2 Tim

2 Tim. 3:14-17

7/27/2008

“That the Man of God May Be Competent”

Last week, we learned that God gave the church the Holy Spirit. This week we learn that God gave the church His Word.

As some of you know, this letter of Paul’s to Timothy is the very last letter Paul wrote, which is recorded in the Bible. Paul was always ready to suffer and die for the gospel (Phil. 1:20) and this was not the only time he found himself in prison. But when he wroth this letter, he was very aware that his life and ministry were coming to an end: “I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come” (4:6). Though he knew that his life was about to end, a profound sense of peace and calm filled his soul! He was ready to lay down his life. But that peace did not come just from a sense of knowing that he had fought the good fight and finished the race and kept the faith (4:7). It came also from what lay ahead, for which he labored so tirelessly: “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (4:8).

As Paul was wrapping up his life and ministry, as he was finishing up what might be his very last letter, what did he say to Timothy? What would be your last words to your spouse and children, to your friends? Though Paul looked forward to his departure with eager anticipation, he saw difficult days ahead for the church. Many of the Apostles had been martyred. He himself was at the last days of his life. Soon the church would be bereaved of the Apostles’ eye-witness testimony, their extraordinary gifts and leadership as agents of God’s revelation. What would happen to the church once the Apostles were gone? Who would lead and direct the church? And while the Apostles would be gone one by one, there would be no short supply of troubles for the church--brazen immorality, rampant sins, hypocrisy and false teachers, loving of pleasures rather than loving of God, etc. (vv. 1-7).

So what could Timothy and the second generation of church leaders do? What could Paul do to prepare his beloved disciple Timothy for the coming days? Take a look at what filled the last portion of his last letter: the supreme importance of the Word of God to the church and to its ministry.

The reason is clear: the Word of God is “able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (v. 15). Here we see the supreme importance of our salvation in Jesus Christ. This is primarily why God gave us His Word: to give us salvation in Jesus Christ. For, amazingly enough, there is nothing more important to God than our salvation: He knows that our greatest need is our eternal salvation; He also decreed that His glory, which is the most important thing to Him, should be bound up with the salvation of His people. There are millions and millions of books in the world. But the Bible alone is capable of leading us to salvation. Why? Because all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for this purpose (and other related things, as we shall see presently). Scripture alone is breathed out by God for the purpose of our salvation: it is God’s sworn testimony to the truth, reality and power of Jesus’ death and resurrection for our redemption!

This breathed-out-by-God characteristic of the Bible reminds us of God’s creation of Adam. After He formed the man of the dust of the ground, He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and Adam became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). God also breathed His breath of life--His life-giving breath--into all Scripture. As Adam became a living soul by the breath of God, the Bible, as it is breathed out by God, is made a living book, a living document. It impacts everyone who reads it. It is able to make one wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ--this includes not just the people like Timothy, who grew up in a believing family, but also the most hardened criminals and idolatrous pagans and shameless perverts and devious con artists and stuporous drunkards and all kinds of addicts and out-of-control hedonists and all kinds of low-life, scum-of-the-earth sinners as well as the most self-righteous, self-centered, self-involved, self-seeking, arrogant, egotistical braggarts and everybody in between. The history of the church is replete with instances of such radical conversions of most wretched sinners. When the Bible confronted these people, they were broken down and radically converted from horrible sinners to holy saints. The Bible you hold in your hand is capable of doing this!

But what about those who do not seem to be affected and changed by the Bible at all? Yes, even they are impacted by the Bible all right: no one can read the Bible and stay neutral or unaffected. Either he is saved and sanctified by it or he is hardened unto eternal destruction in rebellion against God. The Bible is not just a flyer that you can read and toss it away without any consequences. It is imbued with God’s authority. When one tosses it away and rejects it, he tosses away God and rejects God’s divine authority. The Word of God is indeed a double-edged sword: on the one hand, the surgical knife of a healer and, on the other, the sword of execution. Oh, what a fearful thing it is to have no desire to read the Word! And what a fearful thing it is to read the Word and not be moved and transformed by it? As B.B. Warfield once said, “Are you, by this constant contact with divine things, growing in holiness and becoming every day more and more holy men of God? If not, you are hardening.”

But for those who have the ears to hear, the Bible is immensely profitable to give eternal life in Jesus! But it is also profitable in other related sense: “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 competent, equipped for every good work” (vv. 16-17).

What we have here is more than just a proof text for the plenary inspiration of Scripture. “Plenary inspiration of Scripture”, by the way, means that not just certain ideas or portions but all the parts of the Bible--every word, even to every jot and tittle--are God-breathed, Spirit-inspired. This doctrine is supremely important to us since all that we believe about God and what He requires of us depend on it. But we must see in these words more than just a proof text for a doctrine. We need to see the very heart of God, out of which Scripture comes to us through His divine inspiration. We need to see that all Scripture comes to us from the depth of God’s heart, breathed out deep from His infinite love, wisdom and power, deep from His immutable will and irrevocable decree--all of which reveal God’s glorious and benevolent design for us.

Do you see what God’s design is for us? He called us all to be “the man of God”, a man associated with God in a very special way. But some may question whether we all are called to be “the man of God”. After all, this epistle was written to Timothy, a minister, and most of it was Paul’s instruction concerning his pastoral responsibilities. And the title, “the man of God”, was a very specialized title in the Old Testament. It was exclusively applied to Moses and to other prophets, such as Samuel, Elijah and Elisha, and, in some instances, to angels appearing in human form (Judges 13:6). When we survey the Old Testament, it is clear that the title was not applied to any average Jew, who belonged to Israel; it was applied specifically and exclusively to God’s prophets and messengers. So then, we may easily conclude that Paul is speaking only of pastors here. What is more, the only other instance, in which this title occurs in the New Testament, is 1 Tim. 6:11, in which Paul addresses Timothy as “man of God”.

But can we say that all Scripture is only for the teaching, reproof, correction and training of pastors, only for the equipping of pastors for every good work? We cannot deny that, of course! Pastors, who minister to the people of God, especially in their ministry of the Word and Sacraments, cannot stand outside of the Word. I myself must stand under the authority of Scripture. I myself must be taught, reproved, corrected and trained by the Word before I minister it to you! As one of my old pastors used to say, “Pastors must be Christians first before they minister as pastors.” I must read the Word for myself, study it and meditate on it for myself before I preach it and teach it to you.

But that is exactly the point. Pastors are called to minister to others. Lest they become hypocrites, they must submit to the Word of God and love it and cherish it themselves. But pastors are not called to just remain in their studies and develop their own spirituality for themselves. They are called to shepherd the flock of God. According to Eph. 4:12, they are called “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Do you see here the familiar vocabulary from our passage--“equip” and “work”? Here we learn that all saints are to be equipped for the work of service! In fact, what is an important goal of our salvation? We read in Eph. 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Do you see the similarity of thought between this verse and our passage? We all are created for good works (Eph. 2:10). Scriptures are given so that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:17). So then, “the man of God” in v. 17 of our passage cannot be limited to pastors and teachers: it includes all the saints, who are saved by God’s grace and by God’s grace brought into the church of Jesus Christ to serve one another through good works.

Do you see your exalted status before God in Jesus Christ? This exclusive title in the Old Testament for God’s prophets--“the man of God”--is now applied to you! A similar thing occurs in Peters’ first epistle as well, doesn’t it? There Peter refers to us--us, who were once Gentiles, far removed from the sanctuary of God--as God’s royal priests--not just priests but royal priests!--who minister in God’s heavenly temple! So we see all three covenant offices--prophet, priest and king--applied to all of God’s saints in Jesus’ new covenant--as God’s royal priests and as the man of God! What was lost--Adam’s prophetic, priestly and kingly offices as the image-bearer of God--what had been confined to few, selected officers of the covenant--the prophets, priests and kings of the Old Testament--has been restored in Jesus Christ, the last Adam, the true Prophet, Priest and King! And it is in our union with Him through faith, the image of God is restored to us and is being perfected in us, along with the covenant offices reflecting the image of God. That means, God inspired all Scripture so that, through it, you the man of God may be equipped for every good work! The whole Scripture is for you, oh man of God!

Do you see how lofty and noble God’s design is for you? He calls you to be the man of God, competent, equipped to do every good work! You know what it feels like to be competent at something, don’t you? It could be the work that you have been doing at your job for many years. It could be your hobby, like skiing or surfing. It could be playing a musical instrument. Even if we don’t have a special skill or talent, we know what it’s like to be competent, at least in walking and driving, etc. We all know that with competency come exhilaration, enjoyment and beauty. God wants you to be competent, equipped to do every good work. God prepared good works for you to do, everyday throughout the rest of your life. These are the things that God specifically assigned to you, things that no one else can and should do except you. God does not just want you to do them as drudgeries. God does not want you to do them and always get frustrated because you are incompetent, unequipped. God wants you to do them with competency. That means, God wants you to enjoy them. God wants you feel exhilarated when you do them. And God wants others to see through your work the beauty of work well done and thoroughly enjoyed while being done! And that is why God wants you to be competent. That is why God breathed into all Scripture and gave it to us!

I hope you also see how intimately God is involved in your life to accomplish this wonderful plan of His toward us. Through Scripture God is teaching you, reproving you, correcting you and training you in righteousness so that you may be competent, equipped to do every good work as the man of God. God is standing next to you whenever you read the Bible, turning each page, teaching, reproving, correcting and training you, as it were. We are all at different stages in our Christian journey, at different levels of competency in our discipleship. But we are all in need of spiritual training, however mature we may be! We all need teaching because we are ignorant. We still don’t know so much about what is in the Word of God. And even if we know a lot about the Bible, the Bible is not only to be understood but also believed and applied. Oh, how we need to be taught and taught truly and savingly! But we also need reproof and correction because we err and we go astray, often intentionally. We need training in righteousness as well! We need training because we are lazy, complacent, indifferent and undisciplined in our discipleship. We need training in righteousness because we are so prone to unrighteous, shady and downright sinful, short-cut solutions to our problems. Scripture demands humility from all who would read them.

How does Scripture teach, reprove, correct and train us in righteousness? It does so in so many ways, of course. Let us survey some of its ways by walking through the major divisions of the Bible. As we do this, I want you to see how God is coming from so many angles to get to you, to the very core of your heart and being.

In Scripture God gave us the Law. It is obvious how God teaches us and reproves us and corrects and trains us in righteousness through the Law. It teaches us about the glory and honor of God, who gave it; it teaches us what He requires of us. As it teaches our duties, it exposes our faults (reproving) and what needs to be corrected. And through its clear instruction and sanctions (blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience) it aims to train us in righteousness.

God not only gave us the Law but God also gave us history. Through it, God teaches us about His great and mighty deeds of God in history. God also gives us tangible examples of how people responded to God’s law--how so miserably people fail to observe God’s law on their own. But God also shows how He is able to save and transform us by His grace. God teaches, reproves, corrects and trains us in righteousness through these historical examples and stories.

God also gave us the Prophetic writings. The primary function of the biblical prophets is not to foretell but forthtell--not to predict what will happen in the future but to speak forth the word of God, which does include, of course, God’s decree concerning the future. But concerning the role of the prophets, we have these words from God: “From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers” (Jer. 7:25-26). The prophets served as covenant prosecutors, reminding the Israelites of their covenant responsibilities to God, reproving them for their sins, calling them to correct their wicked ways and live in righteousness. This was prompted by God’s grace and kindness: He sent His servants the prophets day after day, rising early in the morning every day to send His messengers! Do you see God’s earnest desire for our repentance, His burning compassion for the wellbeing of our souls? As though that were not enough, God multiplied His grace upon grace by pointing the Israelites to the great day of salvation to come in spite of their rebellion. As you can see, it is also by offering hope that God teaches, reproves, corrects and trains in righteousness.

God also gave us Psalms and Wisdom Books. True religion cannot be just a matter of rules and regulations. Its final product cannot be just dutiful worshippers devoid of any fire within; its final product cannot be just dutiful husbands and wives without love, dutiful parents and children, brothers and sisters, neighbors and coworkers devoid of any warmth of love and compassion. Its final product must be passionate and authentic worshippers, whose hearts are set aflame by the glory and majesty of God, by His amazing grace and infinite mercy; whose hearts are burning with an undying love for God and an unquenchable thirst for Him. The final product of true religion cannot be anything less than people, who, as their hearts glow with the warmth of the divine love burning within them, are driven to love and share and care for one another far beyond the calls of duty, beyond the demands of the law. The Psalms reminds us that true religion affects the heart and flows out of the heart, the heart as the seat of our affection, attitude, emotion, will, aspiration, hope and desire. The Wisdom books remind us that true religion goes beyond dutiful, external performance of righteousness and simple, black-and-white answers. It extends to cultivating true wisdom in accordance with God’s will--the wisdom that does not seek just the simple, right answers but also the very heart of God, not just to speak the truth but also to speak the truth with grace.

But we praise God that God’s instruction did not end there. For who of us would not feel the weight of such a high calling and not wither away in despair? But God also gave us the Gospels. Through these books, God teaches us how He did for us what we could not do for ourselves--“sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us…” (Rom. 8:3-4). Thus He shows what a wonderful and glorious Savior He is, how He is doubly worthy of our worship and devotion--not only for His majesty and glory as the one and only true God but also as our merciful and gracious Savior! He did not just teach us how to be saved: He saved us! He did not just reprove us and show all the things that are wrong with us: He bore our sin and laid down His life to set us free from its guilt and power. He did not just urge us and threaten us to be righteous but He became our righteousness through His obedient life in our place! Jesus fulfilled the Law in our behalf, laying down His life for our forgiveness, living a life of perfect obedience for our righteousness. Jesus is the true Israel that the nation of Israel failed to be so miserably. Jesus is the true Prophet, who perfected revealed God and His will, who is the fulfillment of all that the prophets of old prophesied about. Jesus is the true worshipper of God as well as the true God, who is to be worshipped and loved with all our being. Jesus is the true Wisdom of God, in whom we have wisdom, glory, salvation and blessed eternal life!

God also gave us Acts and Epistles. There God shows us the significance and ramifications of His redemption. God did not just accomplish our salvation but He also interprets for us what that means for us--how Jesus’ death and resurrection impacts our relationship with the triune God, with one another and with the world; how the death and resurrection of Christ impacts our thoughts, words and deeds, our worldview, our attitudes, our decisions, our goals and ambitions, our affections and emotions, our desires and hopes, etc. Yes, God does not just teach us in these books; God also reproves us and corrects us and trains us in righteousness! But He does all these things not to make us earn our salvation but to make us live as people already saved by God’s grace in Jesus Christ!

God does not end even there. Through the Book of Revelation, God assures us of His final victory, His triumph over sin and Satan and evil and suffering and misery and injustice and rebellion and doubt and skepticism and idolatry and death! This was immutably decreed from the beginning, irrevocably inaugurated and infallibly guaranteed by Jesus’ death and resurrection and expectantly awaiting its full realization in the glorious return of our risen Lord--the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world and the Lion of Judah, all powerful and victorious! He shows to us what glory we are destined and predestined--our eternal life in new heaven and new earth as Christ’s beautiful bride without any blemish or spot. And it is with this hope God enables us to persevere in faith and receive with joy His teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness. Because it is through those things that we are made into the beautiful and glorious bride of Christ.

God gave us, the church, His Word. He gave us His Word so that we may grow wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. When we read the Bible, it is God who turns every page of the Bible to teach us, reprove us, correct us and train us in righteousness. When we read the Bible, through its every page, we are to see Christ, bow before His glory, marvel at His amazing grace and put our trust in Him and love Him with all of our heart. Why? Because Jesus is our salvation! Salvation is not just something Jesus gives. Salvation is Jesus giving Himself! Salvation is knowing Jesus Christ. Salvation is being found in Him, abiding in Him, being in union with Him, who is our salvation and life! I hope you saw Christ through this message.

God gave us His Word also to teach, reprove, correct and train us in righteousness so that we may be competent, equipped for every good work. These two functions are not two separate things. God desires all who are saved to become competent for every good work. We are saved unto usefulness in the kingdom of God, in the church of Jesus Christ. Even more importantly, the two functions are not separate because Jesus is the true Man of God, fully and perfectly competent for every good work. When God teaches us and reproves us and corrects and trains us in righteousness, it is not to make us attain some moral, religious ideal; it is specifically to mold us and conform us into the image of Jesus Christ, the true Man of God! Our competency, therefore, is found in our conformity to Christ! The Word of God equips us for every good work by showing Christ and bringing us into greater union with Christ in every aspect of our life! No one can be a competent man of God without discipline. But that is secondary. You can be a moral man, a religious man, a respectable man by discipline. But you cannot be a man of God without loving Christ--not loving Him as one of the many things you love but loving Christ above all things.

What is your Christian life like? How long have you been Christian? “You ought to be teachers by now,” says the Hebrews writer (Heb. 5:12). Is that true of your life? Do you still feel like a novice, like a little child, trying to learn how to play the piano, after all these years of being a Christian? That is not what God wants for your life! You may say, “But God is sovereign! I am where I am in my spiritual life because God sovereignly willed it.” To blame our spiritual lethargy and sloth on God’s sovereignty is a very wrong, dangerous thinking. It is not the biblical doctrine of God’s sovereignty; it is a detrimental--I dare say, satanic--distortion of the glorious doctrine of God’s sovereignty. Satan has been using that logic for ages to hinder Christian growth. Even when the Word of God speaks to us and convicts us, we put off our response till later. So the next day becomes one month and one year and, after ten, twenty years of being a Christian, we still feel awkward being a Christian--in reading the Bible, in prayer, in leading family worship, in explaining to the younger ones what we believe, in sharing our faith with others, etc. Putting it off till next day became thirty years for some of us.

So, we’ve got to start today to hear the Word of God for ourselves, to read the Word of God for ourselves, to believe what it says and obey what it commands, without excuse, without delay. Don’t let this day go down until you pore yourself over the Word of God. Don’t let this day be the beginning of another twenty years of waste. Here are some quotes:

“Many Christians expect the world to respect a book they neglect”; “The Bible is most helpful when it is open”; “A person who merely samples the Word of God never acquires much of a taste for it”; “You can't understand all you read in the Bible, but you can obey what you do understand”; “Other books were given to us for information, but the Bible was given to us for transformation”; “How can you have faith in the Bible unless you know what is in it?”; “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”

When William Tyndale was in exile and Henry VIII extended clemency to him and urged him to return, Tyndale’s only condition was whether the king would allow the Bible to be translated in England. If the king would, Tyndale would surrender himself immediately and receive whatever punishment the king had for him. Why? Because he believed that people’s lives would no longer be the same once they could read the word of God for themselves! That is how much Tyndale believed in the power of Go’ds living Word! Not too long after that, Tyndale was captured and burned at the stake for trying to put the Bible into your hands, as you do now! Why couldn’t the Bible be translated in a more peaceful, safe time and way? Maybe God is trying to show us how valuable His Word is--how His Word is more precious than our life! The Bible is to be the absolute standard of the church in its faith and life, in our faith and life.

Haven’t you experienced the power of God’s Word? What it the kind of comfort and encouragement you are looking for? The embrace of your spouse? The comforting words of sympathy from your friend? That is important but what about the comfort and encouragement of God’s living Word? In the darkest moments, it pierces through all the darkness to give you a ray of hope--a hope so powerful that its one ray is able to dispel all the darkness around you! Haven’t you experienced the comfort it gives in your moments of discouragement and distress, coming to you in a strain of heavenly song, so melodious, so radiant and so beautiful that it is able to sweeten the bitterness of your sorrows? Do not keep yourself away from this Book! This is your life, your strength, your comfort, your joy, your dignity, your wisdom, your glory. Read it daily and it will carry you through turbulent times of trouble and distress all the way to heaven! May our church be filled with the Holy Spirit, with lovers of God’s Word, whose lives are transformed daily.