Jesus answered him, “It also is written …” —Matthew 4:7

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. —2 Timothy 3:14-17

We are not supposed to master the Bible. The Bible is supposed to master us. We are to live, in both thought and action, under the Bible so that the Bible, in the power of the Holy Spirit, can master us.

Christians have been described as “people of the Book.” This is an apt description, for the Bible is authoritative for all traditions of Christianity. In the case of most of the churches descended from the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, the authority of the Bible takes the particular form of sola scriptura or “Scripture alone.”

To believe in “Scripture alone” is not to believe that the Bible is “the only book we need.” It is not to believe that the Bible tells us everything we need know about everything. Rather, belief in sola scriptura is the belief that the Bible is “the only authority for faith and obedience.” (The Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 3).

Faith and obedience. The Bible is the authority for what we think, how we think, what we believe. And the Bible is the authority for how we live, what we do and don’t do. To affirm sola scriptura is to believe or testify that the Bible is true and authoritative. And, to genuinely affirm sola scriptura is to commit to living in accord with what the Bible teaches.

The reason for all of this—for affirming the Bible as sola scriptura, for affirming its authority over our thoughts, for affirming its authority over our lives—is because the Bible is the word of God written. To read the Bible correctly is to hear God himself. The Bible is the Word of God for the people of God.

Rightly reading the Bible and rightly obeying the Bible is not something that any one of us should seek to do in isolation. God’s Holy Spirit, who inspired the Scriptures to begin with, leads God’s people “into all truth” (John 16:13), and the people of God, to whom the Scriptures have been given, listen and learn together as the Spirit leads.

Consider …

╬ We are to live under the Bible so that the Word of God, in the power of the Holy Spirit, can master us. What might it mean for you, for us, to be mastered by God’s Word? What is one area of thought or action that would be changed by being brought under the Word?

╬ To explore whether or not you believe in sola scriptura, ask yourself the question: Am I willing to let the Bible take me to places—to conclusions, to beliefs, to actions—that I don’t want to go? Can you pray, “I am willing, Lord. Your will, not mine, be done.”

╬ Father, you are the Giver of all good gifts. The greatest of these is the Word of God incarnate, your son Jesus who said to the devil, “It is written.” And we thank you for the written Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. By your Holy Spirit, prompt us to humbly read, guide us to understand, and empower us to believe and to live your written Word. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.