The Holy Scriptures

It is needful in these dark days to have the Holy Scriptures constantly before us. “Lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes” (Deut. 11:18).
While the world is tossed to and fro, ever learning yet never coming to a knowledge of the truth, we have a sure resource in the Bible. May we heed the exhortation given by the Apostle Paul to Timothy: “Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:14-17).
At one time, the immense cost of producing books limited access to the Bible for most. Today, we are deluged with the printed word, most of which occupies our minds and time with pursuits other than the Holy Scriptures.
The enemy also seeks to undermine the authenticity of the Scriptures. If failing in that, he seeks to revise and paraphrase its words to suit men’s minds that are at enmity with God. How careful we must be in handling the Word of God. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16). “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:21).
In this humanistic age, freedom of thought encourages each to come to a personal interpretation of Scripture, but the Bible says: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation” (2 Peter 1:20). We are to “have an outline of sound words, which [words] thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which [are] in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 1:13 JND) and to be “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).
The word of God cannot be studied in a rationalistic way, for “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things” (John 14:26). Though a babe in Christ has, by the Spirit, an understanding of the Holy Scriptures, none can plumb its infinite depths.