Jesus counters Satan’s abuse of Scripture by comparing Scripture to Scripture, letting Scripture be its own best interpreter, as we should study God’s Word as a whole, not just isolated texts.
Jesus counters Satan’s abuse of Scripture by comparing Scripture to Scripture. This serves as an example for us in the sense that we must never base our theology upon a few passages taken in isolation, but always on God’s Word as a whole. Jesus did not answer like a shrewd scribe, but he wielded the Word of God as a sword—a weapon to resist evil.1 Scripture contains not only one word, but many words of God, which together in unity constitute divine revelation. We learn to know God and his promises through God’s Word as a whole. Only by studying the Word as a whole, and in its unity, do we learn to reject heresies and understand the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.2
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”