{"id":1934,"date":"2010-10-18T09:26:06","date_gmt":"2010-10-18T16:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/blog\/archives\/the_bible_and_the_inspiring_god"},"modified":"2023-09-20T10:43:45","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T17:43:45","slug":"the_bible_and_the_inspiring_god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/blog\/archives\/the_bible_and_the_inspiring_god","title":{"rendered":"The Bible and the Inspiring God"},"content":{"rendered":"

The older I get, the more I appreciate the Bible. Scripture is my principle authority on matters of Christian faith and practice. God uses it to encourage and teach me.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite passages is 2 Timothy 3:15-17. It’s probably the passage most cited as evidence for the high regard Christians have for the Bible.<\/p>\n

Paul writes to his young friend, Timothy. He notes that from childhood, Timothy was taught “the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”<\/p>\n

Of course, the sacred writings – scriptures – were not the Bible, as we know it. Paul was referring to Jewish writings, many of which make up what most Christians call the “Old Testament.”<\/p>\n

Salvation<\/h3>\n

These scriptures teach us about salvation, says Paul. Despite being written long before Jesus was born, they tell us about the salvation Christ provides.<\/p>\n

In the context of talking about salvation, Paul says,<\/p>\n

“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.”<\/p>\n

The verse identifies specific ways God uses the Bible to offer salvation.  The salvation God offers involves our being taught, reproved, corrected, and trained in righteousness. The scriptures, therefore, are tools for the saving work God wants to do in us.<\/p>\n

Inspiration<\/h3>\n

Many commentators say the word “inspire” means something like “breathed into.” Instead of thinking of God as one who makes and controls us like robots, God enlivens the words of scripture. God uses them as a source to spark abundant life in us.<\/p>\n

Paul says God’s inspiration occurs in the present, as we read or hear the scriptures. The phrase, “is useful,” is present tense.<\/p>\n

The inspiration mentioned here has less to do with God’s communication to writers long ago (although I believe it also speaks to this). It has more to do with God’s communicating, empowering, and calling us today — as we read the scriptures (both Old and New testaments).<\/p>\n

I like the way the verse ends. The purpose of scripture is to promote well-being. God uses the Bible to equip us for doing good – which is what I think is the best way to talk about love!<\/p>\n

In fact, there is an integral relationship between 1) God’s in-spiring, 2) salvation, and 3) doing good.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, this verse seems to be saying that the Bible is not simply an end in itself. It is a means God uses to love us by offering salvation.<\/p>\n

Thanks be to God!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The older I get, the more I appreciate the Bible. Scripture is my principle authority on matters of Christian faith and practice. God uses it to encourage and teach me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[802],"yst_prominent_words":[1121,1131,1260,1318,1383,1721,2426,2427,2428,2429,2430,2431,2432,2433,2434,2435],"class_list":["post-1934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-john_wesley_holiness_and_the_church_of_the_nazarene","tag-biblical-inspiration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1934"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}