Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
There are verses that Satan and his ministers wish were not in the Bible (and even sometimes say should not be in there), and there are some verses that they love, but prudent believers receive the whole counsel of God. Satan tried to manipulate Jesus with some of his favorite Scriptures when the Lord was alone with him in the wilderness, you will remember. Fortunately, Jesus knew what was "also written", and he used other Scriptures to give a more perfect understanding of the ones Satan quoted. In the temptation of the Lord, the devil used the Bible to try to manipulate Jesus to do his will; Jesus, however, overcame that temptation by using the Word of God.
Neither Jesus nor the devil was ignorant of the Scriptures. The verses they quoted, they both quoted correctly. And the devil even understood those verses; for example, he knew that the verses he quoted from Psalm 91 referred to the Father's care for His Son Jesus. (Many who would be teachers of God's people do not understand that!) He was crafty in his design to overthrow Jesus' faith in his Father, but Jesus' victory over Satan's evil use of the Bible was gained because Jesus knew both the Bible and the Word of God. The devil had only a knowledge of the Scriptures.
It is no wonder that Paul warned the saints, "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." The Bible saves no one; it has no power. It tells us where to go to get in touch with that power: to Jesus! Jesus condemned some experts on the Bible with these words, "Ye search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life. But they [the Scriptures] are they which testify of me, and ye will not come to me that ye might have life."
Study the Bible. It is a good thing to do. The saints who meet at my house study and love the Bible. But students of the Bible should always remember that while they are learning it, they must stay filled with the holy Ghost. They will never understand the Bible without it. God has created us so that our brains can learn what the Bible says, but how are we to put it all together rightly? What are we to do with what we learn? The Spirit alone knows how to use what we know in a way that accomplishes good rather than evil. The Bible is the record of God's past deeds and words. It is what the Spirit tells us now that is the Word of God.
Jesus has no favorite Scriptures because he loves the Scriptures most that helps us the most, and they are all helpful at different times in our lives. His favorite verse today is the one you most need today. He has no favorite Scripture because YOU are what he cares for.
Satan has favorite Scriptures because there are some that he can more easily twist than others. He is a fool. He knows the Bible perfectly, and does not know the Word of God at all. He has never ceased to imagine that he can overthrow the faith of God's children by throwing Scriptures at them, and his ministers do it all the time. But neither he nor his ministers can touch the soul that is on fire with the holy Ghost. In the joy of the holy Ghost, they have the answers to every one of their soul-polluting doctrines, every one of their mind-bending questions, and every one of their unbelieving insinuations about true holiness.
It is no wonder that Paul said, "Your life is hid with Christ in God." The devil and the world cannot find you who have been called of God. They cannot know where you really are. He tries, but always fails to impress you who stay "filled with the Spirit". It irritates the devil when he cannot move your heart by his vain knowledge of the Bible, but what must frustrate him beyond all measure is that he cannot even understand your happy answer to everything in his empty, erudite world.