“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 perfect, thoroughly
furnished unto all good works.” -II Timothy 3:16-17 (KJV)
The
Bible, God’s Word, is a guide to teach us about our need for
salvation; and once we know Jesus as Savior and Lord, the Bible
becomes our life textbook teaching us how to learn about and live a
Christian life. I became a Christian at age nine. I had already been
going to Sunday School all of my life to that point. After my
conversion in our summer revival at Choestoe Church, July, 1939, and
my baptism in August of that same year, I became “hungry” for the
Word of God, studying and reading it daily and depending upon its
truths to lead me “in paths of righteousness.” In college, I
received a minor in Biblical studies. This study prepared me to serve
better as a minister’s wife and as a Sunday School teacher many
years of my life.
Paul,
in writing to his “son in the gospel,” Timothy, gave several
points we should notice in the two verses from II Timothy 3:16-17. (I
gave it above in the King James version because that was the version
I had, and memorized, when I was a new Christian). Let us look
closely and prayerfully at Paul’s writing about God’s word:
“All
scripture is given by inspiration of God.” Men wrote the 66 books
of our Bible, but first, inspiration, or what to write, came from
God’s revelation to the various writers. The men were as “scribes”
writing down what the Holy Spirit of God revealed to them. The
English Standard Version translates these verses from Timothy this
way: “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, that the man of God my be competent, equipped for
every good work.” Eugene Peterson in his version, The
Message Bible,
translates it thus: “Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and
useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion,
correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the
Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.”
I
accessed Dr. John MacArthur’s commentary on 2 Timothy 3:16-17. He
notes: “Sometimes God told the Bible writers the exact words to
say. He notes from Jeremiah 1:9-11 that prophet’s testimony as to
how God inspired him to write: “Then the Lord put out his hand and
touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have put my
words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and
over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to
overthrow, to build and to plant.’ And the word of the Lord came to
me a second time, saying, ‘What do you see?’ And I said, ‘I see
an almond branch. Then the Lord said to me, ‘You have seen well,
for I am watching over my word to perform it.’ “
Many
people in biblical times, from Moses, who is given credit for writing
the first five books of the Old Testament, known as the Pentateuch,
to David, King of Israel, who wrote many of the Psalms, to Isaiah and
Jeremiah and the other prophets, each of which prophetic book bears
the name of the prophet/writer, to the writers of the New Testament,
beginning with the gospels, the story of Jesus on earth and His
sacrificial death for us, the letters by Paul the Apostle and General
Letters, bearing the names of those who wrote them, to the Revelation
by John the Apostle, --we have our 66 books of our Bible, our
textbook for the Christian life. It has been miraculous how the
Scripture has been preserved through thousands of years to become our
inspiration, our source of instruction, and our “textbook” for
living a life pleasing to God. Dr Ray Van Neste who wrote the study
guides for I and II Timothy in the ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, Il.:
Crossway, 2008) states: “The divine origin of Scripture is the
reason for its power to convert and its usefulness in training.
Because Scripture comes from God himself, “all” of it is
profitable in a wide range of ways, ultimately leading to
righteousness.” (p. 1242. Study note.). Thank God for His inspired
Word, our guide for the Christian life.
-Ethelene Dyer Jones
for Sunday, February 3, 2019.
