How to Use God-Breathed Scripture in Ministry (Part 2) | 2 Timothy 3:10–17 | Thomas Renz

Last week, we took the early church as our example.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching

and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and

to prayer. And we reflected together what it

means for us as a college community to participate

in the church being one, holy, Catholic and apostolic.

Meeting one another, first of all, as brothers

and sisters in Christ and supporting one another.

meeting in prayer and praise to express our faith

and dependence on God and so live in the holiness

that is Christ's. To remember that we are part

of a church that spans the ages and the globe,

having the church all over the world in mind,

the persecuted church, the missionary church,

the church in the past and the church to come,

and all the different expressions of church.

longing for that wholeness of the church. And

then, of course, being devoted to the Scriptures,

the apostles' teaching, including what we hear

from Paul into Timothy about the Scriptures,

which by now include 2 Timothy and other of Paul's

writings as well. So if we had four adjectives.

Last week, this week, we have four nouns in the

Greek and in the ESV, changed into verbs in the

NIV, doesn't matter much. But four, to talk about

the usefulness of Scripture, I want to focus

on 2 Timothy 3, 16. A well -known verse, often

used in doctrinal discussions, and rightly so,

but it is not actually a verse that is, first

of all, about Scripture, about the nature of

Scripture. It doesn't talk about Scripture being

revelation, being reliable, trustworthy, which,

of course, we read about all over the Bible.

This is not actually a verse about what Scripture

is. It's a verse about how Timothy will make

good use of Scripture. And the terms that I used

here are specifically about ministering Scripture

to others, which is why revelation and faith

and so on are not terms that are used, although

Scripture is, of course, useful for revelation.

It reveals to us who God is. It is very useful

for believing. It's the thing we should believe

in. But these are not the terms used because

it's about Timothy's ministry to others. And

I was wondering, as I reflected further on that,

whether it is quite specifically whether those

four nouns are chosen really because of the specific

circumstances in Ephesus with Paul about to die

and passing on his role to Timothy. But then

I observed that I think Timothy's context is

quite similar to our own. And those four terms

are inspired, I think, by what Jesus says about

the role of the Holy Spirit. In John 16. And

therefore, I reckon that those four nouns are

not just specifically for Timothy's situation.

Of course, in other contexts, if we talk about

the usefulness of Scripture, we might choose

three, five different terms, and that would still

be true. But I think those four are important

and a good list to have even for us today. How

is Scripture profitable, useful? in our ministry

to ourselves, in ministering Scripture to ourselves

and to others. First, we are told that all Scripture

is God -breathed. That seems to be a phrase that

Paul created. God -breathed, not strictly speaking

inspired Scripture, but expired Scripture. And

we could move from there doctrinally to the truthfulness,

reliability of Scripture, which is all perfectly

true. But I think the reason that Paul talks

about Scripture being God -breathed here is twofold.

One is there is no such thing as God -breathed

gobbledygook. That wouldn't really help us, would

it, if God breathed out gobbledygook? It would

be inerrant gobbledygook, presumably. But what's

the use of that? No, because God is who he is,

a loving God who wants to communicate with us.

What is God -breathed is not going to be gobbledygook.

It's going to be useful as well as being truthful

and reliable. It can only be useful by being

truthful and reliable. But it's the usefulness

that is the focus here. And I think Paul is alluding

to God -breathing his word on other occasions.

Genesis 2, he breathes into Adam, which the Greek

translates as Anthropos. which the ESV translates

here as man of God and the NIV as servant of

God. So we have that same term, breath, God,

man, anthropos, human being, whatever you translate

it in this verse. God breathes life into human

being. So scripture being God breathed suggests

that scripture is a means of making us fully

alive as human beings. If we want to be a human

being fully alive, fully in the potential of

God's design for human beings, we need Scripture.

The other allusion then would be to Ezekiel 37,

where the dead bones are receiving the breath

of God and come to life again. So that even after

sin, there is the fullness of life through God's

Spirit, through God -breathed Scripture. Because

God -breathed Scripture is useful, first of all,

for teaching. I find that really quite encouraging,

that the first word being used here is teaching.

It's not that Scripture is kind of useful for

an inspired thought for the day, and then, yes,

if you are particularly intellectually inclined,

you might want to spend more time studying it

and teaching it and so on. No, the first thing

that's said about the usefulness of Scripture

is for teaching. Before we get to instruction,

I thought, why not instruction first? Torah,

the Hebrew term, is instruction. Is there no

Greek equivalent? Well, there is. It's coming

up later on. Training could be to say there's

instruction. There are other terms for that.

But Paul doesn't speak about instruction because

it's not about obedience, first of all, and about

this is what you do, but teaching, which implies

learning, which implies understanding. God wants

us to understand. And so what we do as theological

students is a jolly good thing, not some sort

of specialist thing that is slightly embarrassing

because Scripture is really for other things.

No, Scripture is there for teaching, for understanding,

for learning. What are we to learn? What are

we to teach? Well, these terms are actually quite

important in the pastorals. The first chapter

of this letter to Timothy 1 .11, a teacher. And

of this gospel, I was appointed a herald and

an apostle and a teacher. So what does he teach?

He teaches the gospel. The gospel that he proclaims

and of which he is an apostle. Same in 3 .10,

the beginning of our reading today. You, however,

know all about my teaching. First thing he says.

Then my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience,

love, endurance. My teaching. What's my teaching?

Is that what you are meant to learn? 1 Timothy

2, 7. I'm telling the truth. I'm not lying. And

a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.

Paul took pride in being a teacher. A teacher

of the gospel. And so he entrusts Timothy to

find other people, many witnesses, to entrust

to them reliable people who are qualified to

teach others. Paul is really into teaching because

he knows that God wants us to understand, not

just to blindly follow and be obedient, but to

understand him and his purposes, his agenda.

What is the teaching? It's the teaching. through

which we are saved. 1 Timothy 4 .16 Watch your

life and doctrine closely. The NIV translates

the word teaching, sometimes instruction, sometimes

teaching, sometimes doctrine. It's the same word

here in the Greek. Watch your life and teaching

closely. Persevere in them, because if you do,

you will save both yourself and your hearers.

It's the teaching by which we are saved. So I

think we don't go far wrong in thinking that

the teaching is primarily what, in fact, verse

15, immediately preceding our verse 16, talks

about. Timothy having known the scriptures, which

are able to make you wise for salvation through

faith in Jesus Christ. The teaching is for wisdom,

for salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ.

So there's the encouragement and challenge for

us, the encouragement that teaching, working

hard with your minds on intellectual understanding

is a good thing. That's what Scripture is there

for. We're not abusing Scripture by being academic

about it. That's what Scripture is there for.

But a warning as well, make sure that a teaching

is always aimed at wisdom for salvation through

faith in Jesus Christ. The second thing is reproof

or rebuking in the NIV. It's not the thing that

I would have thought of as the second thing to

say. Scripture is useful for teaching and application.

We want to hear and learn Scripture and then

we want to apply it. And of course, reproof,

rebuking is one form of application. But why

highlight this? Why having this very broad term

teaching and then going to a quite narrow application

point, rebuke? Again, it may be the context,

but I do think there's something about Scripture

that remains permanently true. It needs to rebuke

us. It needs to reprove our false. thinking our

false attitudes because without that we are not

going to learn to be trained in righteousness

does this mean we are looking out to be constantly

told off and put down no i don't think so i do

think that we may need to learn the habit of

when we ask about how does this apply to me that

the first question should maybe be how does this

rebuke me How does this correct my thinking?

How does it challenge my attitude? But not in

a being told off and put down sort of way. Satan,

of course, has no interest in Scripture being

useful and profitable for us. And one of his

strategies is to turn teaching into speculation,

get us sidetracked with speculation about myths

and genealogies and so on, for salvation through

faith in Jesus Christ. And the other strategy

is to turn rebuke into a satanic accusation that

condemns us and diminishes us as persons. So

he twists it for us. And that's maybe an area

where we need one another to hear and receive

rebuke in the context of God -breathed grace.

then we have a divine rebuke rather than a satanic

accusation. Our temptation will be when Scripture

points us to some sin in our life, some false

thinking, to either quickly move on, suppress

the thought, or to wallow into it and accuse

ourselves and allow Satan to get hold of the

Scripture and beat us up with it. And both, of

course, is wrong. God's rebuke is necessary for

our salvation, not for our condemnation. It is

part of the wisdom of teaching faith in Jesus

Christ. And that's where sometimes confessing

sin to one another can be a real help. As evangelical

Protestants, we know that we don't need to confess

sin to one another and need a clergy person for

that necessarily. We can do that by finding just

whatever mature Christian believer. But we should

remember that this can be a helpful way because

it drags sin out of the darkness into the light.

It makes it much harder to just move on. So it

prevents the suppression by bringing it and expressing,

vocalizing the sin in the presence of someone

else. And if that someone else is a mature Christian,

then the sin will be verbalized in the context

of grace. That fellow Christian will remind us.

of the forgiveness of sins, so that this sin

is not for our condemnation and accusation, doesn't

become satanic, but is a gospel rebuke. And sometimes

we need that confession, not just for the sins

that we all know are obvious to us, our sins,

but sometimes, as Isaiah 64 puts us, all our

worthy deeds, all our good things, we sometimes

need to... bring to God as well in humility and

recognize we don't have really anything to bring,

but by the grace of God, that's part of being

rebuked, not thinking we've got anything to offer

to God. So teaching and rebuke. Rebuke needs

naturally into correction, setting straight,

or maybe as some commentators have observed,

at least since the Middle Ages, There may be

a movement from belief, teaching truth, rebuking

falsehood, to behavior, correcting false behavior,

training in good behavior. Whether we have this

movement or not, there certainly is an overall

movement of thinking to action, correcting the

thinkings first, which will correct the action.

And I think it is significant that those two

negative terms Reproof and correction, or rebuking

and correcting in the NRV, are surrounded by

the two positive terms, teaching and training.

In fact, rebuking, correcting, and training are

all wisdom terms, which reminds us that these

good works, being equipped for every good work,

is not about fulfilling the law. It's not about

being obedient to the law. It's about wisdom.

Our salvation takes shape in being liberated

to be the kind of people that God has designed

us to be. We don't want to do good works in order

to impress God or others. But because God has

liberated us by his grace from our sin, from

our self -centeredness, we can look out for others

and do them good. Because God has showered so

many gifts on us and is so generous to us. hold

on tightly to what we have, but can give to others.

So it's the gospel that liberates us to good

work, that makes us thoroughly equipped, or as

the ESV has it, that the man of God, everyone

who belongs to God, may be complete. Think again

of Adam. The complete human being is the one

that's fully equipped for every good work by

the gospel. by the grace of God. Now, this is

not an accidental sequence, but quite deliberate.

We also see in 2 Timothy 4 .2 where Timothy is

told to preach, or actually it's a more general

term, proclaim. So don't let this hold you back

in terms of thinking who's allowed to preach

when it's proclaiming, which we are all called

to do in some contexts. Proclaim the word. Correct,

rebuke, and encourage, or more literally, rebuke,

correct, and encourage, because the word order

is the same as here. The NIV slightly messes

it up, unfortunately. So first, the correcting

and rebuking, but the aim of that is the encouragement

and encourage. With great patience, every patience,

and careful instruction is the teaching word

again. which now has the final word. It's the

overarching word. What does teaching look like?

What does it look like for us to teach one another?

Not just to sit in a classroom and receive something

from the lecturer or receive something from reading,

but what does it mean for us to minister Scripture

in ways that teach one another? It means to rebuke,

correct, and encourage training in righteousness.

This is how we can help. And support one another.

This is how we live the unity of the body of

Christ. The holiness of the body of Christ. This

is how we grow into greater catholicity. As we

hear other voices rebuking us. Seeing our blind

spots that we can't see because of our tradition.

And the way our corner of the Christian world

has shaped us in particular ways. And this is

how we remain firmly rooted and grounded on the

apostolic foundations. relate for us in the Scriptures.

Amen.