Craig T. Owens

Here’s a really simple true-false quiz for you. Anyone who has ever been in church should be able to handle this one simple question. Are you ready? Your one question is—True or False: The Bible contains the Word of God?

The answer is FALSE! The Bible doesn’t contain the Word of God, the Bible IS the Word of God.

• It is inerrant = without error.
• It is infallible = without mistake.
• It is universally applicable regardless of age or culture.

The worldview which dominates today is usually one of pragmatism. That means people do what feels right to them in the moment, and then they determine the rightness or wrongness of their decision based on the outcome. In other words, if they like how things turned out they must have done something right, and if they don’t like the results then they must have done something wrong.

Christians, however, need to see the short-sightedness of this. The Apostle Peter shows the contrast between how accurate God’s Word is and how false teachers want to “exploit you with stories they have made up” (see 2 Peter 1:20-2:3), and how destruction is the end result for those with a pragmatic worldview.

It is by no means an easy thing for Christians to discipline themselves to have a consistent biblical worldview. It’s easy to simply reject something because it doesn’t appear to be “churchy” or receive something because it’s been done in the church for years. The hard work comes in this:

• Using the Bible for everything (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
• Allowing the Holy Spirit to form the mind of Christ in you (1 Corinthians 2:10-16).
• Then using what you’ve learned to redeem things for God’s glory (2 Corinthians 10:5).

This week I’d like to give you the same challenge I gave my congregation: How can you STEP UP your involvement in the Word this week?

• Do you need to read the Bible more?
• Do you need to read the Bible better?
• Do you need to meditate more on what you’ve read in the Bible?
• Do you need to re-look at some things you’ve automatically rejected or received?
• Do you need the Holy Spirit to overhaul your worldview?