“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17. That the man of God may be perfect (complete, mature) thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 is the most complete definition of scripture that we have. We cannot divorce the scriptures, or Bible, from anything that has to do with the Christian life. We cannot say, “I believe in the Bible…..but.” The Bible is al-important and in this text Paul tells us why. First, the Bible is given by inspiration of God. There is a theological argument about what this means, but one thing is unmistakable: The Bible is a God-breathed document that stands alone in its authority in our lives. There are a lot of good Christian books, but not a one of them is inspired as the Bible was inspired. The apostle Peter made this clear in 2 Peter 1:20-21: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. 21. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” Second, the Bible is the only seed-bed of doctrine. I know that there are many doctrines that genuine Christians disagree on, but there is one Bible doctrine that has to stand undisputed in all Christian circles, and that is the doctrine of Christ. We can disagree about a lot of things, but we can’t disagree about Jesus. It is Bible doctrine that God’s Son came to earth from heaven, born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died as a perfect sacrifice on the cross for the sins of all mankind, arose on the third day and after forty days ascended to the right hand of the Father. When any group gets away from the centrality of Christ to the teachings of some man or woman, they have gotten away from the Bible. Third, the Bible has authority in the lives of Christians. It is from the Bible that reproof for our sins comes. People cannot define sin to their own liking, and when they err from the teachings of the Bible on sin, they are reproved by it. For example, there is no question in the Bible that adultery is a sin. It is never seen in a good light in the Bible. Adultery has already been assigned as sin by the Bible and we can’t change that to suit our own ideas of morality. (That goes for all of the other sins condemned in the Bible.) It is the Bible that corrects us about our behavior as to whether it is sin or not. It is not a popular stance today, but if the Bible condemns our behavior, we should stand corrected and cease that behavior. I must add that we all are subject to this correction for “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." We should be as concerned about correcting our own sinful behavior as we are the sinful behavior of others. It is also written here that it is the Bible that instructs us in righteousness. The righteousness that is portrayed in the Bible is not just concerned with what we don’t do, but about what we do as well. There are sins of commission (what we do) and sins of omission (what we do not do). Therefore, the Bible tells us when we do good and when we do not do good. Fourth, the man (in the generic sense, meaning male and female) of God matures based on the Bible. A Christian cannot claim maturity if he or she does not read and study the Bible. Furthermore, we are prepared to do “good works” based on the word of God. One good example is when Jesus washed His disciple’s feet in John 13 to illustrate Christian humility for them. Surely if Jesus humbled Himself to do a good work, surely we must as well. We became Christians in order to do the good works of God on this earth in order to win people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. This is what I mean by "the Importance of Scripture.” Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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