Romans 5:8 "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
If you were the Devil, what better way to lead God's children astray than to twist and corrupt God's holy word?? The Devil certainly has many ways of deceiving, but his most effective way is through something that we put our faith in trust in, the Bible!
For an example, I have chosen the common passage of Romans 5:8. Through the years, I have listened to many sermons where many have quoted or read Romans 5:8...and many have, unfortuantely, changed the word 'commendeth' to (most often, but not limited to) shows, showed, demonstrates, demonstrated. Now, many will assume that their Pastor, teacher, father, esteemed other, etc. knows his Bible well enough so they themselves have no need of searching out the validity of this statement. Let me encourage you to search out the scriptures for yourself...God will show you the truth if you seek it.
The word 'commendeth' shows up exactly 3 times in the Bible- Romans 5:8, 1 Corinthians 8:8, and 2 Corinthians 10:18. As stated above, the word 'commendeth' is routinely changed in Romans 5:8, yet it isn't commonly replaced in the other two passages of scripture. If you would change 'commendeth' in one verse, why not all three? Lets test this particular theory...
1 Corinthians 8:8 "But meat (shews, shewed, demonstrates, demonstrated) us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse"
2 Corinthians 10:18 "For not he that (shews, shewed, demonstrates, demonstrated) himself is approved, but whom the Lord (shews, shewed, demonstrates, demonstrated)."
Being perfectly honest before your Creator, do either of those vereses make sense by replacing 'commendeth' with any of the words that are used to correct Romans 5:8?? Changing the word simply doesn't fit with every occurance in scripture! If it doesn't work in two out of three, then maybe it doesn't actually work in one out of three either. So, lets take a look at the word God put there in the first place...does it fit?
The etymology of 'commendeth' is broken up into a prefix (com) a verb (mend) and a suffix (eth). Beginning with the suffix, -eth puts the verb into a present tense form. (Shew-ed and demonstrat-ed are past tense verbs making them wrong grammatically as well as scripturally.) Now for the prefix and verb, com-mend...com- meaning 'with or together' and mend- meaning 'to repair'. Taking these meanings and applying them to Romans 5:8 makes quite a difference! God is repairing the relationship between himself and man (broken by sin)...bringing us together with him to become the children of God! What difference to shewed: God wanted us to see the love...
and to demonstrated: God wanted to prove his love...
[Although God both wanted to prove to us his love and for us to see how much he loves us through his Son's death on the cross, these meanings simply don't work with the simplicity (as well as complexity) of this scripture.]
Bringing this word (and now verse) to a whole new light, the next step is to make the connection between all three verses containing this word 'commendeth'.
1 Corinthians 8:8 "But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse."
Chapter eight of First Corinthians speaks of not being a stumblingblock to your fellow believers, and God interjects verse eight to confirm a truth. The things you do or don't do have no bearing on God mending his relationship with man- also known as salvation.
2 Corinthians 10:18 "For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth."
God does the mending, you don't!
[Please note that "commendeth" also refers to "to praise" (another definition for the combined word of "commend" short for "recommend") this is confirmed in the context of 2 Corinthians 10:17 "But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."]
Without Romans 5:8 saying commendeth, these other two verses lose part of their meaning, we understand them because of Romans 5:8's "commendeth". God has a purpose for every word in his Bible! Why assist the Devil in corrupting the holy words of God?