“Diminish Not a Word” – Jeremiah 26
“Diminish not a word”: this phrase can be found in Jeremiah 26:2. Here is the full section:
Jeremiah 26:2-6 (KJV)
2 Thus saith the Lord; Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the Lord’s house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word:
3 If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings.
4 And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord; If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you,
5 To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened;
6 Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.
God commands Jeremiah to go to the temple where everyone could hear him and speak a message that would not be very popular. He is commanded to warn the people to repent of their sin or they would face judgement. This judgement would be their complete destruction.
Notice that the people Jeremiah would be speaking to are those who are entering the temple to worship God. On the surface, these are not the people who you would think would need to be told to repent. They are there to worship God, right?
Just like so-called “Christians” today, the Jews liked to ‘have their cake and eat it too’ so to speak. They would worship at the temple, but also worship other gods from the people around them. They would even commit the heinous act of chid sacrifice to the god Molech and then turn around and worship in God’s temple! Like today, the supposed people of God was full of hypocrites. God hates this hypocrisy and Judah is eventually destroyed just as God said it would be because the people refused to repent and continued in their idolatry and sin.
While Jeremiah’s overarching message of repentance is certainly important, it was the phrase “diminish not a word” that caught my eye. I immediately latched onto this command given by God and thought about preachers and Christians today who are certainly guilty of diminishing the Word of God. In order to fill pews and gather more tithes, the Word of God is watered down so as not to offend. We just don’t talk about the difficult passages about divorce, submission, homosexuality, etc. The list could go on. We highlight the ‘nice’ passages focusing only on grace and love but are silent on the passages about obeying God’s commands and hell. In an attempt to not seem ‘crazy’, we don’t talk about Satan as a real being out to destroy our souls.
Our current culture is full of fake love and a concept of ‘tolerance’. However, we as Christians are commanded to love someone fully – so much so that we tell them the truth, even if it hurts. Instead of saying: “God loves you! He wants the best for you! He doesn’t want to destroy you! But He will if you do not repent.” We stop before we get to the judgement part. When we do not provide the full message of God, we are diminishing His Word. God’s Word is powerful! It can change lives! But if we diminish God’s Word, we dampen it and are responsible for destroying the souls of those around us. We can claim to love people all we want, but if we care about their souls, shouldn’t we tell them the whole truth of God’s Word? Shouldn’t we want to keep them from going to hell!?!?
I pray that I will speak God’s Word without diminishing it! I pray the church leaders and preachers will do the same! Let’s stand up for God’s Word: ALL OF IT! Let’s not be ashamed of the truth.