-B-
Day 1 –
Bible as Sole Authority (2 Timothy 3:15-17)
15and that
from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you
the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16All
Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, for training in righteousness; 17that
the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
From Article I, Baptist Faith & Message, 1963 (2000
update underlined).
“The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is the record
of God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine
instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth,
without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is
totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges
us; and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center
of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct,
creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. The criterion by which the
Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ. All Scripture is a testimony to
Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.”
The early church apostles
highly valued the “Word of God” in Acts 6:2 and 4. Ephesians 1:13 says, “after you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, you also trusted in Him; having believed in Him,
you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”
Today’s passage is Paul’s
final letter, written to Timothy, a pastor at Ephesus. Earlier in the letter,
Paul said spoke about the Word of Truth in 2:15, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not
need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane
and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. The Bible
is our sole authority.
What is the danger of having
a church base its identity in something else other than the Bible?
Peter wrote that the Bible was
the unifying and identifying source of teaching and doctrine for the church. Read
from each of his epistles:
Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through
the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently
with a pure heart, having been born again … through the word of God which lives
and abides forever … “the word of the LORD endures forever.” … Now this is the
word which by the gospel was preached to you.
(1 Peter 1:22-25)
And so we have the prophetic
word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a
dark place…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 1:19-21)
The Word of God endures
forever, it is the source of the saving gospel, coming from the Holy Spirit
through men. Using our focal passage in 2 Timothy 3, and 1st and 2nd
Peter above, write down areas in our lives which should be based on the Bible.
(Some hints are underlined.)
Peter also stated that his
words did not “follow cunningly devised
fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Peter 1:16). Peter
affirmed his own words were the Word of God, and also Paul’s letters were just
as inspired as the Old Testament Scriptures: “…our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has
written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things,
in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people
twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”
Other verses you can research affirms that the
Bible should be our first identifying source of unity: Exodus 24:4; Deuteronomy 4:1-2; 17:19; Joshua 8:34; Psalms 19:7-10; 119:11,89,105,140; Isaiah 34:16; 40:8; Jeremiah 15:16; 36:1-32; Matthew 5:17-18; 22:29; Luke 21:33; 24:44-46; John 5:39; 16:13-15; 17:17; Acts 2:16ff.; 17:11; Romans 15:4; 16:25-26; Hebrews 1:1-2; 4:12.
Week 3 Day 2, Click here.
Week 3 Day 2, Click here.
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