When authors of the scriptures put pen to paper..

[MahogonySnail]

Do you think that they knew they were inspired?

e.g. When Paul the apostle wrote the letter we know as 1 Corinthians, which we now call Scripture, would he have thought to himself, gee, I'm really inspired and writing this letter just to go into a future bible. ? Or, would he have thought nothing of it, here is a guy doing his job as an apostle, simply writing a letter to the Church. Never realising that one day it would be called Scripture, on par with the old testament Scripture he would have been most familiar with in his day?

 

[carpetmanswife]

No i think Paul was just being led by the Holy Spirit as to what to speak to the individual 'church' at that time , absolutely havin no clue the impact his inspired words would have on people throughout all eternity.

 

[1still_waters]

Well we can assume for sure that Paul was writing with full knowledge that what he wrote would impact the church of his time. He knew his letters were being read in churches and circulated. So if he knew this, we can pretty much assume he was writing stuff he felt would be beneficial to the church and that he wasn't just engaging in some flippant personal letters not intended to impact anyone.

Also in 1 Corinthians 7, he does draw a distinction between what the Lord has to say on marriage and what he personally has to say on marriage.

So from that we can conclude that he was giving direction right from the Lord in his letters.

So did Paul know his writings would go in to a future 'Bible"? Probably not.

Did Paul know that what he was writing was impacting the church greatly, thus he would be serious minded and directed by the Lord in his letters? Yes!

Since Paul was serious minded and inspired by God in his letters to the early church and was giving instructions on how the church should function, is it safe to follow his instructions and apply them to our church and life today? YES!

 

[1still_waters]

Mahogony I just say that, because some may say, "Hey since Paul didn't know he was going to be published in a Bible, that means we shouldn't take his letters and writings as serious as we do."

I think such a belief is really wrong. Because at the time Paul was clearly being directed by God, as we see in 1 Corinthians 7 when he draws a distinction between what he thinks and what the Lord is actually saying through him. Also, Paul knew his letters were being taken seriously by the early church, so it's wrong to view them as some flippant personal rants.

 

[worldlover]

I believe they were guided to write all of these accounts to share the word and they were inspired in a sense that they know it's a way to spread the gospel

 

[MahogonySnail]

all good points. Though they weren't writing the books in view of writing a complete bible, they were writing with seriousness and intent for the intended churches at the time.