To Live is Christ — not picky but obedient

For those of us who are sticklers about using the right word in the right place, Bible translations can be frustrating. I want to know exactly what a verse says, but if the language experts cannot agree, where does that leave me?

Today’s devotional verses say several things, depending on which version I read. For instance, the New King James says:

Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man. (Proverbs 3:3–4)

In the English standard versions, it is “steadfast love and faithfulness” I’m supposed to hang on to, and “favor and good success” will be my reward.

The New International version says “love and faithfulness” will bring me “favor and a good name.”

In my understanding, mercy is not the same thing as love, or even  steadfast love. Mercy is not getting what I deserve. Love is the reason for God’s mercy. However, my Hebrew dictionaries give a much wider range of meaning for the ancient word translated these two ways. It is sometimes mercy, sometimes love, and this word is even translated as “reproach” and “wicked thing” in a couple of places.

Now I feel like I’m reading modern culture’s crazy English where “hot” and “cool” can mean the same thing, and “bad” can mean good, depending on the context. Finding out the exact meaning of this word is beyond me.

I also realize that I can get into word meanings without letting God’s Word get into me. He is trying to tell me something. The exact translation is not as important as paying attention.

God wants me to be a loving, merciful person who also loves the truth and is faithful to it. When I live like that, I will please Him and earn the respect of others. Does it matter that the words differ in varying translations? Or is it more important that I obey whatever version I’m reading?

Sometimes people criticize Scripture for this sort of confusion. I understand their perplexities. Some of us do want exactness and to be sure of what we believe (or reject). Yet the Bible isn’t about one or even a dozen foggy words. Taken in its entirety, its message is clear. God asks His people to live in obedience to Him. Because He has shown me mercy and steadfast love, I am to pass that along to others. Because He is true and there is no lie or falsehood in Him, I am supposed to live the same way.

By obeying Him, I reflect the God in whose image I have been made. I am also demonstrating Jesus Christ into whose image I am being transformed. This pleases God, and up to a point, it will also give me a good name. (Christians are persecuted for obedience.) Any of those translations work because they agree with the nature of God and the rest of Scripture.

All three of them also convict me. Only the Holy Spirit, using the Word of God, can do that. For those reasons, choosing the NKJV, NIV, or ESV is clearly not my biggest challenge.