I was surprised to come home from work and find out that I was a violator. That morning, I had put out some wood I no longer could use, expecting it to be picked up with my garbage.

I thought I had carefully followed the instructions for trash pickup. I had cut the wood into 4-foot sections and attached garbage tags. But I must have wrongly interpreted the guidelines. What I thought they said and what they really said were two different things. So I ended up with the wood and a huge violation sticker.

What I learned from that incident is similar to what we need to learn about following scriptural guidelines. Our private interpretation of the Bible must line up with God's truth or we will be left with some dangerous error. Let me illustrate.

Some people reinterpret biblical guidelines in the area of sexual practices. To justify immorality, they say, "Well, that's how you interpret the Bible." When they are brought face to face with verses that clearly condemn sex outside of marriage, they "turn their ears away from the truth" (2 Tim. 4:4).

God's Word reflects His character, and we must obey it even when it says what we don't want to hear. That's why we must always ask, "What does it say?" --JDB  — RBC Ministries