19 Jul 2012
II Peter 3:15-16
II Peter 3:15: “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”
Notice that Peter refers to Paul’s writings as Scripture! In verse 16 he talks about “the other scriptures”, placing Paul’s letters on par with the Old Testament Scriptures. This should come as no surprise; after all, his letters are a part of the New Testament. They are just as much the words of God as Genesis or Isaiah.
The reason this is important is because many people today work very hard to discredit Paul. They say that he had “issues”, or was just plain wrong, or whatever the excuse may be. The reason they do this is because they don’t like what he had to say, so they just reject his letters. Yet here we see that they are indeed Scripture.
God does not divide His word up into sections of “good stuff” and “mediocre stuff” and “teachings that are false” and “teachings that are optional”. All of it is inspired, perfect, and flawless. God simply does not give anyone the option of believing some parts and not believing the rest.