"The Other Six" Devotional SeriesSampel

Reading the Bible // Section 1: How it Got to Us

Here in this first verse we find Peter in his epistle speaking about Paul and his writings. Notice how he views them by the wording he uses at the end – he calls Paul’s writings scripture! Even Peter at the time knew how powerful and inspired these writings that were being constructed were – Jesus’ own disciple, who heard Jesus’ very words, says that Paul’s writings are scripture. Even the men who were writing these words at the time understood that something incredibly powerful was happening. They didn't do it to make each other feel good - in fact, Paul actually has to reprimand Peter at one point for not following up his words with his actions towards the Gentiles.

They acknowledged that their writings were scripture because God had been personally changing the course of history through their colleagues. In fact, these men wouldn't have even wanted to own up to the fact that their writings were scripture considering the persecution and torture that would've accompanied writing these events and ideas down. But they couldn't help it - they had encountered God and He had compelled them to write.

Practical Steps: Spend the day considering the incredible atmosphere it must’ve been to be alive during the construction of these Bible books, and think about how much these men and women sacrificed so that the Bible might continue to exist up until this very day.