Verse 4 “And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”
This is a very important verse dealing with the doctrine of the preservation of the Bible. First, Jesus says, “It is written.” This phrase, which is used about ninety times in the New Testament, is in the perfect tense and means that it was written and it is still written, or it was written in the past (Deut 8:3) and it still stands as the written Word of God.
Second, Jesus emphasizes the importance of each and every word of God. He is speaking about the Bible (for that is the context), and about the Bible only, when He says that man shall live “by every word of God.” In order for us to live by every word of God, which is God’s stated purpose, we would have to have in our possession every word of God. This proves that God has preserved all of His words for this (and every) generation of men.
God inspired the very words of the Bible. It was not the thoughts or the concepts which God inspired, but the words. None of those words have been lost. Every one of the original words of God still exist in the ancient copies, versions, and quotations. And the words of God are preserved for us in our Bibles today, in the various languages of the world. Jesus said, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matt 5:18). Our versions of the Bible today do not have special inspiration, except that they derive inspiration from what God originally inspired, but our Bible today proves that what God inspired He has preserved.