Let Us Begin Again ① Scripture Alone as the Only Measure
Few cars today travel without navigation. When the road is unfamiliar, we trust a system that tells us where to turn, when to slow down, and how to arrive safely. That quiet confidence—the assurance that we are headed in the right direction—comes from knowing that a reliable guide is at work.
The same question confronts us in the life of faith. What tells us which way is right?
How do we know who God truly is, why Jesus Christ came into this world, and what it means to live faithfully before Him? The Christian answer has always been clear and uncompromising. There is only one reliable guide: the Holy Scriptures. The Bible functions as the navigation of faith—not as a suggestion, but as the decisive authority that directs the entire journey.
Knowing God Requires Revelation
Human knowledge is limited by nature. Our experiences, insights, and moral instincts may be sincere, but they are never sufficient to know God as He truly is. God transcends human understanding. He cannot be discovered by investigation or reached by effort.
If God is to be known, He must first make Himself known.
This divine self-disclosure is what theology calls revelation. Christianity stands upon an absolute conviction: we are entirely dependent on God’s revelation in order to know God at all. This is not a weakness of faith, but its foundation. Scripture is not humanity’s search for God; it is God’s gracious initiative to speak, to reveal, and to make Himself known.
Scripture as Canon: The Measure of Faith and Life
For this reason, the Bible has historically been called Canon. The term originally referred to a reed used as a measuring rod, and later came to mean a standard or rule by which something is tested.
Scripture is Canon because it is the standard of faith and life. It is the measure by which doctrine is examined, belief is judged, and life is ordered. As the Word of God, the Bible stands as the final authority for what the church confesses and how the believer lives. This is why it has been received as Holy Scripture and recognized as the Canon of the church.
Therefore, Scripture is not merely helpful. It is essential. It is the absolute ground, the absolute reference, and the absolute standard of Christian faith.
When Scripture Is Abandoned, Faith Is Distorted
A Christian cannot live rightly apart from Scripture. When God’s Word is neglected or misunderstood, faith inevitably drifts. Sincerity alone cannot preserve truth.
Jesus Himself warned of this danger. In Matthew 15, He rebuked the religious leaders of His day, saying, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” They had abandoned the Word of God while clinging to human traditions. Their worship appeared faithful, yet it had become empty and misdirected.
The same danger confronts the church today. A life that appears devout on the surface may still be deeply flawed before God if it is not shaped by His Word. This is why the apostle Paul urged Timothy to remain in what he had learned and firmly believed.
Faith Formed and Corrected by Scripture
Paul explains the reason in 2 Timothy 3:15: “From childhood you have known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Timothy’s faith was not grounded in experience alone, but in Scripture learned, trusted, and internalized from an early age. True faith is formed through the Word. As Romans 10:17 declares, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
The heart of Scripture’s role in the Christian life is found in 2 Timothy 3:16–17: “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 complete, equipped for every good work.”
Scripture does not merely inform; it reshapes. It teaches what is true, exposes what is false, corrects what has been distorted and misdirected, and trains God’s people to walk in righteousness.
Returning to the Word
For this reason, the Christian life is never static. It is a lifelong pursuit of knowing God as He has revealed Himself. We are called to read Scripture, to meditate on it, to learn from it, and to remain within its truth. The knowledge of God does not deepen by accident; it is formed through continual exposure to His Word.
Yet in our present moment, Scripture is increasingly displaced. A brief glance at digital platforms reveals how easily distorted interpretations spread. Even voices that appear credible or influential often approach Scripture selectively, reshaping its meaning to fit cultural assumptions, personal agendas, or commercial goals. In many cases, the authority of the Word is subtly replaced by the authority of preference.
The danger is not merely misinformation, but formation. What we listen to repeatedly begins to shape how we think, what we value, and how we understand God. When Scripture no longer sets the terms, faith slowly loses its center.
History offers a sobering lesson. The Middle Ages are often called the “Dark Ages” not because Scripture was unavailable, but because it was obscured. The Word of God was distorted, supplemented with practices it never commanded, and withheld from the people. Indulgences were sold, sacred authority was abused, and the church drifted far from its biblical foundation.
The Protestant Reformation arose as a call to return. Its central confession was simple and uncompromising: Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone. At the heart of that movement was not innovation, but recovery—a return to the Word as the final authority over the church and the believer.
The challenges facing the church today are not entirely new. Secularization, confusion, and spiritual decline often trace back to the same root: a departure from Scripture. When the Bible no longer functions as the Canon, faith becomes unstable, and belief is reshaped by the spirit of the age rather than by the Word of God.
For this reason, we must examine ourselves. We must ask whether our faith is truly measured by Scripture or merely supported by it. The call before us is not to abandon the world, but to return to the Word.
The prophet Hosea once delivered God’s indictment against a people who had forgotten Him: “Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land.” (Hosea 4:1)
Yet Hosea also proclaimed hope—not through ritual, but through renewed knowledge of God: “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” (Hosea 6:3)
And the heart of God’s desire was made unmistakably clear: “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6)
To return to the Word is to return to the knowledge of God. And to know Him truly is the beginning of renewal.
About Author
Choi Jong Eui
Pastor, teacher, and writer committed to connecting Christian faith with everyday life. He writes with the hope of praising the Lord and faithfully completing the mission entrusted to him, bearing good fruit to the glory of God.