2 Timothy 3:10-17 "The Inspiration of the Bible "

Today we shall consider  the  important subject  of the  inspiration of the Bible. The passage before us contains  an important testimony to the nature of the Bible and its divine origin. And the big question is this:  This book that you now hold in your hand – is it an ordinary book, or is it a truly extra-ordinary, God inspired book?  

And if it is an extra ordinary, God inspired book, then what is our response to it?  And what may we expect it to do to us and for us?  This question we expect to answer today. 

Our key text is found in 3:16,17 but before we  get there let us see how  Paul  comes to make this astonishing assertion  concerning the  inspiration  of the  Bible.

In this personal  letter,  Paul had  reminded Timothy,  Pastor of the church in Ephesus  concerning the way  people  will generally behave in the last days (3:1-9) – the days between Christ’s ascension and His second coming. He and we need to see this and expect this. The Christian ministry is lived and conducted in a very messy world. This does not mean however that Christians need  to conform to this world. In  Romans  12:1,2  Paul urges Christians not to be conformed to this world. Christians need to go against the flow  as  they deliberately follow Christ. For this reason  Paul exhorts Timothy to follow his teaching, conduct, aim in life, faith, patience, love, steadfastness, persecutions, sufferings. 

Paul encourages Timothy to imitate him in these things, not because Paul was anything special in himself, but   because Paul himself  was imitating and following the Lord Jesus Christ [cf. 1 Cor. 11:1 “be imitators of me, as I am of Christ“]. Notice how he includes sufferings and persecutions in the deal. These, says Paul to Timothy,are a part of your Christian discipleship. You cannot avoid them. They are part and parcel of what it means to be a Christian… “ Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ will be persecuted.” (3:12) There you are! Living counter culturally is not for sissies.   

And do not ignore the second part of that sentence begun in 3:12:  “while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (3:13). Why are they going from bad to worse and why are they being deceived? They do not listen to the Word of God (sound teaching). They do not know how to conduct themselves. They have no aim in life except to gratify and please themselves. They have no faith in God, no real  patience towards anyone , no real  love, no steadfastness… and because of this they are pawns of the devil, who has held them captive to do his will (2 Tim 2:26). Also, they would for this reason not experience the typical kinds of persecutions and sufferings that Christians experience  for righteousness’s  sake (Matt. 5:10).

And so Paul exhorts Timothy in 3:14,15, “But as for you continue  in what you have learned  and have firmly believed, knowing from who you have learned it” (cf. 2 Tim. 1:5) 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.”   

Notice three things: 

1. Timothy had been discipled in the faith from childhood by his godly mother and grandmother. 

2. He himself had become convinced of what he had been taught- namely the sacred Scriptures (which is the OT!). 

3. These Scriptures had made him wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  These Scriptures led him to faith in Christ. So, please take note that these Scriptures and the Lord Jesus Christ are inseparably connected. 

In John 5:39 Jesus Himself says that “(these Scriptures) bear witness about me…”.  

Do you remember the incident in Luke 24? Following the death of Jesus we find two depressed disciples on the road to Emmaus. They were talking to one another about the recent events surrounding the crucifixion and death of Jesus. They struggled to interpret the death of Christ and forgot that He had said that He would be raised on the third day. Jesus, who by this time had risen, met them on this road, and they were kept from recognising Him (Lk. 24:16). In this dull state Jesus  came among them and,  “beginning with Moses and all the prophets  he interpreted to them  in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Lk. 24:27). From this story we learn many things, but the one thing I want us to see is that  Jesus  presented  the  OT as that inspired book  that  spoke about Him, the promised Messiah – the Saviour of  this sin sick world. 

    

So,  says Paul, “Timothy , you have been acquainted with the sacred  writings  which have led you to the Saviour, Jesus Christ.”  And to crown this  all, Paul  now  makes this powerful crowning statement concerning these Scriptures that have made Timothy and countless others  wise for salvation through faith in Christ.  

Three Reasons  Why You Can Trust The Bible [Vv. 16,17]  

1.     The Bible Is Inspired.

Some people   think that the Bible is inspired, in the sense that it inspires us in the same way a well written book  may inspire us, the focus being on you who is inspired by the reading of that book. That is not what Paul is saying here at all.  He is saying that the Scripture themselves, in their very essence and being are inspired- whether it makes you feel inspired or not. It is a fact outside you. So then we take note that, "all Scripture is breathed out by God…”.  The phrase translated directly from the Greek (theopneustos) is God-breathed, and hence our translation. The Bible is God talking. This is from the mouth of God. In the truest sense of the word the Bible is not inspired, but expired.  I know that doesn’t sound too good, but in its most literal sense, that’s what it means, at least in old English. Even now we say that when one dies, one breathes out his last; he has ‘expired’. The Bible is the expiration of God. It is the final Word of God as it is breathed out by God. 2  Peter 1:19- 21 describes how that happened.    

Notice that all Scripture (not just some Scripture) is God-breathed. There  have been many in history and even  today  who   have treated   the Bible  in  a ‘cut and paste’  fashion, choosing whatever  they like, and dispensing with whatever  they don’t like.  You cannot deal with the Bible like that. You cannot choose to believe some Scriptures and not others. 
All Scripture in every word, sentence and book is inspired. You cannot say that some books are more inspired than others.  In a subjective sense you may find Leviticus less inspiring, but in truth it is just as important as the Gospels or the book of Hebrews. In fact you cannot really understand the book of Hebrews or the Gospels without the holiness code in Leviticus. This book teaches in a most profound sense that God is holy and that every form of sin is an abomination to this holy God. It shows us that God hates sin and that sin kills.  It shows us that sin is so serious that it needs atonement, and so we find there the doctrine of the   atonement.  An animal dies in the place of the sinner.  But can an animal truly take away human sin?  The sacrificial system  in the OT points to its grand fulfillment in Christ, the Lamb of God   in the NT. This is shown in the gospels and the epistles of the NT.

The Bible’s inspiration (being God breathed) means that it is  accurate,   inerrant and authoritative, and timeless   because it is the word of God. For this reason Paul could write to the Thessalonians and say, “ We thank  God…. that you received  the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God.”  (1 Thess. 2:13). 

And so we have a high view of Scripture, because the internal claim of the Bible is that it is not the word or commentary of men, but the word of God.  Our own Church and Confession of Faith  rests  on this  foundation. The Bible is our final authority for faith and practice.  

Our  own 1689  Baptist Confession of Faiths reads,  

"The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, and obeyed, depends not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof, and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God”.

It is one thing to say that you have a high view of the Scriptures but it is quite another thing to live and behave in accordance with the Scriptures.  Once again we see this in the Bible.  The Pharisees had a high view of the Scriptures -  in theory. But in practise they took liberty in interpreting and living out the Scriptures in a manner that suited them, and thus it became the traditions of men (e.g. Mark 7:6-9).  We face the same challenges today. The Bible is  used and abused and selectively quoted and taken out of context  by many so called Bible teachers, and by so many sects  and cults. 

Our challenge is to follow the injunction of Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:1-6. Take time to read  and appreciate this passage. 

2.     The Bible Is Profitable For Teaching, For Reproof, For Correction And For Training In Righteousness

"All Scripture is inspired by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” Scripture is not only the out- breathed Word of God,  but for this very reason it is also  logical  that it must be profitable  to our souls in every way.

It is profitable for teaching. It is profitable for reproof or warning. The Bible warns us against the errors we so easily make. It warns us of the traps into which we so easily fall. It is profitable for correction. The Bible corrects and redirects our spiritual course when we have gone off in search of many things. The Bible is profitable for training in righteousness. In this sense it is not to be used as a book to bash others with. Remember that you who teach are also subject to its teaching and therefore you must teach with all humility as you also remember that you are a fellow sinner in need of instruction.  The Bible is God’s manual for training in righteousness- in practical godliness. The reason why we often do not think that the Bible is practical is because the Bible often clashes with our own desires. The truth is that the Bible’s complete counsel is true, trustworthy and very, very practical. 

3.     The Bible  Completes  Us And  Equips Us For Every Good  Work.

“...that the man of God may be  complete , equipped for every good work.”

Believing in the Word of God and living by the Word of God completes and equips us. The Bible is not just a good book of good ideas.  God wrote it for the purpose of it being lived out in our lives. We are called to live by the Book!  The Bible is the book that teaches us  about marriage. It teaches us to be a biblical husband or wife. It teaches us about parenting, and  being a good employer or employee. The Bible teaches you how to  think and cope with  depression, anxiety, guilt and a host of other emotional issues. The Bible teaches you how to cope with sickness and dying.  The Bible saves a man from being a wimp, and delivers him from being a nerd  says Geoff Thomas. It transforms him into being “the man of God … thoroughly equipped for every good work” (3:17). The Scriptures are able to make  us  thoroughly equipped for every  situation in life. 

Could it be true, that the reason some of you are  struggling so much with your personal issues, because you are not resting in the Word of God, but in your own appetites (or lack of spiritual appetite)  and desires.  

Follow the man of Psalm 1. 

The opening words  teach us, “His delight is in the law of the Lord and on his  law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:2). Here is a man who really loves and obeys  the Bible.  That is the true test as to whether you believe in an inspired Bible. You are not only someone who  understands the correct doctrine of Scripture in all its context, and  who reads the Bible every day, and who sits under  good, sound preaching every Sunday, but more than all those things, that  you actually love and  live   the Bible  because you have love Jesus, who gave this Word for your comfort and that you may be thoroughly equipped  for every good work.

Embracing the authority of the Word of God is vital for discipleship and a healthy Christian life. 
And  Inspiration  requires perspiration  on your part!