How you view God will affect the way you interpret Scripture.

By nature, I fear authority, I always have. I would rarely push my luck with standing up or against any kind of authority growing up. I ultimately feared the authority of God the most. I honestly loved Jesus and wanted to obey Him but I can't lie, there was some fear there of what would happen if I didn't. One of my Dad's favorite phrases was: "You can choose you sin, but you can't choose your consequences." Even though it is a true statement, it always invoked fear into me. When I did mess up I thought "What will happen to me?" It was this agonizing waiting of the "consequence." So when I read passages like John 5, I was disturbed.

"Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” -John 5:14

This is not the most cheerful verse. When I think about Jesus, the Lord of the universe coming up to me and saying "Do not sin anymore or something worse than what I healed you from will happen to you!" I would have to go be a nun. I always wondered what that man thought to himself? And what do we as believers do with this verse? We know that the chances of us making it even a day without sinning is not good. So was Jesus rebuking a SPECIFIC sin? If so, what in the world was it, so we can avoid this "worse thing coming upon us?" Or was it more general? Like, don't be addicted to a sin, you can do it once but more than once and the "worse thing" will happen? Christian or not, all of us have addictions. Whether it be the way we talk, what we eat, or watch, the list goes on. So what do we do? Are we disqualified? These are the kind of questions that went through my mind as I have read this passage. I'm just being honest. I believe we as Christians need to deal with these "tough" passages and ask the Lord to show us the truth.

So a month or so ago, I was wallowing in self-pity. I heard the Lord quote to me a different verse in this passage “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” When I heard it in my spirit, it was not said in a sweet gentle way. It was said in an authoritative, matter-of-fact, you WILL do it, kind of way! It startled me when I heard it, but I heard the Lord say afterward. Quit lying there when I've given you all that you need to get up. This morning, I heard the Lord quote "Go and sin no more!" When I looked it up I realized it was the SAME passage as the verse He gave me about a month ago. Again, I heard an authoritative voice and I reverted back to the famous quote "you can choose your sin, but you can't choose your consequences." the Lord said: NO, I said that with authority to the man BECAUSE I was setting Him free to do what he could not do for himself. Jesus was not putting a legalistic law on this healed man and heaping judgment on him. It was both a warning but it was a freeing statement of authority to GO and live what Jesus had just FREELY given him. Jesus was fully aware of the mans sins and imperfections and He was setting him free and telling him not to squander his freedom or something worse would happen. It reminded me of a Scripture in

Romans 6:15
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!


We should have the fear of the Lord but the fear of the Lord is not the same as FEAR. It is a reverence, awe, and respect not a trembling terror of dispair. When we read Scripture we must look at through the lens of God's character throughout His word as a whole and not pick out Scriptures or we won't see what He is trying to say!