It’s a commonly held belief among Evangelicals that all Scripture is God-breathed. After all, the Apostle Paul puts it this way in 2 Timothy 3:16…
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
But, is all Scripture equally important? Before you write me off as a heretic, really take a moment and consider that question. Is all Scripture really equally important?
I mean, you get one shot at sharing the Gospel with a thousand people…are you really going to lead with Leviticus? No? Why not? All right then, what’s the most important verse or two for them to hear in that moment? You could ask the same question about 100+ other scenarios and in each case you would be making judgment calls about what portions of scripture are more important than another.
I’m not saying that not all Scripture is not God-breathed. That would be heresy. What I am saying is that maybe it’s not equally important in preaching.
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Posted in Spiritual Formation
Hey Paul,
Your question reminds me of the conversation my wife & I have some times. I’ll say, “That’s a really great passage of Scripture!” She’ll say, “Aren’t they all really great!?!”
I love your post. Thank you for your challenge.
Blessings,
Dave
Paul:
One of favorite Bible verses is Romans 16:22 “I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord.” As the book of Romans is wrapping up Paul’s superlative exhortations, Tertius textbombs (hmmm, maybe need to trademark that term!) Paul’s words and says “howdy!”
This is in context of your argument about what you might lead with sharing the gospel. Obviously this verse has nothing to do with God’s grace through Christ’s sacrifice. But it does show in the midst of God’s word the very real humanity of those that put quill to papyrus to record it. In that light, the importance is huge – different than gospel importance but important nonetheless.
Always interesting; always challenging Paul…thanks!
I was searching for opinions on this matter and that’s how I came to this blog. My 2 cents…
When Jesus is asked which commandment of the law is the greatest (Matthew 22 36-40), he does not argue that all of it is as important by virtue of being the word of God, but answers that of loving God and your neighbor. So it appears Jesus is capable of making such a distinction.
And then there’s the analogy of the milk and the meat, where situation and circumstance determine which is more important to be given to the believer.
If I am wrong, I pray I’ll learn the error of my ways.
Great point👍
I agree to an extent, but I believe in different horses for different courses. If you’re sharing the Gospel, of course you’re not gonna lead with Leviticus. All Scripture is equal in important, but not identical in application. That being said, I do believe all of Scripture, with a proper interpretation through the lens of the rest of Scripture, contains encouragement for anyone in any situation. I also believe that all of Scripture points to the Gospel. Indeed, you could use the book of Leviticus in conjunction with the book of Hebrews the paint a brilliant picture of the Gospel.