21/09/2026
PREACHERS MUST BE HONEST WITH ME!
I have said this again and again, and I will say it again. The pulpit is not an entertainment center. The Bible is not a tool for excitement. The Bible is Christ revealed, and until Christ is revealed, you have not preached.
Today we have a generation of preachers who deliberately twist scriptures to make people shout. They know what the text says, they know what the text means in context, but they will intentionally misinterpret it because excitement brings offering. And that is a disgrace to the ministry of reconciliation.
Let me show you what I mean.
1. The Bible must be explained in context.
2 Timothy 2:15 says "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
Rightly dividing means cutting straight. It means you don't bend the text to fit your idea; you allow the text to say what it says.
For example, preachers love to quote Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" and they tell you it means you can buy a jet, you can build a mansion, you can do anything you imagine. That is intentional misinterpretation to excite people.
What is the context? Read from verse 11 and 12. Paul is talking about contentment in lack and in abundance. He is in prison. He says, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content... I know how to be abased and how to abound." So "all things" in context is enduring hardship, enduring lack, enduring persecution for Christ's sake through Christ who strengthens him. It is not a mantra for material acquisition. But preachers won't teach that because it won't make people shout "Amen!"
2. Christ is the message of the scriptures, not excitement.
Jesus himself said in Luke 24:27, "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself."
And in John 5:39, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."
The scriptures testify of Christ. From Genesis to Malachi, it is Christ. Matthew to Revelation, it is Christ. So if your preaching does not reveal Christ and Him crucified, you have not preached, you have only entertained.
Preachers take Isaiah 54:17 "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper" and they make it a chant against village witches. The context? God is speaking to Israel about restoration, not about your landlord. The weapon in context is the accusation and the tongue of judgment, as verse 17b says "and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn." It is about justification by faith. Romans 8:33-34 explains it: "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth." No weapon of condemnation shall prosper because we are justified in Christ. But they won't teach justification; they will shout about witches because witches excite Africans.
That is a disgrace.
3. Intentional misinterpretation is dishonesty.
2 Peter 3:16 says about Paul's epistles, "in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction."
To wrest means to twist. When you twist scripture knowingly to make people excited, you are unstable and unlearned, and Peter says it is to your own destruction.
God is not excited about excitement. God is excited about accurate knowledge. 1 Timothy 2:4 says God will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. Not excitement, but knowledge of the truth.
A preacher's job is not to make you shout; a preacher's job is to make you see Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13 says the five-fold ministry is for perfecting of the saints, for edifying, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
When you preach to excite, you produce emotional Christians who shout on Sunday and are defeated on Monday because they have no foundation in Christ. But when you teach Christ accurately, you produce rooted, grounded, stable believers who know who they are in Christ.
So I say again, preachers, stop misinterpreting scriptures intentionally to make your congregants excited! It's a disgrace. Stop using scriptures as a tool for fundraising. Study the Bible Christocentrically. The Old Testament is Christ concealed, the New Testament is Christ revealed. Any scripture that does not reveal Christ in its proper context has been misinterpreted.
We must return to exegesis, not eisegesis. We must allow the Bible to speak for itself, line upon line, precept upon precept, with Christ as the focus.
That is the accurate ministry.
ยฉ๏ธSon K Benson Quotes
