Second Timothy, part 5
"But you must continue in
the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you
have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures,
which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that
the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2
Timothy 3:14-17, NKJV)
Paul begins the third chapter of Second
Timothy by warning Timothy of the perilous times that are coming. These perilous times are the result of a
moral decay brought about by the selfish tendencies on mankind. Selfish people have no use for ideas or
philosophies that detract from their personal gratification. In fact, some people are so selfish that they
will resort to all kinds of evil to protect their interests. Paul issues this warning to Timothy and then
concludes with a message of encouragement.
He reminds Timothy of his spiritual education at Paul's hands ("But
you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith,
longsuffering, love, perseverance." 2 Timothy 3:10, NKJV). Timothy had been prepared for the task of
ministry by emulating the example of the Apostle Paul. After this word of encouragement, Paul
exhorts Timothy to remain steadfast.
"But you must continue in
the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you
have learned them."
As noted before, Timothy's faith in his ability to lead this church was
shaken; he was becoming spiritually fatigued.
Paul here says, "Get back to the basics! Continue in the things you have learned and
have been assured of." This happens
to everyone eventually. We get so caught
up in the things happening around us we forget some of the basic truths of our
Christian faith. Notice what Paul says
to Timothy, continue in the things you have learned and been assured
of. Timothy knew the truth, not only
that, but he was firmly convinced of the truth.
His problem was that he lost sight of those basic truths that serve as
the foundation of all Christians. Things
such as: God exists; God is in control;
God cares deeply for you; God uses these times of testing to strengthen
us. If we fail to remember these truths,
it's only a matter of time before we begin to weaken spiritually. This was the purpose behind Peter's second
letter when he wrote, "For this reason I will not be negligent to
remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the
present truth." (2 Peter 1:12, NKJV). In other words, I know you know these things
because you're Christians, but I'm going to keep on reminding you of these
things because they are so important.
That's why so many sermons seem to echo the same basic thoughts. The Holy Spirit inspired the writers of
Scripture to repeat certain themes because they were vitally important for our
spiritual growth.
"And that from childhood
you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Not only has
Timothy learned the basic truths of his faith from Paul and other faithful
teachers, but Paul reminds him that he has been taught the Holy Scriptures from
his early childhood. And what good are
the Holy Scriptures? They are able to
make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus! The overriding theme of Scripture is Jesus
Christ. In fact, except for the first
two chapters of the Bible and the last two chapters of the Bible, there is
never a recorded moment in the Bible where mankind is not fallen and in need of
a savior. From beginning to end, the
Bible points to Jesus Christ. The Old
Testament looks forward to Jesus Christ and the atonement He will bring. The gospels tell the story of the life and
ministry of Jesus Christ, and the balance of the New Testament looks back to
the saving work of Christ on the cross.
Timothy had all he needed for spiritual victory: the Holy Scriptures and the example and
teaching of godly people in his life.
"All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God ." The ultimate
question that needs to be asked is why are the Holy Scriptures able to make us
wise for salvation? This is the crux of
the passage. All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God. Not some, not most,
but all. Now it is fair to ask,
"what is meant by Scripture?"
The Greek word is graphe and it simply means
"writings." However, the word
"Scripture" in the NT has a technical meaning and always refers to
the OT--the sacred writings of the Hebrews.
This included the Pentateuch (Genesis - Deuteronomy), the historical
books (Joshua - Nehemiah), and the wisdom literature (Job, Psalms, Proverbs,
Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes). What
about the NT? Is that "inspired of
God?" Well, two things need to be
said. First, the NT was collected and
organized yet; in fact by the time Paul was writing Second Timothy, the NT
wasn't even finished yet. So at this
time there is no NT to talk about.
Second, when Paul speaks about "all Scripture," he is
referring to a specific class of writings (as noted above). In other words, anything that can be
considered a member of the specific class of "Scripture" is inspired
of God. This covers all current
Scripture, and all future Scripture (i.e., the NT). It's like saying, "all ducks
quack." This covers all present and
past ducks. How about future ducks? They'll quack too because they belong to the
class of animals called "duck."
What does it mean to be "inspired
of God?" The phrase translates one
Greek word, theopneustos. The
word literally means "God-breathed."
All Scripture is God-breathed, or breathed out by God. What this basically means is that the
original Biblical documents (from which our modern day Bibles are translated
from) are God's "breathed-out" words.
These are His words, not Paul's.
Although Paul wrote them, he wrote them under the supervision of God's
Holy Spirit. So much so, that while they
came from Paul's vocabulary and contain Paul's personality, they are the exact
words that God wanted to communicate to us.
The Apostle Peter says as much when he writes, "Knowing this
first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for
prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were
moved by the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1:20-21, NKJV). The Biblical writers were "moved
along" by the Spirit of God, much like a sailboat is moved along by the
wind.
"And is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of
God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." The fact that the Bible is God-breathed means
it is our primary source of information regarding everything concerning the
Christian life. The Bible is profitable
(useful) for doctrine (that is teaching), reproof (conviction), correction, and
righteous instruction. By using the Bible
in such a way, we will be "complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." There is nothing concerning the Christian
life that the Bible doesn't speak on.
Everything we need to lead a righteous, God pleasing life is contained
within its pages. Now don't make the
mistake of thinking that the Bible is the final authority on every single thing
under the sun. There are many things and
areas of thought that the Bible doesn't speak on. This doesn't mean the Bible is insufficient,
nor does it mean that what it doesn't speak on isn't important. For example, the Bible is not a science
book. This in no way lessens the Bible's
authority or the importance of science.
However, because the Bible is God-breathed, when it speaks on a subject,
it speaks with complete truth and absolute authority. For example, the modern scientific theory of
natural evolution to explain the origin or everything is wrong because it
stands in contradiction to the Biblical account of creation ex nihilo
(out of nothing) by God's word.
The bottom
line is that we need not be spiritually weak.
God has provided us His spoken word in the Bible. We can take what is written within to the
bank. We can take encouragement in the
fact God's word will make us "wise for salvation" and "complete
and thoroughly equipped for every good work."