This sermon was preached by Rev. Bob Capper covering the service on Bible Sunday.
Readings: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Today is Bible Sunday. And what an amazing book the Bible is. We have already used some words of lament from it as we thought about the tragic death of a young girl from our community a few days ago.
Our main focus today is going to be on 2 Timothy 3:16. There are some great “3:16s” in the Bible, the most famous being John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”! This is another – and it’s about the Bible:
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”
These words come from this second letter of Paul to Timothy which is of special importance as being the last letter of Paul’s which we have – last words are often important aren’t they, and we treasure them.
Paul’s great concern is for the growing church which he has helped to found to be kept on track as it continues into the future. Just before today’s reading, Paul has talked about some of the problems he has had to overcome in his ministry. Problems from those outside the church: he has had to face “persecutions and sufferings”, but could testify that “the Lord rescued me from all of them” (2 Tim 3:11-12).
Harder still, however, were the problems that spilled into the life of the church, in the form of false teaching, “evil men and imposters” who (Paul foresees) “will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (13).
How is Timothy (a younger leader) to deal with these, especially when he no longer has Paul around? Instead of going after all the latest ideas, he is to cherish the truths he has already heard and to “continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learnt it”.
Paul probably has two groups of people responsible for teaching Timothy. (1) When in the next verse it says that Timothy has known the “holy scriptures” right back from “infancy”, this is a reference back to his grandmother Lois and mother Eunice mentioned back in chapter 1 (v.5). We are to think of devout Jewish women teaching the (Old Testament) scriptures in the home, and then coming to faith in Christ as the fulfilment of those scriptures, perhaps as Paul or other Christian missionaries preached, and nurturing young Timothy in that understanding.
We can’t over-estimate the value of an early start in being grounded in the Christian faith and the Bible. Those who look at the statistics of people coming to faith tell us that very often it is found that such people had some contact with Christians and Christian teaching early on. For those of us who are parents or grandparents, take the opportunities. And for us all as a church, make a priority of supporting any initiative to try and get the Gospel to children and young people.
(2) But Paul is clearly thinking of someone else who taught Timothy here, and that is of course himself. Paul had tried not only to teach Timothy and other Christians how to understand the scriptures but also to model it in his own life. So here, Paul wrote back in v.10 “You however, know all about my teaching and my way of life”.
Timothy, remember your Christian role models! Follow them, and you won’t go far wrong. Granny Lois, Mum Eunice and Paul himself! And what had been the basis of what they taught? What Paul calls “the holy scriptures”. The antidote from going down all sorts of blind alleys, leading away from true faith, is to recognise the importance of the Bible.
When Paul wrote to Timothy these holy scriptures were what we would call the Old Testament. Although of course among the teachings Timothy had heard from Paul would be many of the things which would later come to be recognised as Scripture in Paul’s own letters. (Timothy had helped with some of those too.) These and writings written by or carrying the authority of other apostles would in time be recognised as the ‘holy scriptures’ of the New Testament.
The remainder of 2 Tim 3 spells out why the Scriptures are so important, and how they can guide Timothy and future leaders and Christians in living the true Christian life. This includes us!
First Paul makes a simple statement: “the Holy Scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation through Jesus Christ” (15). They – even when they only had the Old Testament – would reveal Jesus to us. That’s so important. The Bible is never an end in itself – rather it is the true guide to showing us Jesus who is all-important for faith and salvation. We don’t worship the Bible – we worship Jesus whom the Bible reveals to us.
Why then is the Bible so important? In 2 Timothy 3:16 Paul explains two fundamental truths about Scripture:
(1) The origin of scripture
Or, as we would say, ultimately its author. We know the Bible has many human authors, some of them named, many are not. It is a whole library of books – 39 in the OT to which are added 27 in the New, 66 books in all. It contains all sorts of different kinds of literature: history; instructions for worship; stories; laws and rules; poetry, including laments as we have heard today; prophecy; wise sayings; letters. But the staggering claim of Paul here in 2 Timothy 3:16 is to say that:
“All Scripture is God-breathed…” or God-inspired. Although God used all sorts of human authors and editors in its compilation there is a deeper sense in which its origin is in God. It is not a purely human document, and this, says Paul, is why it is so unique and important.
It has human authors (plural) but one divine Author (singular). So Jesus, answering the temptations of the Devil in the wilderness would quote from Deuteronomy, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4).
God the Holy Spirit has caused a book to be written, which reveal the things of God to us. Timothy is to go back to scripture as his guide.
(2) The purpose of scripture
Able to make us “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” we have been told already (v.15). But now speaks of the ongoing life of the church. “All scripture is inspired and useful…”
I like that word. Our house is cluttered up with a fair number of fairly useless items. By our front door is a bit of old railway line from Neyland Station; inside a lump of coal from Wales’ last coal mine – a gift from a visitor in lieu of flowers or chocolates! But we have other things that we use and need every day! They are useful. The day will go better because we have them around – a kettle; toothbrush; light switch; mugs!
The Bible is in the “help for everyday” category! Useful for what?
“… useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”
It teaches what we need to know, and which we can’t discover any other way: truths about ourselves; truths about God – God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
“rebuking” doesn’t sound so good, but every parent knows that sometimes children need reminding about what’s gone wrong. Who’s going to do it when we get older, when maybe we are even more tempted to take the wrong course of action – and cause harm to ourselves and others? Paul says “scripture” will do that – if we let it; if we read it and release its message and let God speak to us by it through the Holy Spirit.
We like to think of the Bible comforting us, and that’s great because that message comes out clearly in other passages. But here maybe we need to remember the famous scene in the Bayeux Tapestry which depicts the king prodding one of his soldiers with a spear, where the caption reads: “Harold comforteth his troops”. [Or was it Bishop Odo with the flat of his sword?!]
“ correcting” has the idea of guiding us and keeping us on the right track, like maybe a shepherd with his staff. Our minds can get filled with all sorts of ideas – especially today in the days of social media, fake news, and the power of public opinion as the sole arbiter of what is right and wrong. How should we think about the sanctity of life in the current debate; about helpful and unhelpful relationships; about suffering; about environmental issues? The Bible is “useful” in showing us the right way, getting guiding principles to help us in decision making, getting our thinking and actions back on the right track. It gives us a framework – beginning with God as the world’s Creator; God’s intended guidelines for human living; about our human rejection of God and its impact on us and our world; of God’s unchanging love for us; of who Jesus is, what he has done, is doing and will do.
Time and time again when we read (say) the letters of Paul we find that he is correctingthe churches, pointing out ideas which are being taught but which aren’t actually Gospel- or God-ideas. Sometimes gently. Sometimes very forcefully. Eg. “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? … After starting with the Spirit’s help are you now trying to finish in your own strength?” (4:13, my paraphrase).
But the Bible is never just a book of “don’ts”! It’s a book of “do’s”! And so the climax of what Paul says the Bible is “useful” for here is that it’s for “training in righteousness” . How to live right. How to be real followers of Jesus. How to honour God in our concern for justice in the world. How to be concerned for the poor and downtrodden, as He is. How to live with the secret of the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives, enabling us (above all) to live lives of love. Genuine love for God and others, for Christ’s sake. Is he “potty trained”? we ask concerning a toddler! Are we “love trained”? we might ask of a church – by that I mean of ourselves, not in judgment of others.
“Training in righteousness” – for this we need the Scriptures! If you go to the gym (Bill Lewis a good example of this!) it’s very popular today to have a personal “coach” or “trainer”. The Bible is our “personal trainer”. Get its help regularly. Look at its characters and the situations they faced; how did they learn to follow God and do his will? Or the Bible as training manual and the Holy Spirit as trainer – after all, as we heard earlier he wrote the manual!
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…”
Result? V.17
“… so that the man (or person, or servant) of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Who’s it for? It’s for the people of God, leaders like Timothy and all Christians alike.
What will it do for us? It will “equip us”. The student who goes into her exam having been well-taught; and done all the work for her course; and done enough revision is ready “equipped” for the exam.
Paul says that the scriptures don’t just make us equipped they make us “thoroughly equipped”. The Reformers spoke of what they called the “sufficiency” of scripture. Meaning it has all we need. We don’t have to keep adding to it extra requirements, as the church in their day had been doing. So Article 6 of the Anglican Church’s 39 Articles reads:
“Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary for salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man…”
“All things necessary” … “thoroughly equipped” . The scriptures are “sufficient”. We don’t need a book of Mormon. Or publications from Watchtower. Or even, in one sense, our own personal “hotline” to the will of God. Another translation “The scriptures will give you all you need…”.
For what? “… for every good work”. That’s pretty comprehensive. Everything we do! Today; tomorrow at work; Tuesday evening at the meeting; through the week; over the fence with our neighbours; homework with the kids; Friday night with our friends.
Equipped and ready to do it. Not “My Way” as the song goes but “God’s way”!
Let’s finish with some quotations:
Bear Grylls “Don’t underestimate the power of the words of the Bible. So often they have been light to a dark path for me and strength to a failing body.”
Pope Gregory the Great (540-604) “Scripture is like a river, broad and deep, shallow enough here for the lamb to go wading, but deep enough there for the elephant to swim.”
Voltaire (1694-1778) “A hundred years from my death the Bible will be a museum piece.” As it turned out Voltaire’s old house in Paris became a distribution centre for Bibles in order to feed the growing demand across the French-speaking world!
The Coronation “We present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords.”
Amen.