God’s Word is meant to be a source of life and healing. But when misused, it can become a weapon to inflict harm. This damage is all the more the case when Scripture is mishandled to justify, excuse, or shield abuse.

When done by spiritual authorities (pastors and churches), such misuse scripture is itself spiritually abusive and thus deeply harmful in its own right. As Steven Tracy helpfully put it,

While any type of abuse can be extremely damaging, we have found that spiritual abuse is often some of the most damaging due to the way it shatters the very resources we need for health and healing.¹

In this episode of Logos Live, I sit down with Steven Tracy to talk about how to use Scripture to heal, not harm, especially in instances of abuse.

Check out the full episode and accompanying article.

1. Personal correspondence over email. February 5, 2026. ↩︎