“…Just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks about these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people turn to their own destruction, just as they do in other Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15,16).
In this text, Peter, who was one of Christ’s apostles, refers to letters written by Paul, one of the apostles. As a Jew, Peter makes an astonishing claim. He classifies Paul’s letters as a part of “Scripture”, a Jewish expression that refers to documents that are accepted as originating in the mind of God. Peter may have known that the Pentateuch, the Hebrew Prophets, and some other books were inspired by God; But they also recognized Paul’s writings as a part of this canon, the authoritative collection of books that, taken together, constitute God’s written word to mankind.
Just a few days ago, I was reading in Deuteronomy where Moses was looking forward to the day when Israel would have a king. The king must, above all, be a godly man, loyal to the teachings of God. But being a godly person will depend on his attention to writing vested That teaching. These creations cannot be ignored. “He must write a copy of this law for himself in a book… It must be with him, and he must read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying and obeying all the words of this law and these statutes… so that he and his descendants may prolong their kingdom in Israel” (Deuteronomy 17:18-20).
We have to stretch our minds to accept that there may be books written in human language that ultimately came from God’s own Spirit (2 Peter 1:21), but that is exactly the claim made for “Scripture.” Yes, human writers were involved. They were the agents through which God brought these books into the world, but somehow, the writings are from God himself. If we “twist” them, as Peter said, we do so to “our own destruction.” The scriptures have been given to us by the grace of God. They may make us “wise unto salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15) – but since they are communications from our Creator, we dare not wander about carelessly in them.
“The Bible is a supernatural book” (AW Tozer).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com AreYouaChristian.com
