Living a Secondhand Gospel

Welcome back to another post in the Let’s Talk About It series. This one took me a little to pen. It’s hard to sort through what you’re walking at times, and articulate it right. But, I feel that God is calling many of us back to the start, the simple, the source. So, be kind as I try and explain my heart in this topic. Shall we start…

For years, I built my faith on words that weren’t truly His.

I didn’t mean to. I didn’t even realize I was doing it. But I listened to those who seemed wiser, those with a platform, those who spoke with authority, and I took their words as truth. I read books that wove Scripture into powerful ideas, and I accepted them without question. I heard sermons that stirred my spirit, and I held onto their words as if they were my own.

And little by little, I was living a secondhand gospel—one passed down through voices I trusted, but not verified in the pages of His Word.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done this.

One moment that still lingers in my mind is when I heard someone quote 2 Timothy 1:7 “The Bible tells us we weren’t born with a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.”

It sounded good. It felt right. I clung to it, repeated it, even declared it over my life.

But that’s not what the verse says.

It doesn’t say we weren’t born with a spirit of fear. It says we were not given a spirit of fear. One word. One shift. But suddenly, the meaning changes. The first suggests fear has no place in our humanity. The second acknowledges that fear exists, that we will face it, but it is not from God.

And this is how easy it happens. This is how a secondhand gospel is formed—not by deliberate deception, but by small, subtle changes. By taking what sounds biblical and holding it as truth without ever opening the Word for ourselves.

And in saying this, oh friend, please hear my heart. This isn’t about shame. It’s not about blame. Maybe, like me, you didn’t even realize it was happening. Maybe you were just trying to follow God, to learn, to grow. And that’s okay. Because the Holy Spirit is faithful. He leads us back to truth. He nudges us to go deeper, to check, to search.

But here’s the hard part—sometimes we don’t want to.

Because sometimes, the truth we find in Scripture doesn’t match the narrative we’ve been taught. Sometimes, it calls us to lay down things we once held dear. Sometimes, it forces us to admit we were wrong.

And that’s uncomfortable.

I know, because I’ve been there.

I was taught to seek the gifts, to name and claim, to speak things into existence with the authority given to me as a child of God. And I did. But the more I actually read the Bible, the more I realized… I didn’t know the Bible. I only knew what I had been told about it.

And the enemy? He thrives in this space.

James 2:19 tells us that even demons believe in God—and tremble. Satan knows Scripture better than most of us. He’s watched generation after generation twist it, dilute it, misinterpret it—not because they were evil, but because they trusted the wrong voices. And so often, he doesn’t even need to intervene. He simply lets us run with what sounds right, without ever verifying if it is right.

So what do we do?

We go back to the source.

We stop living a secondhand gospel. We stop relying on someone else’s words about God and start leaning into His actual words. We test everything. We search the Scriptures for ourselves. We ask hard questions. We wrestle with what we find.

Because a secondhand gospel will never sustain you. It will leave you chasing something more, feeling like you’re always one revelation away from fulfillment. But God’s actual Word? That is the only thing that will ever be enough.

And so, I am unlearning. I am relearning. I am holding everything up to the light of Scripture.

And maybe, you are too.

Love,

Sarah x

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