Take Root #39

 Day 39

2 Peter 3:15-16

"15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which there are some things that are hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. "

A couple of key takeaways in this passage. One is that the apostles were aware they were not writing just personal letters to churches, but that God was writing scripture through them. It’s not like these were just memos and later on someone decide to call it scripture. Paul according to what was given to him wrote some difficult things that carried the weight of scripture from the mouth of God.  

So, when you start discounting passages because Paul wrote them, or they don’t seem to fit in the culture today be aware that Peter (whom Jesus said He would build the church on) disagrees with your opinion. 

In Billy Graham’s biography he states that the turning point in his ministry was when he decided that the bible was the inerrant Word of God. He would tell you that was what it took for God to launch him into the ministry for which he was intended. 

Earlier in this letter Peter had written “For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” – 2nd Peter 1: 21

So, there is no question what Peter believed…. we just need to settle what you believe.