Second Timothy 3:16 says that “All Scripture is God-breathed.” This means that the Bible as the Word of God is the very breath of God. Moreover, 2 Peter 1:21 says, “For no prophecy was ever borne by the will of man, but men spoke from God while being borne by the Holy Spirit.” According to this verse, the Bible was written by men through the inspiration of the Spirit. The word inspiration here means “to draw in,” as in the drawing or breathing in of air into the lungs. The fact that the Bible was composed by the Spirit coming upon men and writing the word of God through them indicates that the Scripture did not originate from man’s thought, but God’s breath. God breathed His thought and word through His Spirit into and out of the writers.
Today, we can substantiate the Word of God as the breath of God by exercising our spirit to contact the Bible. When we read the Scripture with an exercised spirit and an open heart we inhale God (Eph. 1:17-18). This is to “strike” the Spirit of the Scripture with our spirit in order to ignite the divine fire within, fanning our spirit into flame, so that we may become burning for the Lord (Eph. 6:17-18; 2 Tim. 1:6; cf. Luke 12:49). When we gather together in this way, we will incite one another to love and good works (Heb. 10:24).
Whereas all Scripture is God breathed, not every word in the Scripture is God’s word. For instance, in Genesis 3 the serpent’s words are recorded. Those words were not God’s words but Satan’s. Furthermore, in the Old Testament as well as the New, it is evident that several portions are written not according to the divine concept but the human concept. In the book of Job there is the reasoning of men, and in many portions of the Psalms there are “good” teachings composed according to the human concept. In the New Testament, there is the record of Peter rebuking the Lord in Matthew 16:22 and his desire to make Moses and Elijah equal with Christ in Matthew 17:4; in these two cases Peter acted according to the human concept (16:23;17:5). Finally, the epistle of James was written under a vague view of God’s New Testament Economy. The epistle of James was included in the Bible in order to expose James’ wrong concept concerning the law and vague vision of God’s New Testament economy.
In order to touch the divine concept in the Bible, we must exercise our spirit to contact the Bible as the breath of God. The divine concept in the Word keeps us on the central line of God’s economy.
Further Reading:
Crystallization-study of the Epistles of James, pp. 32-33, 88-96 (Print).
(Most references in the Further Reading can also be viewed on www.ministrybooks.org.)
Amen. 1 Peter 1:21 was enjoyable.