Verses that are not in the bible

You have probably heard the different sayings such as “God helps those who help themselves”. Someone is teaching or giving a speech and in the heat of the moment they turn to the audience and say, “even the bible tells us that God helps those who help themselves.” And the confidence they exude leaves everyone nodding and happy about bible knowledge added.
However, have you laboured to find out the origin of such sayings? Father Gerald Kalumba of Christ the King Church, Kampala, says this becomes an issue because today Christians do not take time to read and meditate upon the scriptures. So, they are ignorant of the scriptures.

A little learning is dangerous
It is a common occurrence for people to refer to something in the bible . Such as, “the bible says’ money is the root cause of all evil”. 1Timothy 6:10 hints at it. Some quote part of what is written while others are non-existent.
“If a Christian has not read the bible then they will take in all that they have been told even if it is from or not from the bible,” says Fr Kalumba.
Pastor Emmanuel Magambo of Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church, says people talk of the anointed man or woman of God but the bible talks of Jesus or Messiah as the only specially anointed one. The anointed Old Testament priests, prophets and kings all point to Jesus.
In the New Testament all true believers are equally anointed though with different gifts or roles in the church (1Johnn 2:27) all religions lead to heaven.... (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). These are common misconceptions that believers have about what is in the bible which misguide them.

More common phrases
“God helps those who help themselves.”
The earliest recording of this saying is actually from Aesop’s fable Hercules and the Wagoneer. A man’s wagon got stuck in a muddy road, and he prayed for Hercules to help. Hercules appeared and said, “Get up and put your shoulder to the wheel.” The moral given was “The gods help them that help themselves.” Aesop was a Greek writer who lived from 620 to 564 BC, but did not contribute to the Bible. As a biblical truism, the proverb has mixed results.

“Hate the sin, love the sinner.”
Although this is a biblical-sounding admonition, it is not from the Bible. It is a loose quote from Mahatma Gandhi’s work in 1929, “Hate the sin and not the sinner.” Augustine expressed a similar thought back in AD 424: “With love for mankind and hatred of sins.” The biblical principle backing this up is found in Jude 1:22–23. We are to hate sin—even our own. And we are to show love to other people. The “hating sin” part is coming under fire today as more and more people define themselves by their sin and resent the guidelines God has given us in His Word.
As believers, we know we are to study the Bible, memorise and obey it. But does the Bible say what we think? There are several phrases that sound like they come from the Bible, but do not.

“Spare the rod, spoil the child”
This could very well be a paraphrase of Proverbs 13:24, but the statement doesn’t really exist in any translation of the Bible. The Bible verse actually reads: “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.”
Samuel Butler, a 17th century British poet, actually coined the phrase “spare the rod and spoil the child” in his satirical poem, Hudibras.

“Money is the root of all evil.”
This is a common misconception with an easy fix. 1Timothy 6:10 actually says, “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil…” Money is not good or bad, and being wealthy is not a sin; Job was wealthy and described as a man who was “blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil” (Job 1:1). Loving money, which in the Greek is “avarice” and implies an emotional affection, is the root of all sorts of evil as the desire to accumulate wealth is placed above God and others.
Bottomline, just gather your knowledge from respective literature and do not allow selfish preachers or speakers to manipulate you using the non-existent Bible verses.

“This too shall pass.”
This is a line from The Lament of Deor, an Old English poem. Deor has been replaced as his lord’s poet, and calls to mind several other Germanic mythological figures who went through troubled times. Each refrain ends with, “that passed away, so may this.” Several verses in the Bible remind us that our lives and, indeed, heaven and earth, will pass away (Matthew 24:35). But while we can find comfort knowing that our earthly sorrows are temporary, we are still called to rejoice in our trials, knowing that they will lead to endurance and sanctification (James 1:2-4).