Proverbs 30:5; Psalm 12:6
Every word of God is pure.
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
ISAAC WATTS (1674-1748): The Word of the Lord is pure and perfect.
CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Of what other book in the world can this be said?
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “Thy Word is very pure,” Psalm 119:140. It is truth distilled, holiness in its quintessence. In the Word of God there is no admixture of error or sin. It is pure in its sense, pure in its language, pure in its spirit, pure in its influence, and all this to the very highest degree―“very pure.”
THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): The expression may import two things: first, the infallible certainty of the Word; and secondly, the exact purity.
WILLIAM PERKINS (1558-1602): The excellency of the nature of Scripture can be described in terms of its perfection, or purity, or its eternity. Its perfection consists either in its sufficiency or its purity, its sufficiency is such that as the Word of God it is so complete that nothing may be either added to it or taken from it which belongs to its proper purpose: “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul,” Psalm 19:7; “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; ye shall not add to it, nor take away from it,” Deuteronomy 12:32. The purity of Scripture lies in the fact that it stands complete in itself, without either deceit or error.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): These words involve two grand facts with regard to the Word of God. It is not to be added to, for the simplest of all reasons, because there is nothing lacking; it is not to be diminished, because there is nothing superfluous. Everything we want is there, and nothing that is there can be done without. To suppose that aught can be added to God’s Word is, upon the very face of it, to deny that it is God’s Word; and, on the other hand, if we admit that it is the Word of God, then it follows of necessity that we could not afford to do without a single sentence of it.
CHARLES BRIDGES: Hence, to add to His words, stamped as they are with His Divine authority, will expose us to His tremendous reproof, and cover us with shame. The Jewish church virtually added their oral law and written traditions. The church of Rome is not less guilty, and as a church has been found a liar; adding to the inspired canon a mass of unwritten tradition, and apocryphal writings, with all their gross errors, and in despite of the clearest proof of their human origin.
ROBERT HALDANE (1764-1842): Not a word of it can be altered, because it is the Word of Him with whom there is no variableness.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Not only that, it is all going to stand until it has all been fulfilled.
WILLIAM PERKINS: The eternity of the Word is its quality of remaining inviolable. It cannot pass away until everything it commands has been fully accomplished, Matthew 5:18.
JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): His Word cannot fail.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Now. The Lord God is perfect in all His works. He does nothing by chance. He caused no part of the Scriptures to be written by chance. In all His dealings you may trace design, purpose, and plan. There was design in the size and orbit of each planet. There was design in the shape and structure of the least fly’s wing. There was design in every repetition of a verse, wherever it took place…Nothing is written by chance in the Word of God. There is a special reason for the selection of every single expression.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Every jot and tittle, everything has meaning.
ROBERT HALDANE (1764-1842): In the Scriptures there are many things which, considered only in themselves, appear to be of no value, or, at least, of very little importance; but in reality the Bible contains nothing superfluous—nothing which does not contribute to its perfection, and to the evidence of its divine origin.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Nothing is so amazing about the Bible as its wholeness, the perfect interrelationship of all the parts.
A. P. GIBBS (1890-1967): The Bible is not a collection of isolated texts, but is an organic whole.
RICHARD ROGERS (1550-1618): We may therefore note the great care that the Holy Ghost had in setting down the Scriptures, freeing them from error, and making one to agree with the other: so that if men were able to discern, they might ever see it to be so.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The Bible consists of many parts, exquisitely correlated and vitally interdependent upon each other. God so controlled all the agents which He employed in the writing of it, and so coordinated their efforts, as to produce a single living Book. Within that organic unity there is indeed much variety, but no contrariety…The rainbow is but one, nevertheless it reflects distinctly the seven prismatic rays, yet they are harmoniously blended together. So it is with the Bible: its unity appears in the perfect consistency throughout of its teachings.
C. H. SPURGEON: The books of Scripture are many, yet the Book, the Bible, is one.
CHARLES BRIDGES: But if “every word of God is pure,” take care that no word is lighted. How few range over the whole revelation of God!
J. C. RYLE: Read all the Bible, and read it in an orderly way. I fear there are many parts of the Word which some people never read at all. This is to say the least, a very presumptuous habit. “All Scripture is profitable,” 2 Timothy 3:16. To this habit may be traced that want of broad, well-proportioned views of truth, which is so common in this day.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): All the sacred sentences contained in the blessed book are pure, precious, and profitable.
RICHARD ROGERS: Seeing the Lord hath the Scriptures so pure and free from all error―the matters in them being so profitable and heavenly―I conclude that if we desire to live comfortably by the benefit of them, let them be our treasure, while the world tramples them underfoot. And let our meditation and delight be so much the more in them, and that continually, Psalm 1:2.
C. H. SPURGEON: The word―the simple, pure, infallible word of God―we must live upon if we are to become strong against error and tenacious of truth.
MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): The Bible is not antique, or modern; it is eternal.
