“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16 ESV).
As we continue our look at the topic of Biblical inspiration from 2 Timothy 3:16, we now stop to consider what the Bible claims for itself regarding this subject.
As mentioned previously, the Bible repeatedly claims to be the written word of God. For example, the words “God said” and “God spoke” appear dozens of times within the Scriptures. In addition, we should also note that God’s inspiration of the Bible extends to both the Old and New Testaments. Consider the following passage from 1 Timothy 5:18 as an illustration…
“…the Scripture says, ‘Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,’ and ‘The worker deserves his wages'” (NIV).
While this passage may seem unremarkable at first glance, there is more to this portion of Scripture than it may appear. You see, 1 Timothy 5:18 quotes an Old Testament passage (Deuteronomy 25:4: “Do not muzzle an ox…”) right alongside the words of Jesus from Luke 10:7 and refers to both as “Scripture.” We find a similar example in the Biblical book of 2 Peter…
“…our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him. He speaks about these things in all his letters in which there are some matters that are hard to understand. The untaught and unstable twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15-16 HCSB, emphasis added).
Here is some more of what the Bible says regarding itself and its inspiration by God….
“This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words” (1 Corinthians 2:13).
“And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13 NIV).
So God “breathed out” His word through the Biblical authors so we could have a written record of His message. As we’re told in 1 Corinthians 10:11, these things were written for our benefit to provide us with an accurate understanding of God and His will for our lives…
“Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction…” (ESV).