In her song Stoney End, Barbra Streisand sings, “I was raised on the good book Jesus till I read between the lines.”

That’s when people get into trouble, when they start reading between the lines. The “good book” is God’s Word to us about how to live our lives. The Bible explains the nature of God and what he expects from human beings, the crown of his creation. We do well when we pay attention to the Word and take it seriously, obeying its commands.

People who read between the lines are inserting their own beliefs, which are often contradictory to what the Lord says. God says that we need to be careful not to take anything away from what the Bible says, nor to add to its words. Reading between the lines leads to false beliefs, which leads to wrong actions.

Let’s be careful to just read the lines.

“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll.”—Revelation 22:18