“Brothers and Sisters: What does Scripture say?” (Romans 10:8)
In today's second reading, St Paul asks this question, and it is one that we can repeat to find responses to the challenges we face: God’s inspired Word guides us.
Jesus himself gives us this example during His temptations in the desert: He replied to the devil’s snares with three quotations from Deuteronomy. Even when the devil misused a psalm to tempt Jesus, He kept using Scripture to refute these lies. There was no strict need for Jesus to do this – every word He spoke was divine and inspired – but He chose to use the words of the Old Testament rather than His own. This shows us the potency of the Word of God, a weapon put into our hands, “sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). When I face temptation, do I turn to the Bible for wisdom and strength?
