What are the most misquoted Bible quotes of all time?

 I get a big kick out of people quoting things that aren’t in the Bible at all. There’s a story of a man sitting next to an archbishop on a flight. In the discussion the man says “Like the Bible says, God helps those who help themselves,” and without missing a beat the bishop replies, (with a twinkle in his eye), “Yes of course, just as ‘they also serve who only sit and wait’.” Neither of those statements is anywhere in the Bible.

“God moves in mysterious ways” (that’s actually from a hymn, not the Bible), “Cleanliness is next to godliness”, “Money is the root of all evil”, “All things work together for good” are not actually in the Bible but are, sort of, semi-biblical ideas whose original meaning has been lost as popular culture appropriated them.

God does move in mysterious ways, but that does not mean He leaves us without understanding or wisdom or knowledge - or personal responsibility.

Cleanliness is certainly a good thing, but this statement is also not in the Bible. It goes all the way back to Babylonia. What God actually cares about cleaning up is our hearts and minds.

It’s the love of money (greed? materialism?) that is described in the Bible as one of 3 or 4 different roots of all kinds of evils.

Paul does say things work together for our good, but in the next two verses he also explicitly explains what that good is: it’s forming the character of Christ in us. It is not giving us what we want, making us happy, or protecting us from all suffering and struggle.

I would add to the list “Judge not”, “ask for anything in my name”, “no more than you can handle” (which is about temptation not suffering), an “eye for an eye”, “I can do all things”, and many more which are regularly taken out of context and misused.

But for number one on my list I pick Matthew 27:24-25: “And all the people answered and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.”

This scripture has been called the most inflammatory passage in the New Testament because it has been used to support anti-Semitism. The Romans are the ones who actually put Jesus to death, not the Jews, but the real point here is that the New Testament teaches that Jesus died for the sins of the world - all of us and all our sins put Him there.

We all did it.

Blaming the Jews is shifting the blame for that single truth. We do it so we don’t have to face our own personal responsibility. It is one of those human methods of alleviating the weight of guilt. But blame-shifting is one of the unhealthiest methods of coping that there is in existence. It makes things worse in the end for everyone. It’s toxic and destructive and damaging to all involved.

Misusing this one helped make the Holocaust possible. IMO, that makes this one, absolutely, the worst, most misquoted, most misunderstood, and most misapplied scripture in all of history.