Scripture - God's Word

It's a well-known passage.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim 3:16-17)

You'd think it would have a bigger impact on Christians.

The text talks about "inspiration," but it's not the inspiration we think of. It's more of an "expiration" -- a breathing out. Exhaling. In Greek, it's theopneustos, where "theo" is "God" and "pneustos" is "breathed." One word, one kind of "inspired." Scripture is "God-breathed." As opposed to "man-made." The writers weren't "inspired" to write this stuff; it was "breathed into" them. Scripture is God's Word.

"You're so narrow-minded on this," I've been told. "God's Word is so much bigger than Scripture." Well, sure, on one hand, that's true. No one claims that Scripture is all that God has to say. But that's not the claim. The claim is that all that is said in Scripture is God's Word.

"Scripture" -- I keep using that word. Do we know what it means? The Greek here is simply graphē -- a "writing." All Scripture is written. Every time this word appears in the New Testament it is a reference to the "sacred texts," the "holy Writ." Not merely anything that is written. So what we have written down in Scripture is breathed out by God and is, therefore, as reliable as God.

It's odd to me to hear people say, "I believe that" and then deny it. They deny it when they say that it cannot be inerrant -- without error. They deny it when they say it is not sufficient. "Sufficient?" you might ask. Oh, yes. Look a the claim. It is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." "Teaching" gives us the knowledge of what is right. "Reproof" corrects us when we are wrong. "Correction" tells us how to get back to the right. And "training in righteousness" keeps us in what is right. So sufficient is this that it will make those who use it "complete, equipped for every good work." That which makes you complete and equips you for every good work is sufficient. When handled properly (2 Tim 2:15), it is absolutely sufficient for the task. Scripture doesn't require science or philosophy, higher morals or better ideas. It doesn't require your opinion. Taken as it is given, it is all that is needed. It is beyond accusation or evaluation, where we might be allowed to disallow some of it.

There is no other alternative here. You can believe what Scripture says about itself. It premises its claims to sufficiency on the sufficiency of God. It isn't the texts that are reliable; it is God, the One who breathed it. It isn't the words that are sufficient for godly thinking and living; it is God, the One who breathed them. It isn't the Bible that is inerrant; it is God who breathed it. If you claim that you believe the Bible and disregard what the Bible claims, you deceive yourself. Sadly, I'm pretty sure that every one of us at some point does just that, substituting personal preference for the simple truth of Scripture. To our own detriment.

Truth and Sin

Jesus came into the world for a variety of reasons. He "came to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10). He came to "proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed" (Luke 4:18). One specific thing -- something Jesus specifically states as a purpose -- is found in His conversation with Pilate. "For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world -- to bear witness to the truth" (John 18:37). Truth. A key issue. Indeed, Jesus claimed for Himself "I am ... the Truth" (John 14:6). John said, "We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error" (1 John 4:6). Thus, there is truth and there is error. No other alternatives. According to Paul, the fundamental problem for Natural Man is this very problem -- Truth. "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth" (Rom 1:18). Instead of believing and acting on the truth, we suppress it. Instead of embracing the truth, "they exchanged the truth about God for a lie" (Rom 1:25). Indeed, literally "the lie", where we exchange God and His truth for creation and the lie. Our primary problem, then, is an absence of truth.

This realization got me to thinking. God is not arbitrary. He doesn't tell us to do stuff "because I said so." He does things for a reason. And, in fact, since He is by nature good, He does things for a good reason, and that reason is good. I have, for a long time, understood that God's commands are for our good, but this rumination on the problem of truth leads me to another perspective as well. If our basic problem is a truth failure, that would suggest that our embracing of sin is a truth failure. That is, we sin because we don't have the truth. And that would suggest that the commands of God are based on truth for which we have substituted a lie.

Here, look at an example. Without going to anything controversial, how about the first commandment? "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exo 20:3). The first commandment forbids other gods in the presence of God. Okay. We get that. But ask yourself, why? What is the truth expressed in the command? What truth does that command express for which we are likely to buy a lie? What truth are we exchanging for a lie here? Well, we can find that answer elsewhere in Scripture. "I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides Me there is no God" (Isa 45:5). The uniqueness of God is expressed often in the Bible. Putting it simply, we are monotheists. We are not to have other gods in the presence of God because there are no other gods. Thus, the gods that we drum up and worship, whether it is a Baal or a Molech, power, popularity, or prosperity, or perhaps the most common, self, all are not gods. God commands, then, that we don't lie to ourselves and have other non-existent beings in our lives that we treat as gods because there is only One. Don't be stupid!

You see, then, that God is not simply making a command. He is making a command for our benefit. And He is making a command based on a truth claim. If you violate that command, you violate truth. What is truth? Truth is defined quite simply as that which conforms to reality. The opposite of truth, then, would be ... insanity. Insanity is being out of touch with reality. So God's commands are 1) out of His authority (so "because I said so" is a perfectly valid reason to obey), 2) given for our good (so self-interest is a perfectly valid reason to obey), and 3) based on truth (so reality and sanity are perfectly good reasons to obey). The question you would want to ask yourself, then, is this. When God commands, what is the truth behind the command? When God tells His people, "You shall not commit murder", what truth do we miss to commit murder? When He says, "You shall not commit adultery", what lie do we buy to commit adultery? I offer those because they might be easy. But don't stop at the easy ones. He says, "Honor your mother and father", a command sorely ignored these days. Why does He command it? Yes, for your best interest, to be sure, but what truth is behind it? What is the lie we have bought that allows us to discard that command?

Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free" (John 8:32). To His people He promised "the Spirit of Truth" (John 15:26), and "When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13). Truth is a key issue. Perhaps the key issue. Our lack of it is certainly our key problem because we know that Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). I wonder if it wouldn't be quite instructive if we were to examine what God tells us to do from the question, "What is the truth?" Paul said that the primary problem is "those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth" (Rom 2:8). He affirmed, "Let God be true though every man is a liar" (Rom 3:4). Assuming that God commands rightly and God commands based on truth -- a truth that we will likely exchange for a lie -- what lie are we buying when we violate what God tells us to do? What truth is behind what God tells us to do? I think this line of examination might be very instructive for those of us who want to listen to God's voice and be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Maybe you could give it a try.