2 Timothy 3:10-17

We’ll begin reading at verse 10 and be down to the end of the chapter. Paul here is speaking to Timothy and he’s just warned Timothy about false teachers that have went out into the world, and now he turns to Timothy in verse 10 and says:

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 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.

Well, it is the best-selling book of all time. Five billion copies sold to date. And yet it’s not really a book, is it? It’s instead a collection of 66 books by over 40 different authors. It was first written in three different languages on three different continents across three different millennia. Most important religious text in human history, foundational to the faith of the 2.5 billion people who still claim to follow its teachings today. What am I speaking about? Well, I am, of course, speaking about the Bible. And those are the kinds of facts that you’ll find out about the Bible if you look it up online, perhaps on Wikipedia.

But what is it really? Is there a way to sum up the significance of the Bible other than talking about its historical uniqueness or literary value? Well, I think the group of churches which we all belong to, both you here in Emmanuel and myself back in Ballymena, the Association of Baptist Churches Ireland, have done a pretty good job of summing up what we should all know and believe about the Bible in their doctrinal statement.

The first paragraph of the doctrinal statement says that we believe “the verbal inspiration and total inerrancy of the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as originally given by God, the sole sufficiency and final authority in all matters of faith and practice.” I think that’s a pretty good summary. What should we believe about the Bible? We should believe the verbal inspiration and total inerrancy of the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as originally given by God, its sole sufficiency and final authority in all matters of faith and practice.

However, there’s another way of working out what the Bible is. Instead of looking on Wikipedia or even at the doctrinal statement of the association, we can simply turn to the pages of Scripture themselves. What is the Bible? What is this book that has influenced the course of human history, continues to captivate billions of people around the world today? Well, we find the answer to that question right here in our passage this evening.

In 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, in particular, these two verses have for centuries been called a locus classicus. That’s the fancy term a theologian uses to refer to a classic place. It’s the term given to a biblical text that provides the clearest and greatest foundation for a particular doctrine. It’s sometimes called the seat of the doctrine, literally where the doctrine sits in Scripture. 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 is known as the locus classicus, the seat of the doctrine of Scripture.

What is Scripture? What do we believe the Bible to be? Well, here in 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17, we read that 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.

I wonder if you notice in those two verses we’re told two main things. Two different sides of Scripture are spoken about there. They’re actually the same two things we heard Psalm 19 meditate on this morning. The essence and the effects, the reality and the results, what the Bible is and what the Bible does.

First, there in verse 16, we’re told what the Bible is. We’re told that the Bible is breathed by God. The Bible is breathed by God. That’s what it is. And then in verses 16 into 17 we’re told what the Bible does. We’re told that the Bible is beneficial for man. The Bible is beneficial for man. That’s what it does.

And so those are the two things we’re going to think about together this evening. What is the Bible? Well, first of all, we’ll see that the Bible is breathed by God, and secondly that the Bible is beneficial for man. And as we think about these two things, we’ll see that each of them has two implications that we should pay attention to.

1 The Bible is breathed by God

Let’s think about that first one. The Bible is breathed by God. That’s the first thing Paul tells us there in verse 16, isn’t it? He says that all Scripture is breathed out by God. That term “Scripture” is simply the word for writing. Really anything that’s the product of a pen, as it were. And yet it’s applied in a very special way in the New Testament to not only encompass all the sacred writings of the Old Testament, which Paul’s just mentioned there in verse 15, but also all the writings of the apostles that would soon be brought together into a new collection called the New Testament.

And here Paul tells us that all of these sacred writings, every line of Scripture, or to paraphrase Jesus, every jot and tittle, even the smallest letter and tiniest point of punctuation, have all been breathed out by God. All Scripture is breathed out by God.

That wording there, “breathed out by God,” is, I think, well translated in the ESV. It’s actually one word that seems to have been coined by Paul. He seems to have come up with it himself. It literally means “God-breathed.” All Scripture is God-breathed. However, while the word is new here, the idea is an ancient one. Indeed, if you’ve been paying attention when you read your Bible, you’ll realize that it appears in the very first pages of Scripture.

There we are introduced to the breath of God on the sixth day of creation in Genesis 2. We’re told that God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into him, and thus Adam became a living soul. From the very beginning of the story of this world, we see that the breath of God is life-giving. However, even more than that, we also see that it is dead-raising. For later in the Old Testament, in Ezekiel 37, it’s the same breath of God that Ezekiel sees sweeping into the valley of dry bones and bringing those skeletons back to life before his eyes.

And so as we arrive here in 2 Timothy, towards the end of the Bible, we’re told that this life-giving, this dead-raising breath of God has produced the book in all of our hands. That the words of this book are really the breath of God’s mouth. You see, just as our breath passes through our vocal cords and out of our mouth to produce songs and words, so too we’re told that God’s breath, figuratively speaking, proceeds through the divine vocal cords and out of the very mouth of God to produce these words.

This truth is what theologians call the inspiration of Scripture. You maybe saw that term earlier in our association statement. Sometimes that term “inspiration” causes confusion, for to say Scripture is inspired is not to say that God merely motivated the authors who wrote it, like perhaps how you might be inspired to run a marathon because someone motivates you to do it. No, when we talk about inspiration, we’re using the term in a much stronger, more direct way, which is why we don’t just talk about inspiration, but we talk about verbal inspiration. That is, inspiration not just of the authors, but of the very words themselves.

Brothers and sisters, when we look at this book, we’re actually listening to God. Its words are his words. It’s inspired by him because it’s been expired by him. When we read these pages, we’re hearing the words of his mouth. And that has two important implications for us, which we’re going to consider together now. The fact that the Bible is breathed by God has an implication both for its accuracy and also for its authority.

First of all, think about its accuracy. Now, when I’m speaking about accuracy here, I want to get it straight. I’m not speaking about the accuracy of a translation, or whatever Bible translation you might choose to use. Nor am I even talking about the accuracy of the underlying texts, that is, the different manuscripts and scrolls and parchments, the ancient copies that have been found across the Mediterranean from the earliest centuries.

No, tonight when I speak about the accuracy of Scripture, I’m not referring to modern translations or ancient copies. I’m talking about the accuracy of the original autograph, the words that lie behind our modern translations, that came even before those ancient copies. The words that, as our association statement puts it, were “originally given by God.” The words that flowed from the pen of Paul and Peter (not that they used pens), but the words that came from the mouth of Moses and David, as it were.

Those original words were the ones breathed out by God. And because they were breathed out by God, those words are not merely, I don’t know, 90% accurate, like maybe our modern translations, or even 99% accurate, like the reconstructed Greek and Hebrew text that we have today. No, no, those original words are 100% accurate. There are no errors in the Bible, which is what we mean to say when we say that it is inerrant. It has no errors. It’s always accurate. And the reason we know those autographs are totally inerrant, always accurate, is because they’ve been breathed by God. We know those words are true words because they are his words. And the trustworthiness of his character guarantees the truthfulness of his words.

You know, I often come across this in my work as a lawyer. In the legal world, the evidence that you have in a case is often based on the testimony of key individuals. And that evidence can be incredibly strong and persuasive depending on the identity of those individuals. You see, if you put a mob boss or a convicted fraudster on the stand as a witness, you could hardly be surprised that the judge or jury didn’t trust their testimony. For who they are, their character undermines what they say. On the other hand, if you were to manage to get your hands on a respected community figure, maybe someone who has an MBE, or a minister, or maybe a doctor, then their character can help strengthen their testimony, add weight to their words. Because you know that you can trust them, you know you can rely on the evidence that they will give.

We actually see the same thing earlier in our passage, where Paul tells Timothy there in verse 14 that Timothy is to continue in what he has learned and believed, “knowing from whom you learned it.” It was Timothy’s grandmother and mother who first taught him about the faith, and because he knew them, he knew their character, proved over many, many years. He knew he could trust their words.

So when we get to verse 16, I think we see this in an even greater way. For if these words really are breathed out by God, then his character also helps to confirm their accuracy. We can trust the words of Scripture because of the character of its author. We know that he is the God who cannot lie, as Titus 1 puts it. Because Scripture is God-breathed, it must be accurate, because it came forth from his mouth. We know we can trust it completely.

Brother or sister, if you ever begin to doubt the truthfulness, the trustworthiness of the Bible, then you can go off and research our modern translations and learn how they do a really good job of communicating the sense of Scripture to us today. Or you can delve into the field of textual criticism. Read all about how the number and quality of ancient copies we have from the earliest centuries can give us unparalleled confidence in the Greek and Hebrew text we’ve assembled today.

And yet the most important thing you need to do if you start to doubt the accuracy of the Bible is to remember the character of its author. Remind yourself that there can be no inaccuracy in it because there is no inaccuracy in him. His promises are pure. His instructions sure. His words are a rock upon which we can build our lives. God’s words are reliable because he is reliable. The Bible cannot lie because it was breathed out by the God who cannot lie. That’s the first implication of the Bible being breathed out by God. Its accuracy.

But secondly, there’s also an implication for its authority. Life is full of authorities, isn’t it? I currently have a three-year-old, and so most days I find myself having a detailed conversation about who is really in charge. Mummy is in charge of the dinner. You don’t get just to decide what you’re going to eat. Daddy is in charge of the power tools. You can’t play with them. No, you can’t drive the car because the police will pull you over. When you go to preschool, it’s your teacher who’s in charge. A toddler has to learn that they are not the boss, but that in each area of life, there’s a different authority. Parents over children, elders over churches, leaders over nations.

And the Bible tells us that the highest authority over them all is God. As we’ve just sung together in that last song, as Daniel 7 explains, God is the highest authority. He has an everlasting dominion. As Jesus declares in Matthew 28, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. There’s no greater authority in time or eternity than God. And so when this authoritative God speaks, he speaks authoritative words. Because he has authority, his words also have authority. That’s what happens with a parent, isn’t it? They tell their child they have to listen to their words, obey their instructions, because they’re in charge. So too, we have to listen to God’s words, obey him, because he’s in charge.

As our association statement put it, the Bible is our final authority. Final authority. Notice the Bible’s not our only authority. We still have to listen to parents and teachers, elders and the state, but God’s word sits above them all, rules over them all, is the final court of appeal, one last level of authority, just like how our Supreme Court is above our local court, so that if any of the local authorities contradict this higher authority, we obey the higher one and not the lower one. We must listen to God, obey God, rather than anyone or anything that contradicts him.

I wonder what other authorities you’re tempted to listen to in your life right now. It could be a parent or a spouse, a boss or a leader. But it can be more subtle things as well, can’t it? Perhaps it’s a cultural craze. The ideologies of secularism or sexual freedom that surround us every day. Maybe it’s human reason, the temptation to try to explain God on your terms, limit him to what you understand. Perhaps your actions and attitudes are colored by personal experiences. You’ve had a messy church situation or a relationship breakdown from the past. Maybe it’s passing emotion, what makes you feel good in the moment. Maybe that’s your guiding star. That’s how you decide what is right or wrong. Maybe it’s an historical position, like a political opinion or a church tradition.

We listen to all kinds of different voices, obey all kinds of different authorities and influences in our life. But the one voice we must listen to above all is God’s. Because he is the highest authority. His words must be our final authority.

Brothers and sisters, when the world says one thing and God’s words say another. When our heart wants one thing but God’s mouth says another. No debate or discussion should be necessary. Our duty is clear. When our emotions or experiences, traditions or thinkings clash with the words of this book, we need to treat ourselves like that little toddler. He needs to be reminded who is in charge. It doesn’t matter who or what says otherwise. God’s words are our final authority, for they are breathed out by the one who has all authority.

The Bible is breathed by God. It speaks to its accuracy and its authority.

2 The Bible is beneficial for man

But secondly, we also see that the Bible is beneficial for man. The Bible is beneficial for man. Or as Paul puts it there in verse 16, it is profitable. Profitable. I wonder if your ears picked up when you heard that word, profit. That’s what everyone is out to make, isn’t it? Businesses are run in order to generate profit. People are only interested in coming along to something if they’re going to get something out of it. Everybody wants to make a profit, and preferably a quick one.

And here in 2 Timothy 3, Paul tells us an easy way, a quick way that we can make a profit. All we have to do is open up the pages of this book. For he tells us that the Bible is profitable. It’s beneficial for us. It will do us good. Oh no, it might not make us wealthy on earth, but it can make us rich for all eternity.

You know, it’s often said of a prayer meeting, isn’t it, that no matter how you feel before you go to it, you’re always glad that you went to it afterwards. You’ll never regret going to a prayer meeting. There are surely only a few things in life you can say that of. You’ll never regret doing it. But here we see that Paul tells us another one. Not a prayer meeting, but a Bible reading. For he says that the Bible is so beneficial, these Scriptures are so profitable, that we will never regret opening and reading this book.

Why is it that he says that it’s profitable for us? Well, first of all, it’s because of its ability. Again, he’s already alerted us to this back in verse 15. There we read him tell Timothy that these sacred writings are “able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” We thought about that this morning, didn’t we? How nature can, yes, teach us much about God, but there’s only Scripture that can teach us about Jesus.

Elsewhere, in Romans chapter 1, Paul expands on that to explain that this knowledge we can have from creation, this knowledge of God’s power and wisdom, is enough to condemn us. But it’s not enough to save us. By looking around us, we know enough to leave us without excuse. But yet, not enough to lead us to salvation. And yet here in 2 Timothy, Paul explains that the Scriptures can do that. It’s the Bible that can bring us to faith in Christ Jesus, make us wise for salvation, even from our childhood.

You know, there’s a reason why we teach little children to sing, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” And it’s because even from the earliest age, the Bible can tell them that. The Bible can show little children their sin and the way to take to the Savior.

I wonder if you’re here with us this evening and you’re a bit like Timothy. You’ve been taught from these sacred writings from your childhood. Your parents have brought you along to church, maybe sent you along to Sunday school, taught you to sing songs like “Jesus loves me, this I know.” You have known about Jesus from your childhood. And yet you still haven’t trusted Jesus for yourself.

Maybe you’re waiting for some big moment, a flash of light from the sky, something dramatic to happen in your life, the kind of conversion story that you might hear at a testimony evening involving drama and deliverance and transformation. We praise God for such stories. However, we need to remember that most testimonies aren’t like that. Do you know what most testimonies are like? They’re like this testimony here of Timothy. A mother or a grandmother opens up the children’s Bible and tells the little one a story from it. And growing up in that knowledge, listening to those stories, those little children begin to believe. Quietly, not dramatically. Maybe at the back of church one evening or after Sunday school class one Sunday morning or during a kids’ club one night while they’re singing a song, that little one starts to take their first step of faith and then begins to believe in Jesus for themselves.

Friend, if you’re here this evening and you’re like Timothy, you’ve heard stories from the Bible since you were little. What are you waiting for before coming to Jesus? What else do you need to know that you don’t already know? God loves us. He sent his Son to die for us. Will you not come to him? Will you not believe in him? Will you not begin to follow him? For we see here that this life-giving, dead-raising breath of God is in this book that we’re reading right now, that these Scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation, bring you to faith in Jesus Christ. Stop waiting to have a conversion like Paul and simply begin to trust like little Timothy. Believe what you’ve been taught from this book since you were a child. You’re wise enough for salvation already. Begin to follow him.

We see that the Bible is able to bring us to salvation. That’s what we see in verse 15. But more than that, in verse 16, we see that it’s also able to make us go on in salvation. For we see here, Paul tells us that it’s profitable for four things. It’s profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

I wonder if you notice those four things come to us as a set of two pairs. Two positive things, teaching and training. Two negative things, reproof and correction. However, there’s also another set of pairs that’s easy to miss in English. For two of these terms relate to principles and two of them relate to practice. Two of them relate to what you should believe, and two of them relate to how you should behave. Teaching and reproof both relate to what you should believe. Correction and training relate to how you should behave.

And by this, Paul is showing us that the Bible is able to balance us in every aspect of the Christian life. The Scripture can shape us both in theory and in practice. It’s able to tell you what to believe and what not to believe. That’s teaching and reproof. It’s able to tell you how to behave and how not to behave. That’s training and correction. The Bible is beneficial for both our doctrine and our deeds.

You know, in this country, there’s often a point in a young person’s life where their education goes one way or the other. They either go into vocational training or onto further academic studies. They get a job at 16 or study A-levels. They start an apprenticeship or head off to university. However, here we see that there is no such split in the pages of Scripture. In the Christian life, we all remain part of the same school. We keep taking the same course, and the textbook for this course, this book, the Bible, is able to form us both intellectually and practically. The Bible is able to teach you. There are truths within these pages that would blow even the strongest intellectual mind. And the Bible is also able to train you, to show you how to put your faith into practice.

That’s why it’s, first of all, beneficial because of its ability. But lastly, it’s also beneficial because of its adequacy. See, given the Bible is able to teach and train us, inform our doctrine and impact our deeds, is it any wonder that Paul then concludes in verse 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work?

If in verse 15, Paul tells us that the Bible is able to bring us to initial salvation, and in verse 16, that it’s able to build us up in our present salvation, here in verse 17, he tells us that it’s able to bear us to complete salvation. It’s the tool that God will both use to start and continue and complete the work. Every step you take in this walk of faith, from your first to your last, is set out before you in Scripture. You’ll never need another handbook. You’ll never need another guide. It’s all here in these pages. It’s adequate. It’s able to make you complete. It can equip you for every good work that you will ever do. There’ll never be a situation you come across in life that this book cannot teach you to be faithful in. There will never be a burden that you have to bear that it cannot strengthen you to carry.

This is what theologians, and our doctrinal statement, speak of when it talks about the sufficiency of Scripture. It gives us all we need. It’s sufficient. It’s adequate to bring us to completion.

You know, I’m sure you’ve all been listening to the news over this last week as the world wakes up to the possibility and danger of artificial intelligence. It seems like everyone is asking the same question. What are we going to do with AI? How should we react to this new threat? Will the world ever be the same again? This past week global leaders have been talking about it at the UN summit. The presidents of America and China, the two most powerful countries on earth, have been locked in tense negotiations over the way forward. It seems like we’re in uncharted territory.

Those of you who are older, you may be feeling a bit more relaxed about it. You’re already retired. You’re less concerned about the state of the world in 20 years than you are, frankly, about your health in a few years. However, those of us who are younger, and maybe have younger families, can’t help but have stopped to ask ourselves some hard questions over the last few days. Will I still have a job in five years’ time? What will this world be like for my children? Will I be able to navigate this coming storm?

You know, if that’s you tonight, brother or sister, then I want you to see the comfort and strength that this doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture, that this old doctrine, can bring to that new challenge. For us Christians, we believe God’s word is not only accurate and authoritative and able, but that it’s also adequate. That we can find the answers to all of life’s biggest questions right here in this book.

You know, those great questions that this world has been driven to ask this last week in light of AI, they’ve already been addressed in the pages of Scripture for the last 2,000 years. What is a human being? It’s a man or woman made in the image of God. What are we here for? We’re here to know and to glorify God. How can humanity flourish? We can flourish when we live according to God’s instructions. When will this world end? It will end not when AI takes over, but when our Lord returns to transform this sinful, broken creation into a new one.

Oh yeah, there are other minor questions that will need to be addressed. How will the various nations of the world use AI? Should companies work together to improve safety? What will the impact be on your job, my job? All important questions. And yet the most important questions have already been answered. For Scripture is sufficient. The Bible is adequate to equip us and guide us in the 21st century and the 31st century and the 41st century, for as long as Christ tarries. This book will tell us how to be faithful, how to be fruitful in every season and situation, in every decade and century, in every challenge and opportunity we will ever face, including artificial intelligence. No matter what’s coming down the road, we know that this book is enough for us, for the Bible is adequate.

The Bible is breathed out by God. It speaks to its accuracy and authority. The Bible is beneficial for man. It speaks to its ability and adequacy. Is it any wonder, as Paul turns the page into chapter four, he declares, “Preach this word,” for it is breathed by God and it is beneficial for all of us.