Living Outloud: When Satan Quotes the Bible

We talk through Jesus’ temptation in Luke 4 and why it still matters when we feel either complacent or constantly under attack. We focus on the moment Satan quotes Psalm 91 and show how context keeps a true verse from becoming a dangerous lie. 
• temptation as a real and ongoing spiritual threat 
• the roaring lion picture from 1 Peter 5 and why comfort can make us careless 
• Satan using Scripture as a tool of manipulation 
• why a single Bible verse is not enough for doctrine or decisions 
• how to check a verse by reading the paragraph, chapter, and book context 
• Psalm 91 explained and why it does not justify testing God 
• practicing discernment at church and with verse-of-the-day habits 
• watching for proof texting in news, politics, and social media 
• encouragement from 1 John, James 4:7, and 1 Corinthians 10:13 

Let us know if you find any Bible verses being misquoted in the wild!

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Transcript

Why The Temptation Story Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey, welcome back to another Living Out Loud, part of the Out Loud Bible podcast, where we take a look at what we read earlier in the week and dig a little deeper, dig out some things that we can actually do practically to have the Bible affect our lives and make a difference in it. And so this is Mike and Kelsey.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Hey, I love these conversations. I'm excited to get into it today.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

I enjoy having them with you. So I was looking at what we read earlier in the week and uh what can we talk about today in terms of something really practical? And what just kept leaping out of the screen or the pages, I guess. I guess I'm using a screen, uh, was the temptation of Jesus in Luke chapter four. It's just it's just one of those weird parts of the Bible. Can we just be honest? Like it's just kind of weird when you got Satan coming like very obviously to Jesus, and Jesus is being tempted, but we know he's not sinning, but he's being tempted in all these things, and and there's Bible verses being thrown around, and it's like it's just a it's just a wild little episode here. And we know that Jesus experienced this and we have it recorded, and and Luke records this as well as a couple other gospel writers for our benefit to recognize that Jesus is fully God and fully human, and we as humans can relate to him in in many many ways of just being human, temptation being one of them. As long as Satan is out there prowling around, we are going to experience temptation. And so we might as well learn from what we can from this story so that we can emerge from it as victoriously as Jesus did. So we know that it's not just this instance where we see Satan being the tempter. First Peter 5, 8 through 9 says, Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil. By the way, that that is your adversary, that not just Jesus'

A Roaring Lion And Spiritual Complacency

SPEAKER_01 1:55

adversary. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. So that we can expect Satan is still doing this sort of thing today.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Yeah, it I mean, that verse automatically evokes this imagery of a community of people, maybe on the Serengeti or whatever. And if you lived there and if you were surrounded by roaring lions, like you just went through your day 24-7, hearing the roar of lions, kind of seeing them on the horizon. They're hungry, they're prowling, they're looking for an opportunity to snatch you or your kids up to eat. You as an individual and as a community would not let your guard down. No, no, no. You would do exactly what Peter writes here is keep your guard up and stay alert. You would do that. You would assign people to stay awake during the night while everybody else slept to make sure that the lions didn't come into the camp. You would be have someone have a very watchful eye while the children were outside playing. You would have men stationed to watch and protect the women while they gathered water. And you would just be alert if if you knew that your life was constantly in danger of a predator coming to attack you, wanting to devour you. And yet, when it comes to spiritual things, Mike, I feel like we often get so comfortable and so complacent and so lazy spiritually, honestly, that we we forget to keep on guard against your spiritual enemy who is prowling like a roaring lion seeking to devour. Like he is as real a threat, if not more, than if you lived around a pack of lions. And so, so I think that this conversation is really important for us to recognize that. If we haven't thought about that in a while, like if things are going well for you, you and you're pretty comfortable and you're pretty happy in life and things are just going pretty well, you might forget that there's an active predator seeking to destroy and devour you. And so perhaps this conversation, um then the other end of the spectrum is someone who's like, I am constantly tempted, I am constantly under attack, and I know that, and it just feels overwhelming and I don't know how to get out from under it. I think this conversation is gonna speak to both of those extremes. Whether we fall into the discouraged because I just feel so attacked, I don't know how to get out from under it extreme, or the I've become complacent and a little bit lazy and I'm not really on guard against Satan's attacks, wherever you fall on that spectrum or anywhere in between, I think this conversation is gonna help us.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

So let's take a look at one of the instances here in the temptation of Jesus and see what Satan's up to, and and we'll find similarities and how he shows up in our own temptations, and and and he's still using the same tactics today. It's right here in chapter four of Luke, verse nine. This is after he had tried to tempt Jesus with like provision, trying to appeal to his need for provision, and Jesus quoted

Satan’s Tactics In Luke 4

SPEAKER_01 4:55

a Bible verse, man shall not live on bread alone. And this is after the devil tried to tempt him with power, said, Hey, I'll give you power and authority, which I do believe he he was qualified to make that promise because uh it has been given to him, authority on earth has been given to him, and if you worship me, then then it'll be yours. And Jesus again replied with a Bible verse, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. And so then here in verse nine, it picks up the devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you're the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down from here. For it's written, as if to say, Oh, you like Bible verses? I got a Bible verse for you. And he's quoting a Bible verse. He's not missing a word, it's not being misquoted at all. It says, He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. It's so scary to recognize that Satan knows the Bible. He can quote uh any Bible verse, he's been around a while, he knows the Bible, he knows the Bible better than you do. And that's the danger. If Satan knows the Bible better than you do, then he can float a Bible verse and say, hey, you care about Bible verses, right? You want to make Bible-based decisions, you want to make sure that what you're doing and what you're believing and what you're saying and how you're living lines up with what the Bible says. Well, here's what the Bible says. The problem is, why are we letting him quote the Bible for us?

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Right. He he's not playing fair. And so when he wants to get submerse himself uh into Christian culture, into your family or into your church or into your life as a Bible-believing Christian, if he wants to get in there, he can use the Bible and twist it to get you to believe things that are opposed to God. He can twist it and get you to be tempted to do things that are opposed to God. If if we're just willing to accept any Bible verse thrown our way, like, well, the Bible says it. I guess I can't refute it.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Because if I'm not Jesus here and he says, Well, the Bible says this. He'll command his angels concerning you to guard you and they'll lift you up so you won't strike your foot against a stone. And I'm like, Well, that is what the Bible says. I guess. I guess if the Bible says it, then it's true. I guess, I guess this, I guess I can do this. But that's the danger of a Bible verse. And we've said it before, we will continue saying it. Don't read a Bible verse. Don't let someone quote you a Bible verse. Because a Bible verse is not enough to inform your doctrine, your theology, your obedience, your next steps.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

No.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

A Bible verse is not enough for that. Um Kelsey, you've talked about if if you read a Bible verse a day.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

If you read one Bible verse every single day, it would take you 85 years of your life to get through the Bible. And that's assuming you read the boring ones, the hard to get through ones, one Bible verse of Leviticus a day, um, until you get through it, right? And and and people aren't doing that. They're just repeating things from Philippians or the Gospels or whatever. So if your only intake, and you're you're a listener to the Outloud Bible Project or the Out Loud Bible podcast. We switched it recently, so my brain is still there. If but if you're listening to this, so you're taking in more than one verse a day, but the the the risk and the stakes are high for those who are like, Yep, I I get my verse a day from my Bible app, or I I post a verse a day every day on social media, or I read something that someone posts every day, one verse a day, and they and and there's this temptation in our culture where where attention spans are short and it is very difficult to focus on anything for a very long period of time because of the way our society has rewired our brains. It's very easy to be tempted to get into one Bible verse a day and take in the Bible one verse at a time and think that that's what is going to sustain you and your relationship with God. But one Bible verse is so easily taken out of context, it's so easily twisted to say something it's not saying, it's so easily manipulated to get you to believe something that isn't true and isn't in line with the rest of scripture. That if if we're taking in one Bible verse a day, we are we are vulnerable to the attacks of Satan. He will use that against you all day, every day, all day long.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Yeah. And even if you are, say, a regular listener here and you read your Bible every day outside of this podcast, you go to church, you hear sermons, and it's great, good. There's still a danger when a Bible verse is used to try to make a point. Right. You always have to make a big thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

In fact, you, as someone who loves the Bible so much, might even be more tempted to go along with something when a Bible verse is used to support an argument.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

If you value what the Bible says and if you value living biblically, then Satan has a really powerful tool that he can use to try to manipulate you, and that is the Bible. The defense, of course, is to when you see a Bible verse being used to promote some sort of idea or drive you to action or vote a certain way or think a certain way, or

Psalm 91 And The Context Test

SPEAKER_01 10:12

even just making a point, instead of our gut reaction being like, Oh, well, if that's what the Bible says, then okay, we have to change our gut reaction to be like, hold on, let me look that up. And so, for example, if Satan is saying, Oh, well, it says in the Bible he'll command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully, uh, well, okay, let me go look that up. Now, a a quick Google search, if you don't happen to know it, says that that comes from Psalm 91. Okay, let's go check it out. Psalm 91, and specifically verse 11 and 12. And you know what? He's not misquoting it. Those are the words there. So that's the first thing to check is like, are are the words actually, you know, the same words that they're they're saying? More importantly than the words, is the meaning the same?

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Now, when Satan is tempting Jesus, he's gonna quote it word for word because Jesus would know. It reminds me of that scene in the line The Witch in the Wardrobe where the witch tries to quote the deep magic, and Aslan's like, Don't quote the deep magic to me, which I was there when it was written. It's like, you can't you can't misquote the Bible to Jesus. He's gonna know. But he try, but Satan does try to take it and make it mean something it doesn't. But it to us, he will misquote things all the time. He'll he'll take a verse and slightly twist its meaning by changing a word here and there. So, first check is is that Bible verse actually those words? Are those the words that are actually in scripture?

SPEAKER_01 11:29

If not, then it's trash already. Okay. Now let's say, yeah, that is what that says. Okay, well then we gotta expand it. Like I said, that was a Psalm 91, verses 11 and 12. What is what every verse has a chapter, every chapter has a book, every book has a context in the grand story of the Bible. So if we take a look at this verse, Psalm 91, verse 11 and 12, it's actually in the context of a paragraph here. Yeah, we'll take a look at the whole chapter, but I like to know what's right before and what's right after. Might as well start there. And verse 9 and 10, right before here, it says, If you say, The Lord is my refuge and you make the most high your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. That's the context. And then it says, for he will command his angels.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Well, there's a problem right there. This entire temptation, Jesus or Satan was inviting Jesus to worship him.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Right? And so even though that's not part of this specific conversation, that's the context of their whole the whole temptation. So right there, we can throw this verse out that Satan quotes immediately without having to go further, but I think it's important to go further. But just if you make the Lord your refuge, right, then then this will be the promise. And Satan's saying, make me your refuge, make me the object of your worship. And and and so we already have a have uh ideologies at odds, at odds there. We have truth at odds with a lie.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

And if we take the whole chapter now, take a look at Psalm 91, what is the whole context of the chapter? It starts with whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. And then it goes on to say that he will save you from these various situations the Fowler's snare, deadly pestilence, he'll cover you with his wings. You won't fear these things, the terror of night, the arrow that flies by day, pestilence, plague. There may be a thousand falling at your side, but it won't come near you. And so the whole context of this chapter, of this whole psalm, is all of these things that are happening around you, the evils of the world, the terrors of the world, you don't need to fear them, because God sees you and he will save you and he'll protect you if you say the Lord is my refuge, in the context of this scary world out there. It's really saying like, don't you may feel like a victim of all these things going on in the world, but if you call God your refuge, then you're not a victim, he will protect you and keep you safe.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

So, what I'm not hearing is if you walk to the edge of a building and jump off, God will protect you.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Even if he even if you say the Lord is my God and he is my refuge.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

If you stand in a high place and yell, God, the Lord, God is my refuge, and then you jump off, he has no obligation to save you from harm.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

That is not the point of Psalm 91. Yeah. Yeah. So you see how the Bible verse in and of itself does sound like, well, if I do this, then God will do this. Okay. Well, I I like to do what the Bible says, but you look at the context, look at the chapter that that verse comes from, and it's like, you know what? He's not talking about taking things into my own hands, he's talking about just the stuff that goes on in the world that I don't have to fear.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

And that's why Jesus' response is it's also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. Because this is taking some verse out of context and being like, Well, if you'll do it there, you'll I believe that you'll just protect me and I'm just gonna go forth with what I want to do and just see God deliver me.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

If I do this, you'll do this, God.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

And it's just testing God. It's just it's Satan testing God, and and Jesus doesn't fall for it. But but when you look at what Satan quotes, even though Satan quoted it perfectly, he pulled it and used it in a context for which it wasn't meant, trying to get Jesus to do something that would be against the word of God and against the heart of God.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

And he's still doing it today. We have seen more people quote the Bible to try to put forth some political ideology or try to get the Christians to think a certain way regarding well, uh abortion is one of those topics where there's a whole lot of pro-choice people who are using Bible verses to try to convince Christians that they're wrong. And all of these kind of hot topics that that have been buzzy for a while, even homosexuality, there's gender ideology, biblical cases, disorientation, immigration, abortion, all of these.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

It takes you five seconds on social media or a very short, easy Google search to hear a whole bunch of Bible verses supporting all of these evil ideologies. There's there are there are plenty of people out there wanting to quote the Bible to get you to believe something that is against the heart of God.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

And what we cannot do is say, oh, yikes, well, that is what the Bible says, huh? Well, that's that's a problem. I don't really know what to do about that. I guess I guess I'll take your word for it. I mean, I I do want to do what the Bible says. Uh again, gut reaction. This is and this is important whether you're pretty new to this whole being a Christian thing and new to reading the Bible, uh, or you've been down the road before, and maybe you you can quote a few Bible verses off the top of your head. That'd that'd be great. But it doesn't matter how long you've been a Christian or how much Bible you know, the gut reaction to someone quoting a Bible verse, especially when they're trying to make a point, is to be like, wait a minute, hold on. Before I have this conversation, let me go look that up. And we look up the paragraph it's in, it we look up the chapter it's in, we look up the book that it's in, and see does is this whole story kind of emphasizing this too? Is this the point of the whole thing or not? In many cases, it's not.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Yeah. And I would say you can start practicing this in church. Take your Bible with you, even if your pastor puts verses up on a screen while he's giving a

Build The Habit Of Looking It Up

SPEAKER_00 17:15

sermon. Um don't just take your pastor's word for it. Hopefully you're in a church where you can see it. It should be a safe place, yeah. But but get used to looking up, okay, he quoted Proverbs 3, verse 2. I'm gonna go read verse 1 and 3 around it and just see is he is he treating the Bible in context with something. It's just a good way to practice because it's someone that you can trust. You don't, you shouldn't, and I hope you don't have to have your guard up in church, but it's a good way to practice hearing a verse and then seeing for yourself in context where it falls. And then when you're in that practice, when you're in when you're used to hearing a verse and having your gut reaction be like, okay, but what's the context? You're much more likely to do that when you hear something through news, social media, politicians, influencers, friends, family around you, um, to say, okay, that is that might be a Bible verse. Let me go look it up and let me see what the context is around it.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

I know UVersion, a lot of people use you u version as a uh digital Bible app. Uh, and that has a verse of the day every day. And uh they even have a couple people with some videos talking about it and whatnot. That's great. Uh, or you may have some other verse of the day, I don't know, social media account that you follow that kind of puts a verse in front of you. Okay, great. Use that as an opportunity to practice this and make your Bible study not just like, oh, I read my verse of the day. All right, I can move on with my day. No, no, no. Let's take some time, maybe only 10 minutes. It doesn't have to be very long, but look up that verse in the Bible, read the whole chapter that it's from.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Let verse a day be a starting point, not the point in and of itself.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Let it tell you where to go in the Bible for your study that day, if you want. Uh, but don't just take the verse and say, okay, that sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

And then especially if Because if you're taking a verse from your Bible app or your pastor or your friend or your social media account that you follow, and you're just like, great, what a beautiful verse. Moving on, you're much more likely to do that when Satan comes through people to try to convince you of things that are opposed to the will and the heart of God using a Bible verse.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

It's a muscle, it's a reaction, let's build it up now.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Yeah. You're just making your, you're letting yourself be vulnerable if you're not on guard. That this is what we're talking about, being on guard and alert because the enemy is a roaring lion prowling around seeking someone to devour. So this is a way to not be devoured by false teaching from the word of God, is when you train your brain, you train your instinct, you train your reaction to be, I heard a Bible verse, I'm gonna go look it up for myself and see what the context is.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Be on alert. Just, you know, if if you're a person who kind of follows the news even loosely or, you know, catches up on some articles or follows some Facebook accounts or something, just how about keep an eye open this week. See how many Bible verses are used in some of these political topics and debates. See how often the Bible comes up and take those as opportunities to go look up the context of of what's actually being said, uh, see if it's being quoted correctly, figure out the context, and and don't be fooled. We don't need to fall for this temptation. Yeah. What's such a temptation to do? It's a temptation to let your mind swing or your ideology be changed based on what someone wants you to believe.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

If you value the Bible, then people and through and Satan through people are gonna be more inclined to use the Bible to try to get you to change your mind. That's why it's important to know the Bible. And I know it's a lot of work to read the whole Bible or listen to the whole Bible or know it. It it is, but it's because it's not you're not a second grader and it's not homework that you can finish before dinner time.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Right. And you don't have to know and have memorized the entire Bible to be wise about your intake. As we've already said, it's an easy Google search to look up a Bible verse. Look it up, and then from there go to your physical Bible or your Bible app, whatever, and and look up the full context of a verse. It's not that hard to do a little bit of research. It could take you five minutes less than until you have a context for the scripture that's used. And that is how you actually live out loud the word of God and live your faith out loud in a way that isn't susceptible to Satan's uh accusations and Satan's temptations to pull you away from the heart of God and the word of God.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

In first John, it talks about the in the context of false teaching, which is what we're talking about. It's someone trying to teach you something, teach you how to think or what to think, uh,

Resist The Devil And Stand Firm

SPEAKER_01 21:44

fall using the Bible falsely. And first John says this As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you. I'm talking to a Christian who declares Jesus as Lord, and you have the Holy Spirit living and active in you. He says this you don't need anyone to teach you. As his anointing teaches you about all things, and that anointing is real, not counterfeit, just as it has taught you, remain in him.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

And you can go look up that context and it'll be.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

But this should be an encouragement that the Holy Spirit also, the Spirit of God, wants you to know the truth. And you don't need anyone to teach you what to think about the Bible. You don't need anyone else to teach you what the Bible says. I'm not saying that good Bible teachers aren't important. I think good Bible teachers help you understand. But you don't need to try to get your theology from someone just because they quote a Bible verse. You have the Holy Spirit helping you discern what is true and what is not. You don't need to let them teach you to take their word for it. You have the Holy Spirit inside of you. And when it comes to temptation, I think we can we can wrap this up with some more encouragement. James 4.7. Again, look at the context. Go for it. It says, James 4.7, submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he'll flee from you. Satan's going to try to push a button, and it may be, hey, here's a Bible verse. You know what? If you resist him and say, Well, I'm not going to take your word for it, let me go check it out, take a look at this. Oh no, that's not what this Bible says at all. Then you know what? That button doesn't work as much. And he's not gonna, he's not gonna try to tempt you as much in that way. And so resist the devil, he'll flee from you. And no temptation, 1 Corinthians 10 13 says this, no temptation has overcome you that's not common to man. Okay, you're not going through anything that no one else has gone through before. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability to withstand it. So you have in Jesus an example of what it looks like to be human, but also to, like it said in 1 John 2 27, to remain in God. Remain in God, stay in his word, know his word, and you'll emerge victorious on the other side. You won't be perfect, but God is always going to be there to pick you back up, dust you back off, and send you back out on your way. He's with you every step. Thanks for joining us in this conversation. Let us know if you find any Bible verses being misquoted in the wild. Let's take a look at those. Let's let's send them through the filter of scripture. Call them out. Let's get out there and do it. We'll see you next time on the Out Loud Bible Podcast.