God's Word contains God's heart for all of man. It contains His promises, the blessings He has given, and His plan for every single person on earth.
Christians use it to receive guidance, instruction, encouragement and comfort for everyday life. Paul sums it up very beautifully in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, saying:
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."
The thing is, while the Word of God does bless us even as we simply read it (see Revelation 1:3), obedience to it is what will allow us to see just how powerful it is:
"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does." (James 1:22-25)
That said, there are some who use the Word of God to advance their own personal interests. They use the Word of God to convince people to follow their agendas.
Is this right? Should a Christian do this?
Of course, it's a "no."
Why not?
God's Word is given for God's purposes. It is meant to fulfill God's intentions and plans, not the plans of man.
In Isaiah 55:10-11 we read God declaring,
"For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."
Anyone who tries to twist the Word of God, to manipulate it in such a way that it is used for man's purposes and not God's, will face certain trouble:
"Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures." (2 Peter 3:14-16)
Friends, that's the simple answer. Those who misuse God's Words for their own benefit do it to their own destruction.
In closing
We must never use God's Word to promote our own agendas. No matter what happens, God's Word is His, and we must honor Him by simply obeying His Word, not misusing it.
