The sum of Your word is truth [the total of the full meaning of all Your individual precepts]; and every one of Your righteous decrees endures forever. – Psalm 119:160, Amplified Bible (AMP)

One of Satan’s greatest weapons is taking a portion of God’s Word out of context and twisting it in order to deceive. His practice of doing so began in the Garden of Eden, and since that time Satan has skillfully used this tool to damn unfathomable numbers of people to Hell.

Half truths make the best lies, and the reason Satan is so successful in using them is because most human beings naturally despise math. You see, God’s Word is truth, but it is the sum of His word that is truth. In order to get the full picture of God’s meaning regarding any matter, we must search out and take into account everything God says about the matter. If we ignore parts of His Word while giving favor to others – and we often do since we are too lazy to study and to add up the meanings of all of God’s sayings on a matter – we run the risk of allowing Satan to use the Scripture as a motivation to sin rather than for it’s intended purpose: to spur man to holiness through Christ’s saving grace.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16, KJV). Therefore, when we seek out God’s counsel regarding a matter, we need to study all of the Scripture pertaining to that matter, adding together the insights from the various verses to gain a complete understanding of the truth.

Beware of resting your doctrine on one verse. Odds are, God has spoken many times on the issue, and it is incumbent on us to do a little math to make sure the answer on the right side of the equation doesn’t fall short of the mark.

Two great online resources for Bible study are:

1. www.biblestudytools.com
2. www.biblegateway.com