Those Red Letter Bibles

Many Bibles today have the words of Christ in red.  In fact many people even insist on having a red letter Bible.  Is this good, bad, or neither?  Could there possibly be a problem with red letter Bibles?  

We must point out that the words of Christ were not originally written or printed in red and they were not set apart in a special way. Having the words of Christ in red is a relatively new thing, beginning in the 1900's.  It seems good to have the words of Christ in red.  After all Christians follow Jesus who is the Messiah and Son of God.  

But what about the words of God the Father?  Why are they not in red?  And wasn't the whole Bible inspired by the Holy Spirit?  Here we find the problem with red letter Bibles.  The whole Bible is the Word of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).  The whole Bible, not just the words in red are the Word of Christ.  

Setting apart only certain portions of the Scripture in red is misleading to people.  It leads people to believe that the red letter portions are more important than the rest.  This is not true, God gave us the entire Bible for a reason.  People start to think that the words in red are more the Word of God than the rest.  I have even heard people say that they just believe the words in red. This is a terribly distorted view of the Bible.  

So is having a red letter Bible a bad thing? It is not necessarily a bad thing if kept in proper perspective.  But it is still very misleading to people.  I think it is better not to have red letter Bibles.  But that does not mean there is anything wrong with using one.  We must remember that all Scripture is breathed out by God (2 Timothy 3:16).