Cut It Out

Cut It Out

2 Timothy 3:14-17

But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

The Apostle Paul wrote two letters to Timothy, who Paul called “my true son in faith”. Timothy’s father was Greek while his mother was a Jewish Christian and he was a native of Lystra, which was located in the southern part of Turkey. Paul took Timothy on his missionary travels and Timothy ended up staying in Ephesus while Paul continued his missionary journeys. This letter was written near the end of Paul’s life and was his good-bye letter to Timothy. Paul knew his time on Earth was drawing to a close and he was to be called home soon.

Paul had three reasons for writing this letter; the first he was lonely. He had been put under house arrest by the Roman government and he was waiting for his final verdict. Phygelus, Hermogenes, Demas, and “everyone in the province of Asia had deserted him”. Titus, Crescens, and Tychicus were away and only Luke was with him. In this letter Paul had twice asked Timothy to join him (chapter 4 verses 9 and 21). The second reason was Paul was concerned about the welfare of the churches during the time of persecution under the Emperor Nero. Paul cautioned Timothy to guard the Gospel, to preserve it, to keep preaching on it, and, if necessary, to suffer for it. Lastly, Paul wanted to write to the church of Ephesus through Timothy.

In this last communication to his friend, Paul took the opportunity to remind Timothy about the Holy Scriptures. Paul told his friend that all Holy Scripture is given by the inspiration of God. The term Paul used was one commonly used to refer to the Old Testament, but what Paul was stating was not just the Old Testament was inspired but the current writings were also inspired of God. He was including the Gospels, most likely the historical recordings of Luke, which we know as the book of Acts, and the letters that were being circulated among the early churches at the time. Paul reminded Timothy that God inspired, breathed His Holy Words, into the minds of those He chose. God used their intellect and mental abilities of those people to write down what He needed them to record.

Paul said that all Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Of all the words Paul could have been inspired to use, he wrote “profitable”. Through inspiration, we are told the strength and power of the Holy Scriptures, it is profitable; gainful; beneficial; advantageous. Not only is profitable a dominant word, but the synonyms are just as commanding. It brings to the hearer of the Word the full authority of Holy Scriptures and the full power behind the Words.

We have been told and we know Who wrote the Bible, we all know that God is perfect and therefore so is His Word and His Word is without error. And yet it is God’s Word that looses when another belief, another human principle, is compared against it. Science tells us that evolution is how life came to be on earth and it is the intelligent man’s way of thinking, we need to stop believing in the superstition of creationism. And we Christians will say “Oh ok” and then we take out our scissors and grab the first and second chapters of Genesis and cut it out. We are told there is no possible way for Noah to take all of the animals on board the ark and that notion of a world-wide flood is ludicrous, and Christians take out their scissors and the entire story of Noah is cut out. In fact, we should cut out all chapters in Genesis up to 11 because all of them are incompatible with evolution. We will be told that holding to the belief that females cannot be pastors is backward, archaic, thinking, and we Christians will dutifully take out our scissors and find all references that might even remotely suggest females cannot be pastors in the Bible and cut them out. But in cutting out all the passages, we also cut out the fact that God is the author and sole authority of the Bible. By cutting out passages we acknowledge man as the supreme authority, the only authority, over the Bible.