“Neither Add Nor Subtract”
Deuteronomy 4:2

Click for Audio

Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost—August 30, 2015

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

In today’s Old Testament Reading, Moses proclaims to the ancient people of God: “Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you.  Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.  Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.”

Several years ago there was a celebrated case before the United States Supreme Court involving a newspaper reporter and a medical doctor.  The reporter interviewed the doctor for a story, using a tape recorder, so that he had an exact record of the doctor’s actual words.  But, when the story appeared in the newspaper, the doctor was shocked to find himself quoted as saying some very damaging things that he had never uttered.  The doctor took the reporter to court and sued for misrepresentation.  In court, the reporter admitted that he altered or even made up the disputed quotations.  He literally put his own words in the doctor’s mouth.  The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and the court ruled in favor of the reporter.  The high court said it is within a reporter’s discretion to formulate or alter statements, and then put them in quotation marks, and report them as having come out of someone else’s mouth.

Moses says, “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.”  When it comes to the word of the Lord, you and I do not have that same latitude allowed reporters.  We do not have discretion to put words into the Lord’s mouth, to make things up ourselves, and then proclaim, “Thus saith the Lord.”  As the Lord himself says in the book of Jeremiah: “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and then declare, ‘[The Lord] says’”; “Hearken not unto the words of the [false] prophets that prophesy unto you . . . they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.”; “‘They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,’ declares the Lord.”

And neither do we have the discretion to alter the word of the Lord to suit our own ideas and desires, twisting and distorting what God says and then proclaiming, “Thus saith the Lord.”  St. Peter says that the Scriptures contain “some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort.”  And St. Paul warns in Galatians, “Some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be accursed!  As we already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you received, let him be accursed!”

“Neither Add Nor Subtract” the word of the Lord.  An example is in today’s Gospel Reading.  The Pharisees in Jesus’ day added all sorts of man-made rules and regulations to the word of the Lord, and they were upset because Jesus and his disciples wouldn’t follow their man-made rules.  Jesus replies, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’  You have let go of the commands of God and are holding onto the traditions of men.”

“Neither Add Nor Subtract” the word of the Lord.  Also in our day there are many false prophets who put words in the Lord’s mouth, who twist and distort the word of the Lord to suit our own ideas and desires, and then proclaim, “Thus saith the Lord.”  It seems some denominations in our country have forgotten the Lord’s commands, and, as Jesus says in today’s Gospel Reading, in place of the Lord’s commands they are substituting the traditions of men.

One example is denominations “updating” their teachings on marriage and human sexuality and morality, away from what the Bible says, to supposedly fit better with our modern world.  But, Hebrews declares, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”  And, so no matter what the world may do or say, no matter what any false prophets may do or say, the Lord’s commandment still stands which proclaims, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and the Lord’s word still stands which says, “the Creator made them male and female. . . for this reason a man will . . . be united to his wife.”

That’s an example of subtracting from the word of the Lord.  But, there are also those who go to the other extreme and add to the word of the Lord.  Martin Luther said, “It doesn’t matter if you fall off the port side or the starboard side of the ship, either way you’ve gone overboard.”  In the eyes of the Lord, it’s just as bad to go overboard adding to his word as it is to subtract from it.  As Jesus says of the Pharisees, “teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.”  This is probably most obvious in those sects which forbid things like automobiles or electricity, or require a distinctive manner of dress.  Or those who forbid certain foods or beverages.  God nowhere makes such requirements or prohibitions, and yet false prophets proclaim, “Thus saith the Lord.”  Another example is forbidding clergy to marry.  The Lord has given no such command, and yet it is taught by some as a divine doctrine. 

It is just as sinful to add such man-made requirements and commands to the word of the Lord as it is to subtract from it.  As the Lord tells Peter in Acts, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”  St. Paul puts it this way in Colossians: “Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.” 

People often look with a kind of admiration upon those who strictly follow all sorts of extra rules and regulations.  But, it is sinful for Christians to submit themselves, even voluntarily, to man-made commands, as if they were divine doctrines.  For, to do that is to put the word of man on the same level as the word of God, to agree with the false prophets who fabricate these man-made teachings and then put their own words in the Lord’s mouth and proclaim, “Thus said the Lord.”  As St. Paul says in Galatians, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again with a yoke of slavery.”

“Neither Add Nor Subtract” the word of the Lord.  Instead, as St. Paul says in Colossians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in your richly.”  Trust in Christ as your Savior, follow his word, and put his word into action in your life.  As Moses proclaims, “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God.”

Amen.