Are the words of Jesus more important than the rest of the Bible?

Scripture & How We Got ItIn theological review

The short answer

No. The words of Jesus are not more inspired or more authoritative than the rest of Scripture, because Jesus himself promised that the Spirit would teach his apostles, and he endorsed the Old Testament as God's unbreakable word. Red letter editions, which print Jesus' words in red ink, are a helpful printing choice from the last century or so, not a biblical ranking.

The fuller answer

The instinct behind the question is understandable. Jesus is the centre of the faith, and his teaching carries a weight no other voice matches in our affections. But importance of person is not a scale of inspiration. Jesus rebuked his opponents from Moses and the prophets, treated Scripture as unbreakable, and never suggested his own spoken words would outrank the written word God had already given or would give through his chosen witnesses.

However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.

John 16:13 (BSB)

Jesus himself closes the gap the red letters seem to open. On his last night he promised the Spirit of truth, who would guide the apostles into all truth, remind them of his teaching, and declare what was to come. That promise is why the apostles' letters carry Christ's authority: they are the risen Lord teaching his church through the witnesses he commissioned and the Spirit he sent. To demote Paul or Peter beneath Jesus is to disobey Jesus' own arrangement. There is also a practical test: the Gospels themselves are not Jesus' own writing but apostolic testimony, so demoting the apostles would demote the very books that carry his words.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

2 Timothy 3:16 (BSB)

Paul underlines the unity from the other side by calling all Scripture God-breathed and profitable, with no second class passages. Red letters began as a publisher's aid, first used in an edition of 1899, and they can help a reader follow a Gospel narrative. Used as a ranking, they mislead, since the same Gospel's narration, the Psalms Jesus prayed, and the letters he authorised all speak with one divine voice.

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.

John 14:26 (BSB)

None of this lowers Jesus' words by a fraction. They remain the words of the Lord himself, to be read with a special attention and love, and any sermon that treats a Psalm and a saying of Jesus with equal care is honouring both as he taught us to. The error is only in the ranking that silences the rest. Read the red letters first if they help you start, then keep reading into the black, and you will find one voice throughout: the Father bearing witness to his Son, in every part of his book.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

No answer here is a dead end. Follow the question on, test it in practice, or work the method yourself on the Dig deeper page.

What does 'the Bible is inspired' actually mean?Inspired means God-breathed: Scripture's human authors wrote freely in their own words and styles, and God so carried them by his Spirit that what they wrote is his word, true and authoritative. Inspiration is about Scripture's origin in God, not about the writers feeling inspired like poets.Who wrote the Bible?People did, and God did, and the Bible insists on both. On the human side it has many authors across many centuries, from Moses to John. On the divine side, Peter says men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, and Paul calls all Scripture God-breathed. Real writers, real styles, one intention behind them.What is the difference between the Old and New Testaments?The difference is covenant, not importance or truth: the Old Testament records God's old covenant with Israel, with its law, sacrifices, and promises, while the New Testament records the new covenant Jesus established, in which those promises are fulfilled. The word testament itself is the older English word for covenant, a binding agreement God makes and keeps.Does the Bible contain errors?No. Contend's position is that Scripture, as God gave it, is without error in all it affirms, because God himself is true and cannot lie. That claim rests on Scripture's own testimony about God's word, and Christians state it carefully, distinguishing God's perfect word from human copies, translations, and interpretations, which can all be mistaken.Bible Character: JesusThe Son of God, born of Mary in Bethlehem, who preached the kingdom of God, was crucified for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was raised on the third day.Bible Character: PaulThe Pharisee who persecuted the church until the risen Jesus stopped him on the Damascus road, and who became his apostle to the Gentiles, travelling the Roman world and writing many of the New Testament letters.How We Got the Bible: Can we trust the text?No originals, many copies, and a thousand-year test: how the text was carried, and what the differences between copies actually are.