Toward Sunday

How have you evolved in your approach to searching scripture? How did you approach the Bible as a child, a teenager, and into today?  What has changed in your approach to searching scripture? What has stayed the same?

Read 2 Timothy 3:14-17.

Rev. Adam Hamilton reflects on the meaning of this text: So often those who cite 2 Timothy 3: 16 as the basis for their understanding of scripture assume a view of inspiration that Paul never claimed, that scripture nowhere teaches, and which no human being alive today claims to have experienced. One way to understand what Paul meant by “inspired by God” would be to look to our own experience of inspiration from God and posit that the scripture writers were similarly inspired…This phrase, “inspired by God,” is just one word in the Greek: theopneustos. It is a compound word, derived from theo, meaning “God,” and pneo, meaning “to breathe out” or “to blow.” Paul appears to have created this word himself. It appears nowhere else in the Bible and, to our knowledge, nowhere else in the Greek language until after Paul’s time. That makes it difficult to know precisely what Paul meant by the word…It could have meant “God-exhaled” or “God-breathed,” or perhaps he was drawing from the Greek word for Spirit, pneuma, in which case it might mean something like “God-Spirited.” (Making Sense of the Bible: Rediscovering the Power of Scripture, 132-133).

What does it mean for you to say that all scripture is inspired by God?

Several individuals have approached us recently expressing a desire to grow in their relationship with the Bible. They long to search scripture in deeper ways. What are your hopes for how you might grow deeper right now in relationship to searching scripture? We invite you to reflect on scripture each week in your Kitchen Table and on our blog. How are you doing with the work of searching scripture each week? What concrete steps would you like  to consider for going deeper in searching scripture together each week?