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Open our eyes to behold wondrous things from your Word so that our worship can go higher as You deepen our understanding of Your Word.

2 Timothy 3:14–17 ESV

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 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 may be complete, equipped for every good work.

SCRIPTURE PROVIDES INSTRUCTION FOR SALVATION.

Scripture is the source of saving truth

John 5:24 ESV

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 5:39 ESV

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,

James 1:18 ESV

Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

The truth of the Word, when mixed with faith in Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, leads to spiritual life. In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul asks rhetorically, “How shall they [unbelievers] hear without a preacher?”

Romans 10:14 ESV

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

and later explains that

Romans 10:17 ESV

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

The Word presented by human witness is God’s plan for reaching people with the gospel.

The women who heard Paul preach the Word of God at a Jewish place of prayer outside Philippi illustrate that pattern. Luke reports that

Acts 16:14 ESV

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

God has chosen believers to be His spokesmen to bring His saving truth to others.

Timothy had the privilege of hearing the Word in the most marvelous manner through his family—because from childhood, or more literally “from infancy,” he had been taught and had known the sacred writings. It was at the knees of his

2 Timothy 1:5 ESV

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

“grandmother Lois, and [his] mother Eunice” that he was led to saving faith, and it was in their lives that he first saw genuine godliness.

The faith of Timothy’s grandmother Lois and his mother, Eunice, were built on the Jewish Scriptures, the Old Testament, and it was on those sacred writings that those women helped build the faith and devotion of Timothy.

This text shows that the Old Testament clearly gives the wisdom that leads to salvation. From Genesis through Malachi, that wisdom reveals the holiness, majesty, and lovingkindness of God and His gracious offer of forgiveness and redemption from sin for those who trust in Him and not themselves and seek His grace and mercy.

The moral law was intended to set a righteous standard which no one could keep, thus confirming every person as a sinner under God’s judgment. Since no one could be made righteous by the law, it rendered everyone doomed by guilt. Men were therefore in desperate need of grace and forgiveness, which God was eager to give to those who repented and asked. The sacrifices did not save Jews but showed that they recognized the fact that sin demands death. Every sacrifice made under the Old Covenant depicted the ultimate, perfect, and complete sacrifice of the coming Savior, Jesus Christ,

Hebrews 7:27 ESV

He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

Hebrews 9:11–12 ESV

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

SCRIPTURE PROVIDES INSTRUCTION FOR SANCTIFICATION.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

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 may be complete, equipped for every good work.

INSPIRED BY GOD

Inspired by God literally means, “breathed out by God,” or simply, “God-breathed.” God sometimes breathed His words into the human writers to be recorded much as dictation. He said to Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 1:9 ESV

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.

But, as clearly seen in Scripture itself, God’s divine truth more often flowed through the minds, souls, hearts, and emotions of His chosen human instruments.

Yet, by whatever means, God divinely superintended the accurate recording of His divinely breathed truth by His divinely chosen men.

In a supernatural way, He has provided His divine Word in human words that any person, even a child, can be led by His Holy Spirit to understand sufficiently to be saved.

It is of utmost importance to understand that it is Scripture that is inspired by God, not the men divinely chosen to record it.

When speaking or writing apart from God’s revelation, their thoughts, wisdom, and understanding were human and fallible.

They were not inspired in the sense that we commonly use that term of people with extraordinary artistic, literary, or musical genius. Nor were they inspired in the sense of being personal repositories of divine truth which they could dispense at will.

Many human authors of Scripture penned other documents, but none of those writings exist today, and, even if discovered, they would not carry the weight of Scripture.

We know, for instance, that Paul wrote at least two other letters to the church at Corinth (1 Cor. 5:9; 2 Cor. 2:4), but no copies of those letters have ever been found. The letters doubtless were godly, spiritually insightful, and blessed of the Lord, but they were not Scripture.

Many men who wrote Scripture, such as Moses and Paul, were highly trained in human knowledge and wisdom, but that learning was not the source of the divine truth they recorded.

David was a highly gifted poet, and that gift doubtless is reflected in the beauty of his psalms, but it was not the source of the divine truths revealed in those psalms.

TEACHING

TEACHING does not refer to the process or method of teaching but to its content.

In this context, it refers specifically and exclusively to divine instruction, or doctrine, given to believers through God’s Word, which included not only the Old Testament and the teaching of Jesus during His incarnation but also the inspired teaching of the apostles and New Testament authors.

When it comes to godly living and godly service, to growing in “the discipline and instruction of the Lord”, God-breathed Scripture provides for us the comprehensive and complete body of divine truth necessary to live as our heavenly Father desires for us to live. The wisdom and guidance for fulfilling everything He commands us to believe, think, say, and do is found in His inerrant, authoritative, comprehensive, and completed Word

It goes without saying that it is impossible to believe, understand, and follow what you do not even know.

It is completely futile, as well as foolish, to expect to live a spiritual life without knowing spiritual truth.

Biblically untaught believers, especially those in biblically untaught churches, are easy prey for false teachers.

Ephesians 4:14 ESV

so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Throughout most of redemptive history, God could have said what He said in Hosea’s day:

Hosea 4:6 ESV

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

It is for that reason, as well as for the even greater reason of honoring the Lord, that regular, systematic, and thorough study of the doctrine in God’s Word is imperative for God’s people.

The truths of God’s Word are spiritual wealth that we should continually be depositing into our minds and hearts. Like deposits of money in our bank account, those deposits of divine truth become spiritual assets that we can draw on readily when confronting temptation, when making moral choices and when seeking God’s specific will and guidance for our lives.

Colossians 3:16 ESV

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

REPROOF

A second work of the Word in the life of believers is that of reproof. It carries the idea of rebuking in order to convict of misbehavior or false doctrine.

As with teaching, Scripture’s work of reproof has to do with content, with equipping believers with accurate knowledge and understanding of divine truth, in this context divine truth that exposes falsehood and sin, erroneous belief, and ungodly conduct.

Regular and careful study of Scripture builds a foundation of truth that, among other things, exposes sin in a believer’s life with the purpose of bringing correction, confession, renunciation, and obedience.

Using the same Greek word as Paul does in Ephesians 6:17, the writer of Hebrews speaks of the Bible as a divine sword that exposes sin in a believer’s life.

Hebrews 4:12 ESV

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Scripture precisely and thoroughly penetrates the believer’s mind, soul, and heart.

Every Christian who has been saved for any length of time has experienced times of being sharply and deeply convicted by reading a particular Bible passage or hearing it preached or taught.

Every experienced Christian also knows that during times of disobedience he is strongly tempted to forsake Bible study and worship and finds that fellowship with faithful believers becomes less attractive and comfortable.

Looked at from the opposite side, decreased desire to study God’s Word, to worship Him, and to be with His people is reliable evidence of unconfessed and unforsaken sin.

It is for that reason that a Bible-teaching, Bible-believing, and Bible-obeying church is never a haven for persistent sinners. As Jesus explained the principle to Nicodemus,

John 3:20 ESV

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

Scripture has the negative ministry of tearing down and destroying that which is sinful and false as well as of building up and improving that which is righteous and true.

Just as in medicine, infection and contamination must be excised before healing can begin.

It is just as important, although more difficult, to be gracious when we receive reproof, whether directly by God’s Word or from other believers who call us to biblical account.

Proverbs 6:23 ESV

For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

Every believer should be as grateful for the reproving work of the Word as for its encouragement. It is impossible to genuinely seek righteousness and truth if we do not hate and renounce sin and falsehood.

CORRECTION

Correction is used only here in the New Testament and refers to the restoration of something to its original and proper condition.

In secular Greek literature it was used of setting upright an object that had fallen down and of helping a person back on his feet after stumbling.

After exposing and condemning false belief and sinful conduct in believers, Scripture then builds them up through its divine correction.

Correction is Scripture’s positive provision for those who accept its negative reproof.

As with reproof, godly believers, especially pastors and teachers, are often the channel through which the Word brings correction.

2 Timothy 2:24–25 ESV

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,

In his letter to believers at Galatia, the apostle gives similar counsel:

Galatians 6:1 ESV

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

TRAINING

Training, is the idea of instruction and building up. Until the Lord takes us to be with Himself, His Word is to continue training us in righteousness.

COMPLETE

Complete refers to persons who are capable, and proficient in everything they are called to be or do. In Christ “you have been made complete,” Paul tells Colossian believers

Colossians 2:10 NASB95

and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;

The believer who carefully studies and sincerely believes and obeys the truths of Scripture will stand strong in living and defending the faith.

EQUIPPED

Equipped for every good work could be paraphrased, “enabled to meet all demands of righteousness.”

By his life he will affirm the power of the Word to lead men to salvation and to equip them for righteous living and for faithful service to the Lord.

When believers are equipped by the Word, they can then equip other believers.

Paul explains, we also should be doing His work. We are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Christ says to all those who belong to Him what He said to the Twelve:

John 9:4 ESV

We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.