13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
The most common objection to the Bible is that it was written by men and therefore it can claim no authority over our lives. There is one problem with that. Well, many problems actually. First, the Bible claims authority for itself. The Bible claims to be true, and as we see here, it claims to be written by God through the hand of men, not by men themselves. In short, the Bible is the word of God, not men. Paul is very thankful for this for good reason. If the Bible were the word of men, who cares? But if it is the word of God, every word in it takes on great significance.
That is why we are called to read all of Scripture. There is no part of it that does not teach us something. Even the long genealogies have nuggets of gold in them as we see in Ruth, Obed, Jesse, David, and Jesus. Pastors are commanded to preach the word; all of it, not just the bits we like, skipping the parts on Hell and sin as too controversial. The Bible is the sole foundation of our worldview and the chief authority of the church. We neglect or reject it at our peril. Thank God constantly for his word that we received!
Dear Lord, we praise you for the Bible, your revelation to us of who you are. May we see you in each verse and praise and proclaim its truth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church