Textual Harassment: Everyday Exegetical Errors

I'm going to start a series of posts dealing with some common misinterpretations of Scripture. Specifically, misinterpretations which:

• are used frequently among Christians (though some will be more common than others)
• usually involve a total denial of the context of the passage in question, or
• involve a twisting of the passage in question to accomplish a goal different than the original goal of the passage

Why bother with this? Two reasons:

1. If the Bible is important to us, then we should not handle it carelessly. 
2. How we speak everyday may be the greatest indicator of what our theology really is.

Some of the topics which I intend to cover (off the top of my head, in no particular order):

• "Judge not" 
• "God is Love" 
• "For I know the plans I have for you"
• "Where two or three are gathered in my Name"
• 1 Corinthians 13 wrongfully applied to God's Love
• "Salt and Light" 
• "Inasmuch as you've done it to the least of my brothers" 
• "Love your neighbour as yourself" 
• "Thou shalt not kill" 

And so forth. 

Hopefully this will provoke some discussion on these topics, and help bring our language (mine included) closer in line with God's Word.