen in Scripture only further exacerbates the pain we are trying to escape, and the call to holiness becomes too abrasive for emotional wellbeing. God is treated as useful only insofar as He helps us feel better about ourselves.

Biblical Correction
Therapeutic culture tells us to look within ourselves for the answer to our problems, but Scripture tells us the problem runs deeper than we want to admit. Paul writes, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” (Romans 7:18).

Jesus is not a therapist for the wounded self. He is the Savior of sinners.

He does not come to give us an inflated view of ourselves or make us a better version of who we already are. He comes to make dead things alive. The answer is not found by looking inward, but by looking upward to Christ, who alone can rescue, renew, and raise us by grace.

Final Thoughts

The danger of adopting beliefs from the world is that those beliefs rarely announce themselves as open rebellion. They masquerade as empathy, compassion, kindness, reason, and love. That is what makes them so effective. They do not attack Scripture directly. They undermine truth subtly, tilt it a degree on its axis, and present it in a way that makes it difficult for the casual listener to discern it as a lie.

You cannot read Scripture while borrowing lenses from a world that opposes it.

So what are we to do? I am not saying you should come to Scripture with no thoughts at all. If we have lived in this world for any length of time, we have already been formed by culture. Every time we come to Scripture, we bring worldviews that are not fully biblical. So we come aware. We come humbly. We come allowing God’s Word to challenge our assumptions, correct our instincts, renew our minds, and teach us to see truth as God has revealed it.

Before asking what the Bible means to you, ask what beliefs you are bringing to it. Sometimes the greatest obstacle to hearing Scripture is not the difficulty of the text. It is the lie you carried into the room.