From the outside, it really is an odd-looking practice of ours. We rest all of our beliefs and stake our very lives on a single book that was written thousands of years ago. When you say it like that, it sounds ridiculous—after all, no human is perfect, and so everything written by humans will have some mistakes or at least go out of date. So is the Bible just an old book of fairy tales and mythology? Or can we possibly say there’s something unique about it?
There is. The Bible is no mere human book. It is the very breath of God. Every sentence, word, and letter in all of the 66 books came from the all-knowing mind of the Holy Spirit as he filled human authors with inspiration to write precisely what Almighty God wanted to say to his worldwide people. Even as Moses and David and Paul and dozens of others wrote from their own wisdom and creativity, the Spirit co-authored every bit. The Bible is no mere human book. It is, quite literally, the Word of God.
And that means it’s entirely trustworthy! Everything that Scripture claims to be true is in fact true! And it’s a beautiful, unified, universe-sized message that God has to tell us through his Word. We still need to interpret rigorously and study carefully, but we really do have the power to say that if the Bible says so, no other argument or excuse matters. God’s truth really does win over anything we’ve ever come up with, and it will always, always continue to.
As Paul tells Timothy, every bit of Scripture is useful for us. Every bit of it, from the most memorized verses to the most confusing passages, are worth studying and teaching, so that they may make us wise and righteous and fully complete. No surprise; God is a perfect author! Yes, it’s a lot to cover, and much of it is admittedly hard to read (try doing some light reading in 1 Chronicles 1–9!) God’s understanding far surpasses even our greatest limitations. And yet he made his Word specifically for us to understand it. The hard work is worth it.
Let me say it again: the Bible is no mere human book. It is God-breathed. Maybe we should take it seriously! These God-breathed words are worth reading incessantly and enthusiastically, enamored by the overwhelming holiness in the pages and prepared to let the words transform us to our core. The very breath of God deserves nothing less.
