Read with Me
2 Timothy 3:14-17 (HCSB)
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from childhood you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Listen with Me
In light of the future potential for the falling away of the Church which Paul has been detailing for the last several paragraphs, he now turns to the solution for Timothy and for all who would stand firm to the end so that they can receive the victor’s crown.
The key element is to be so strongly rooted in the Scriptures that there is no possibility of being blown off course by persecution, by false teachers, or by the strong winds of societal change. By “the Scriptures”, Paul was primarily speaking about what is now called the Old Testament, although by this time one or two of the gospels were starting to be circulated, and even Paul’s letters were beginning to be considered as Scripture by many people as well (2 peter 3:14-16).
But Paul taught from the Old Testament, which revealed the slow, steady unfolding of God’s eternal plan of salvation from the very beginning. He then moved on to helping his students understand how the life, ministry, and teaching of Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures and opened the way for everyone to approach the throne of God through faith in Him.
Paul had what has become known as a “high view” of Scripture. Through his deep study and by divine revelation he had come to know conclusively that the Scriptures were not the product of human minds or a reworking and reframing of traditions or ancient mythologies. Instead, they were all the product of divine inspiration, a term whose roots are found in the Greek word Paul uses in verse 16, which literally means “God-breathed”.
Peter had this same high view of the Scriptures as he wrote in 2 Peter 1:20-21: First of all, you should know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Because every word of the Scriptures, which now includes the New Testament writings as well, are God-breathed, divinely inspired, they provide the only true guide for knowing who God is and how life is to be lived as His people. So, those words are continually useful for teaching God’s precepts, for rebuking and correcting when someone steps off the path of holy living, and for training people in righteousness, doing what is right in every situation.
The final goal of the truth of the Scriptures is that the man (or woman) of God will be thoroughly equipped for every good work. By diligent study, God’s very words become ingrained in the heart and mind. The Holy Spirit living in the heart of each of God’s people can then bring up appropriate truth to enable right decisions, which will then lead to right actions, which will inexorably lead to a genuinely holy and productive life in the kingdom.
Pray with Me
Lord, this is a truth that so many are not living in today. Too many have been taught a “low view” of Scripture, which says that even though there is truth in the Bible and that Your word might somehow be contained in the Scriptures, it needs a Bible scholar to ferret out what truth there might be in there. So, Bible study becomes an arid business. Instead of hearing each word as coming directly from Your lips, we try to discover some “principle” that we can take with us. And believing that the words of our Bibles were simply penned by people causes many to skip intense personal Bible study altogether, simply trying to pick up a morsel or two from a sermon once a week. The tragic consequence is that we are left with no store of scriptural truth for the Holy Spirit to use to guide our thoughts and actions, and we are easily led astray. Help us, Lord, to genuinely hunger and thirst to hear Your words speaking to our hearts through Your Scriptures today and every day. Amen.