Scripture Is Inspired by God

What's the difference between the Bible and the Word of God? How you answer uncovers a deep challenge.

A Special Message from Fr. Barnabas: Thank you all for supporting this devotional ministry in 2024. As we enter 2025, please share this daily visit with five others. They may want to join us as we reorient our lives toward God's wisdom in the Holy Scriptures and the Faithful practice of Normal Orthodoxy!

Christ is born!

The thing that bothered me most when I began to drift from a Protestant attitude towards a more consistent attitude with the Early Church was the Bible. I was taught the Bible had everything we needed to know about God. The Bible was “inerrant” and was plain in its message.

I was taught that the Bible is the Word of God. I was also taught to read my Bible daily and ask the Holy Spirit to help me understand it.

Here’s the problem: If all of that is true, why are so many different denominations? Why are there so many disagreements about what this passage means or what that passage means? Everybody seems to trust their own opinions above others. That began to bother me a lot!

It bothered me so much that I started thinking about how I used the Bible, and I concluded that what a friend of mine accused me of was true: I had a “paper pope.”

I was using the Bible to “prove” stuff that was more of my private interpretation of what the Bible meant rather than giving the historical understanding of scripture interpreted through the centuries. I trusted my wisdom over the timeless work of the Holy Spirit in His Church.

Not surprisingly, I found that my interpretations of Holy Scripture weren’t nearly as deep and wise as the Church’s understanding. I was surprised to learn that my devotion to the Holy Scripture INCREASED as I submitted to the wisdom of the Church to help me understand the Bible in the first place!

Look at our lesson in 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 4:1-4:

Timothy, my son, all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.

St. Paul tells his spiritual son, Timothy, that “all scripture” is literally “God-breathed.” That’s the literal translation of the Greek word for “inspired.” But please note that Paul is talking about the Hebrew Bible. The New Testament wouldn’t be officially added to the Scriptures of the Christian Faith for many years.

Because the scriptures are “God-breathed,” they are used to teach, reprove (a word that isn’t very popular nowadays, but is still essential), correct, train, and equip the followers of Jesus Christ for “good works.”

Amazing! The purpose of knowing the scriptures, reading the scriptures, learning the scriptures, and hearing the scriptures isn’t so you’ll have more information but so you can reorient and transform your life with the wisdom of God!

St. John Chrysostom declares, “We must thoroughly quench the darts of the devil and beat them off by continual reading of the divine Scriptures.” If you want to fight temptations, read and know the Holy Scriptures. They aren’t there for you to use to “win” debates as much as they are meant to transform your life so that no debate is necessary!

Again, St. John says, “Reading the Scriptures is a great security against sinning. The ignorance of Scripture is a great cliff and a deep abyss; to know nothing of the divine laws is a great betrayal of salvation. This has given birth to heresies, this has introduced a corrupt way of life, this has put down the things above. For it is impossible, impossible for anyone to depart without benefit if he reads continually with attention.” Knowing the Scriptures is meant to help you know God since the Holy Scriptures reveal God to us. But this knowledge can never be reduced to “knowing about” the Holy Scriptures, but knowing as a husband “knows” his wife, as a life long friend knows his best friend.

We often forget that daily reading of the Holy Scripture is “medicine” for our spiritual maturity. This is why I started these devotionals so many years ago. I wanted to stay connected to the good habit of reading the Bible every day and add the wisdom of the Church to my understanding so that this wisdom would shape my life. I pray these devotionals help you do the same!

St. Melania, the Younger, was born in 388. Her grandmother was St. Melania, the Elder (see how that works!) who is remembered by the Church on June 8. St. Melania was the daughter of a Roman official. When she married, she gave birth to two children, who both died while very young. She and her husband agreed that she would live the rest of her life as a monastic, and she and her mother, Albina, left for a monastery in Africa. While there, St. Melania fought to free those held captive in slavery, and she ransomed 8000 captives. They built a monastery for men in the area and then a monastery for women. Finally, after 7 years, they moved to Jerusalem, and St. Melania committed herself to a small hermitage by the Mount of Olives, where she reposed in peace in the year 434.

Today, are you disciplined in reading the Holy Scriptures? If you allow the wisdom of the Church to transform “why” you read the Bible from simply gathering information to the reality that knowing the Scriptures is real medicine for your soul, you’ll find your stamina in sticking with this good discipline will grow. And this discipline will make you a Normal Orthodox Christian!

P.S. The image of God, was faithfully preserved in you, O Mother. For you took up the Cross and followed Christ. By Your actions you taught us to look beyond the flesh for it passes, rather to be concerned about the soul which is immortal. Wherefore, O Holy Melania, your soul rejoices with the angels.

Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouragedTV