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16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. ~ 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Having reminded Timothy of the awesome possibilities that believers in the Lord Jesus have in the midst of a people who know not God, in today's text, the Apostle Paul writes: "All scripture is God-breathed." This means God breathed all scripture out. In Genesis we learn that God created man by heaping up a pile of dust and breathing into it, out from Himself, the spirit of life, and man became a living being.
Just as God breathed into the dust of the ground and made man a living, vital person, so He breathed into the words of men the Spirit of vitality and life. The words of the Bible have a unique quality about them: Whenever a heart is touched by them, it moves toward life. This is the power of the Word of God.
According to today's text, the Bible produces four things in all who read and believe it. First, the Bible is "useful for teaching." The Bible instructs us about things that no one, except God, knows anything about. In particular it teaches us things about ourselves, things that can happen to us, and things that will happen to us. And, only God knows this information beforehand.
Second, the Bible has the power to rebuke us. The Greek word used here for rebuke is better translated convict. How often have we read the Bible and we were made aware that something we had been doing all our lives, something we did not think was wrong at all, was the reason why we were hurting or were hurting others? The Bible makes distinction between God's way of thinking and living from this world's way of thinking and living. The product of all of this is called conviction.
Next, the Bible "trains us in righteousness." That is, the Bible has the power to finely tune us, like a skillful coach, enabling us to walk day by day in God's way leading us to experience the life of God in us. The Bible is able to train us, to lead us along into ever-expanding experiences of living that is right. The Bible is God's culture delivered to us resulting in us experiencing the very life of God in the here and now.
The contents of the Bible is revelation of God to man from God. The process by which the Bible was written down is called inspiration. It is not the product of any human activity. Certain men were used by God, carried along by the Holy Spirit and enabled to write for God. God used their experiences, intellect and personalities to produce the Bible, but the content is from God not man.
The Bible knows nothing of inspired men; only of inspired words, of God-breathed words. No Biblical writer was inspired as a person so that he could write any scripture any time he wanted to. There were only very special moments when God gave these men His Word to be written down. It was more than dictation. They weren’t just listening to some voice and writing mechanically every word. It was flowing through their heart and their soul and their mind and their emotions and their experiences, but every word was and is the Word of God.
In v.17 we read, "so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
This verse reveals any believer can become a "servant of God" by studying the Word of God, obeying it, and letting it define him. All of the “men of God” named in Scripture, including Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, David, and Timothy were all men who were not only devoted to God’s Word but had the wisdom to be defined by it.
Two words in v.17 are especially important: “thoroughly” and “equipped.” The word translated “thoroughly” means “complete, in fit shape, in fit condition.” It does not begin to suggest sinless perfection. Rather, it implies being made fit for use.
“Equipped” has a similar meaning: “equipped for service.” In other words, the Word of God furnishes the believer to walk with God and it provides the believer with the life of Christ that pleases God. The better we know the Word, the better we are able to relate to and to work for God.
The purpose of Bible study is not just to understand doctrines or to be able to defend the faith, as important as these things are. The ultimate purpose is the equipping of believers who read it. It is the Word of God that equips God’s people to know Him personally and to do His work on His behalf.
