Anatomy of the church

Today, we will begin on the series of the Bible. This will take some time as there are many aspects to this topic, so stay with us and I believe that this series will be beneficial to all.

To begin with, the Bible is inspired by God. If the Bible is not inspired by God, it is no longer the infaliable and inerrant Word of God. This is a claim that the Bible teaches and we will examine one of three verses today. And whatever one may think of the Bible, it, like any other witness, has the right to testify on its own behalf. Some take exception to the validity of such evidence on the grounds that it is self-testimony and therefore may not be true. Granted, self-testimony may or may not be true, but it needs to be heard.

'All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:' (2 Timothy 3:16)

Le me begin with the definition of 'scripture' and 'is given by the inspiration of God'.

'Scripture'
akin to grapho, "to write" (Eng., "graph," "graphic," etc.), primarily denotes "a drawing, painting;" then "a writing,"

- of the OT Scriptures (those accepted by the Jews as canonical) and all those of the NT which were to be accepted by Christians as authoritative, 2Ti 3:16.

'Is given by inspiration of God'
All this is expressed in the original by one word - Θεόπνευστος Theopneustos. This word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It properly means, God-inspired - from Θεός Theos, “God,” and πνέω pneō, “to breathe, to breathe out.”

So, we can conclude that all scripture, that is the entire Bible is inspired by God, in other words, God-breathed. This means that the Bible is teh result of the breath of God. Our English word 'inspire' carries teh idea of breathing into something. But this word tells us that God breathed out something, namely, the Scripture. To be sure, human authors wrote the texts, but the Bible originated as an action of God who breathed it out.

The entire Bible is profitable. This expresses the purpose of inspiration. Its profit consists in teaching, reproving, correcting, restoring and training in righteousness in order that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. The Bible is not to be put in a museum to be admired; rather, it is to be used in our lives.

To sum up, 2 Timothy 3:16 teaches us that the whole Bible came from God in order to show us how to live.