This article is part one of a seven-part series on the seven characteristics of a text-driven woman.
A text-driven woman begins with the conviction that God Himself has spoken in Scripture. As Christians, we are committed to the Bible as the inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient Word of God. Scripture, therefore, is the standard by which you and I must test or weigh all other truth claims. When we begin with a right view of Scripture, the Bible itself ought to shape what we believe from start to finish. It should govern how we think and live. It should frame our entire perspective on life. A text-driven woman knows God through how He has revealed Himself to us: through general revelation (through nature, His creation) and special revelation (his written word within the 66 books of our Bible).
Psalm 19 is one of the most concise and direct treatments of the sufficiency of Scripture.
This psalm conveys to us the significance of divine revelation. The first half (vv. 1-6) describes God’s revelation in nature, or what is often called general revelation. God is revealed in His creation. As Romans 1:20 states, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”
But while general revelation is sufficient to reveal the fact that God does exist, and to teach us something about His attributes, nature alone does not reveal saving truth. We not only have general revelation, but we also have special revelation–the written word of God. The second half of Psalm 19 (vv. 7-14) focuses on the absolute and utter sufficiency of Scripture as our true and infallible guide in life. The psalmist begins this section on the Word of God by writing in verses 7-9: “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.” Those three verses contain an absolute and comprehensive statement on the sufficiency of Scripture.
So, very briefly, I want to walk through three absolute truths about the Bible: its inerrancy, its authority, and its sufficiency.
The Bible is Inerrant
What does it mean for the Bible to be inerrant? Well, simply put: the doctrine of inerrancy believes that the Word of God, the Bible, is without error. It is the belief that the Bible is without error or fault in all of its teachings. The inerrancy of Scripture is rooted in the doctrine of God; as God is true and trustworthy, so is His Word. As hinted at already, it is appropriate to associate inerrancy with God himself. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that, “All Scripture is breathed out by God.” It is because Scripture is breathed out by God that it is also truthful in all that it affirms. The God who has breathed out his Word has done so in a way that is truthful; ladies, what else would we expect from a triune God who is truth Himself? Simply put: The truthfulness of the text reflects the truthfulness of its divine author. A text-driven woman believes the Bible is inerrant.
The Bible is Authoritative
The phrase, “because I said so.” Now, we’ve all either heard it or have said it (or both!). Now, I teach the Bible to small children throughout the week at Fellowship Academy, our church's school, and I also serve children and young families every Sunday. Therefore, I have definitely used this phrase a time or two. The classic parental response to the relentless question “why” is not just a pacifying response, it’s an appeal to authority. A man or woman in authority can put an end to an ongoing line of questioning from a child with a simple phrase (because I said so) because they have authority over that child. It’s an appeal to the position.
The Word of God has authority because God has authority. The Scriptures have the authority to pronounce truth because God is its author, it is written by the very source of truth. It is out of God’s very nature. In Genesis 1:1, we read that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Because God is Creator, He has all authority. Similar to our illustration a moment ago of a parent’s authority, God’s Word has all authority out of virtue of who He is. It is God’s speech. The simple fact is: what God says supersedes what everyone else has to say. It was the late J.I. Packer who said “Scripture is God speaking.” A text-driven woman believes that the Bible is authoritative.
The Bible is Sufficient
Perhaps the one doctrine most under attack in the church of our generation is the sufficiency of Scripture. Now, this one is probably going to cause the most struggle, it's going to be the one that our flesh will fight against the most (which we will chat about in future episodes). Even people who give lip service to the authority, inspiration, and inerrancy of Scripture sometimes balk at affirming its sufficiency. The result is virtually the same as a denial of biblical authority because it directs people away from the Bible in search of other “truth.”
So, what do we mean when we say that Scripture is sufficient? We mean that the Bible is an adequate guide for all matters pertaining to life and godliness. The sacred and the secular. Faith and conduct. Or to borrow words from the 1647 Westminster Confession of Faith: “The whole council of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deducted from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added.” The Bible has an opinion on every aspect of life and obtains every truth that we seek and that we need. As text-driven women, the Bible must be what we turn to to help navigate the unchartered waters of being a new mom, viewing our work as worship, caring for an aging parent, and more. Martin Luther once said, “The soul can do without everything except the Word of God, without which none at all of its wants are provided for.”
The unfortunate truth is that the sufficiency of the Bible has been under attack for quite some time. The church, by and large, simply does not believe that the Bible is everything we need. The average Christian seems to assume that something more than Scripture is needed to help us cope or be equipped in a modern world. We may not say we need the Bible “plus something” else, but we sure do live like it. Christian bookstores are full of books offering advice drawn from sources other than the Bible on almost every conceivable subject–parenting, marriage and family, biblical manhood and womanhood, success and self-esteem, church growth, friendship, dating or singleness, leadership, mental health, counseling, and more. It was the great C.H. Spurgeon who said, “Half our fears arise from neglect of the Bible” and A.W. Tozer said “Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.” Nonetheless, it is safe to say, that we have witnessed the abandonment of belief in Scripture’s sufficiency to speak to topics pertaining to all of life. A text-driven woman believes in the sufficiency of God’s Word.
A text-driven woman believes that the Bible is inerrant, the Bible is authoritative, and the Bible is sufficient.
Here is a fundamental truth: the heart can not love what the mind does not know.
Understanding that the value of knowing God more lies within the pages of our Bibles should cause our hearts to burst with joy, to sit and spend time gleaning from His words. Like the prophet Jeremiah said in 15:16, we will say as well: “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts.”
As this truth settles into our minds and postures, we will find our hearts swelling with delight to dive into the Bible and become text-driven women in the Word of God every day. We will read his promises with pleasure, we will consider his commands with gladness, and we will hear the Words of the Lord again and again with hearts full of rejoicing precisely because it is a delight to know our God through His inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient Word. A text-driven woman is a woman of the Word.
To learn more in this series entitled "7 Characteristics of a Text-Driven Woman" listen to the Text-Driven Women Podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/text-driven-women/id1638626764.
