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“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17, Unless otherwise stated: Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Used by permission. All rights reserved.)

The origin of Scripture gives it the necessary qualities to equip people of God. If the words did not originate from God, then they are no better than any others to instruct us in what is right and wrong. While the Scripture Paul referred to in 2 Timothy 3:16 was specifically the Old Testament, the same characteristics remain true for the New Testament.

The letters and books in our New Testament repeatedly claim to come from God. Just take a look at the introduction of most of Paul’s epistles, for instance. The authors also wrote about how things other New Testament writers penned were inspired.

First Timothy 5:18 has a quote from Jesus. “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”
Look at the whole verse. “For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer is worthy of his wages.’” What is significant is that the quote can be found in Matthew 10:10 and Luke 10:7. Matthew and Luke’s writings were available and Paul wrote to Timothy calling them Scripture.

Peter said that in Paul’s letters there were “some things 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). He considered the writings of Paul to be Scripture. Earlier in his same letter he explained, “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).

Putting these things together, we see that what Paul wrote was what the Holy Spirit moved him to write. The same is true about the origin of all of the writings that make up the Bible. Since they are from God, they are useful for us to be complete in Him. Do we follow them completely?

Van Sprague is an evangelist at the Church of Christ at Houston Park. He has a wife and three children. Come Visit! Sunday morning Bible class is at 9, with worship after, at 10 and 5 pm. Wednesday night Bible class is at 6. Mark your calendar for VBS from July 28th to 31st.