The Bible is most often read like a greeting card, whose only purpose is to warm the heart regardless of whether or not its sentiments apply to you. We bend the meaning of the Scripture to fit our own experience. When the Bible describes how God’s people must live, instead of asking, “Am I one of God’s people? Is that how I live?” we declare, “Since I am one of God’s people, that is how I live.” That we may not be part of God’s people is not considered a possibility.

So a pleasant feeling at Sabbath services passes as sacrificial love for our brothers, or joy unspeakable and full of glory. For someone who mistakenly believes they are already a citizen of the Kingdom of God, the problem is that the Bible may no longer have the ability to change his mind. In fact, if we read our lives into the Scriptures instead of reading the Scriptures into our lives, we may lose the ability to learn anything new from God’s Word.