What Completes Your Faith?

Read Matthew 19:3-6

3 And Pharisees came up to [Jesus] and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

Matthew 19 contains an exchange between Jesus and the religious teachers on the legality of divorce. But what is not often mentioned is that it also contains one of the most powerful statements Jesus makes on the authorship of Scripture. Granted Jesus never had a Bible like we do - all 66 books in order, he nevertheless had access to the Old Testament. Jesus quoted from the Old Testament countless times but in Matthew 19, we get a hint of who Jesus believes wrote the Bible.

1. Try and find the passage where Jesus is quoting from.

2. Can you find a speaker which the statement in v.5 can be attributed to?

3. Is it fair to say that Jesus takes what an author writes to be equivalent to what God speaks?

4. Does this help you understand how the Bible being written by men can be spoken by God at the same time?

Read 2 Tim. 3

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

5.  Based on what we read last week, who do you think Paul has in mind when contrasting Timothy, “But as for you…”?

6.  According to this verse, would you describe becoming a Christian as an instantaneous event or a gradual process?

7.  What is Paul asking Timothy NOT to do?

8.  Read v.16 again, paying close attention to what Scripture can do. Can you share a time when the Bible has been any of the 4 things in your life?

9.  Would you say it is dangerous for us to neglect our Bibles?

10.  What is the biggest obstacle in your life keeping you from reading the Bible more?

Read Psalm 119:57-64

The Lord is my portion;
    I promise to keep your words.
58 I entreat your favor with all my heart;
    be gracious to me according to your promise.
59 When I think on my ways,
    I turn my feet to your testimonies;
60 I hasten and do not delay
    to keep your commandments.
61 Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me,
    I do not forget your law.
62 At midnight I rise to praise you,
    because of your righteous rules.
63 I am a companion of all who fear you,
    of those who keep your precepts.
64 The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love;
    teach me your statutes!

11. What is one truth from this part of Psalm 119 you will think about for the rest of the day?