The Bible is God-Breathed

“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 3:16-17

One of the fundamental truths about God is that his Word—his Scripture, his Holy Bible—is completely inspired by God himself.  But in fact, it is not only inspired, literally, it is God-breathed.  Inspiration can come from many things, and it means something or somebody inspired someone else to do something creative.  Stars, friends, teachers—it isn’t that hard to find inspiration if you need it.  God inspired men to write books that became the Bible, that is true. But He did much more than that.  What sets the Bible apart from other books isn’t mere inspiration; it is the literal breath of God within its pages. 

In Genesis we see first hand what happens when God breathes into something.  He breathed into a pile of dirt and gave it life.  This is what makes the Bible special.  This is what makes it meaningful, unique, and incapable of error.  Not human inspiration, but the breath of God that has given it life!  But what does that mean?  It isn’t alive in the physical sense, the way we know life.  It doesn’t eat, or sleep, or even do whatever it is plants do to be classified as alive.  That’s because the Bible isn’t physically alive, it is spiritually alive. 

I love to read.  There are members of my family who think I am a nut because of that, but that doesn’t change the fact that I love to read.  I have, in my lifetime, read hundreds of books.  And I can confirm that not one of them is even remotely similar to the Bible.  Other books I have read can be informative, or interesting, or gripping, or thrilling—but eventually I get to the end of it, and the second time I read a book, it loses something.  I know what has happened; it’s not as interesting as it was the first time I read it.  But not the Bible.  No matter how many times I read it, it is still as potent each time it is read as it was the first time.  Sometimes it is even more interesting, when God opens my eyes to understand something I didn’t at first. 

The Bible is inspired by God.  The Bible has been given the breath of life by God.  And that life sustains and feeds those who believe in Him and do His will.