Pastor Chris’ Corona Quarantine Epistles to the Flock of AIC Ngong Road, in Dispersion and Isolation. 163rd Edition.
Dear Saints of the Most High,
In today’s passage (2 Peter 1:20-21) we conclude Peter’s teaching on the reliability of the word of God. Any word is as good as the giver of it. If the devil gives you his word you would be a fool to “take it to the bank” because “there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources (NIV, native language), for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44). The word of God did not come about through a private
Interpretation (v. 20). It is not some clever fellows who looked at the situation and having seen it in their perspective, written it down for others to benefit from. If this were the case, then the interpretation would be limited to the boundaries of human minds. We are unable to see the future and even our perception of the past and present is limited to what we have experienced, heard, or seen. Our interpretation is therefore deficient because it is confined within our mental limits. Nor is the word of God the result of human
Initiative (v. 21a). If the word was given by the will of man, it would be limited by the motive of the author. None of us is totally pure and sincere in our intentions. In fact, we are ruled by lust, selfishness, and pride. Any attempt to generate a message from within ourselves will be polluted by our impure motives. The word of God has its origin in divine
Inspiration (v. 21b). “Holy men of God, Communicated, his message. In one of the translations (NIV), it reads that “men spoke from God.” This does not necessarily mean that God dictated his message word for word, although at times he may have. The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20), for instance, but rather that God Controlled the process. The speakers or writers “were moved by the Holy Spirit.” The idea here is of a boat that has no rudder and which is carried along by the waves. The human authors employed their understanding, language, personality, and cultural background as they spoke or wrote, but the whole process was directed by the Holy Spirit.
This means that to understand the word of God we need the Holy Spirit to make it clear to us, but we also need Historical, Literary, Geographical, and sometimes even, scientific tools to help us in our study of the word. But that said, the point Peter is making is that we can trust what the word of God says because it has its origin in him. What God says we can “take to the bank.”
Your Loving Pastor Chris.