In this daily Bible reading is the account of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. After Jesus was baptized, the Spirit of God led Jesus into the wilderness where Satan tempted Jesus.
Satan, who is currently the spiritual ruler of the earth, offered to give his spiritual leadership to Jesus if Jesus would worship Satan. Jesus responded to Satan using the Word of God and saying it is written: “You shall worship the Lord your God and worship Him only.”
Satan tempted Jesus three times. With each temptation, Jesus responded using the Word of God to resist the temptation. Satan even used the Word of God with an isolated passage to trick Jesus. However, Jesus responded with another passage of scripture that further clarified the isolated passage.
I believe that one must know the entire Word of God in order to accurately interpret any passage of scripture. False religious doctrines have been created using isolated scripture passages.
A good example is the ‘assurance of salvation’ doctrine which claims we can know for certain that we will go to Heaven after we die. Some isolated scripture passages seem to indicate this, but other passages of scripture refute this doctrine. Therefore, it is essential that we know the entire Bible.
