Are Red Letters Better?
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Some Bible translations print the words Jesus spoke out loud in red letters, which may lead people to think that those parts of Scripture are more important than others. Is this true?
Jesus is the Word of God.
Many people think that only the words Jesus spoke out loud during his physical time on the earth are his actual speech; yet, the Bible tells us that Jesus himself is the Word of God:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made….And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1–3, 14)
All Scripture is God-breathed.
The apostle Paul writes the following to his young charge, Timothy, about the divine authorship of the Bible:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16–17)
The entire Bible is God’s revelation to us.
The apostle Peter affirms Scripture is not the result of human interpretation but is instead God’s revealed word to us:
Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Pet. 1:20-21)
During his encounter with Satan in the wilderness, Jesus pointed to God’s command to Israel in Deuteronomy regarding the importance of every word of Scripture:
But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matt. 4:4; see also Deut. 8:3)
Thus, the entire Bible is God’s revelation to us—the teaching Jesus wants us to know.
God has given us every single word of Scripture for a good purpose.
Theologian Robert Farrar Capon writes about the importance of not neglecting even the most seemingly inconsequential word in the Bible:
“I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God and to contain all things necessary to salvation....” So read the words of the ordination oath that I took many years ago and that I am still happy to keep….Precisely because it forbids the neglect of even the oddest bit of Scripture, I find it nothing less than the taproot of an endlessly refreshing openness to all the wonderful, perplexing, and intriguing words by which the Word himself has spoken. (Capon, Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus, Kindle Locations 46-50)
While some people pick and choose the verses in the Bible that they think are most important, God has given us every single word for a good purpose. Rejoice that the Bible is filled with knowledge of God and wisdom to live life well, but rejoice most of all that the Bible communicates to us God’s redemptive plan in Christ—all we need to know about Jesus our Savior.