God-breathed Scripture

An example of snarky arrogance that I have heard debated is this: “Well, I could choose to agree with you, but then we would both be wrong.” It is just clever enough to almost carry some humor. The truth is people generally do not debate fairly, especially these days.

Modern technology drowns us with opinions, some reasonable, and some so half-baked it is gooey in the middle. All manner of commentary accosts us when we fire up the TV, or the computer on the desk. It is there on our laptops and our cellphones. We cannot list all the sources. We have no shortage of information and opinion. What we lack is agreement on authoritative reasoning. Might we have an authority crisis? Facts are treated as malleable. Statements made, ring true only here and there. What sources have the authority to speak, and deserve our attention?

I am thinking this over, because in the Epistle on deck for Sunday liturgy is a passage from the Second Letter of Paul to Timothy. Paul is coaching the young leader on how to strengthen the community of believers. He implies that Christians do well to see the scriptures as authoritative and effective:

As for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 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. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)

He is reminding Timothy that he has been marinated in the scriptures from early on and that they are trustworthy for getting at the truth of things. In saying that all scripture is “inspired by God” the word is “God-breathed.” The very breath of God or the Spirit of God fills the sacred writings. From them, Timothy can teach, reprove, correct, and train his fellow Christians. Reproof can be a sensitive process because in it one is disapproving of something and admonishing. One must be teachable to be taught. One must trust the teacher to be corrected, trained, and equipped.

In Timothy’s case, as it should be everywhere in the church, the teacher is leaning on the authority and inspiration of the scriptures. Paul asserts the importance of this because people hear all sorts of flimsy and harmful ideas and treat them as sound:

I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires. (2 Timothy 4:1b-3)

Christians need the good stuff: the authoritative, God-breathed, Word of God. Our spiritual health is bolstered by the encouragement that comes “with the utmost patience in teaching.”