JUST THINKING: The Living Word
After reading a few articles from various authors lately, I was just thinking about how much error is being taught today — especially when it comes to God’s Word.
The question is why?The foremost answer is that Satan does not want people to have a real knowledge of God’s truth. Through the influence of demonic forces, the devil draws people to falsehoods and urges them to believe a lie.
Another reason is that in almost every decade since Christ ascended, people have balked at believing what God has said about sin, condemnation and salvation. People want to hear what they wantto hear and not what they need to hear.
Consider what Paul wrote, by inspiration, to his young protégé Timothy: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (II Tim. 4:3-4 NIV).
The Inspiration of the Scriptures
I hear or read from some who will say that Mark received much of his gospel from Peter. Wrong! Mark received the thoughts he penned from God! It’s called inspiration… God-breathed. It’s the inspiration from God that makes things alive. The Lord breathed into Adam the breath of life. He breathed into every believer the Spirit (pneuma) of life.
When God gave mankind His Word, He made it alive (zao)by inspiration — God breathed (theopneustos). “For the word of God is living and active” (Heb. 4:11 ESV).
All Scripture is Inspired
The Bible continues the be the best-selling book of all time, but that’s not what makes it alive. It’s the fact that all Scripture is God-breathed — not just some of it. Again, Paul wrote Timothy, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (II Tim. 3:16-17 NIV).
The early church was taught the Holy Scriptures. Those enduring the Dark Ages trusted the truths of God’s Word. Those who were part of the Reformation taught the God-breathed truths. Today, 2,000 years removed from the conclusion of John’s penning the Revelation, the Word of God — all Scripture — is still what enables humans to experience new life in Jesus Christ.
Claim the Truths of God’s Word
Timothy was taught the Word of God from the time he was a baby. Today, our children need the same teaching. The promises of God are from generation to generation. We need only to believe them and claim them — not because they are inspirational for us, but because they are inspired by God.
For years children in Sunday School and VBS sang this song that resonates today: “Every promise in the Book is mine; every promise in the Book is mine. Every chapter, every verse, every line. All are blessings of His love divine. Every promise in the Book is mine.”
Here is a Scripture — a truth — that brings this to a fitting close: “And we also thank God continually because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe” (I Thess. 2:13 NIV).
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Dr. Tom Mitchell
Dr. Tom Mitchell pens a column titled, Just Thinking, in which he addresses many topics relative to the Baptist Missionary Association. His Trailblazers series provides biographies of many BMA trailblazers from the past.
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