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By Dean Kelly

 

In 2 Timothy 3:16 Paul said, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” The word translated “inspiration” is a Greek word that literally means “God-breathed.” The scriptures are the God-breathed message from God Himself.

The Apostle Peter explained, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21). The scriptures are not the thoughts of these writers, Peter says, but instead they are the inspired Word revealed to the authors by the Holy Spirit.

Peter makes reference to the Apostle Paul, “as also in all his epistles speaking of these things, in which some things are hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16). Peter recognized Paul’s writings as scripture.

The Apostle Paul made it clear that what he wrote was from God and not himself. 

“These things we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13).  Paul states that even the words he used were approved by and inspired by the Holy Spirit.

What Paul and Peter and the other writers of the New Testament wrote is scripture, and it is inspired by God. These New Testament scriptures are authoritative, and inerrant. They are not, at any point, just the expressing of the writer’s thoughts and opinions. They express God’s will.

Through these inspired writings we come to know Jesus and His will. These scriptures will take us to the foot of His cross and save our souls (James 1:21). 

 

Dean Kelly is minister of Highland Home Church of Christ.