Title: What Is It Good For?
Text: II Timothy 3:14-17
Thesis: All Scripture is God-given and useful!
Introduction
In 1969 I was a divinity student preparing for the ministry and had a very high draft lottery number so, despite having taken my physical; I was ultimately exempted from the draft to serve in Vietnam. However I was not immune to the pain and suffering of my contemporaries who did serve and have never quite gotten over the guilt of having not served in Viet Nam.
1969 was also the year Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong wrote a song for the Motown Label titled “War.” War was a blatant anti-Vietnam war protest song that was originally to be sung by The Temptations but fearing a backlash from their conservative fans, Motown decided to spare The Temptations and went with soul singer Edwin Starr.
The classic chorus, “War, what is it good for?” was a huge hit and became one of the most popular war protest songs ever recorded. However, following 9/11 it was placed on the list of “inappropriate titles” to be broadcast. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_(Edwin_Starr_song)
If we were to take the same question and frame it around the subject of Scripture asking, “Scripture! What is it good for?” how would we respond?
I. Scripture Brings Us to Salvation.
From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. II Timothy 3:15
A. The influence of Scripture (over time, i.e., from infancy…)
Note Timothy’s spiritual instruction began at infancy and continued throughout his childhood and adolescence. As a young man he continued to learn and grow into Christian manhood.
Apparently Timothy was the son of a single mom. In verse 14 Paul urges Timothy to continue in what he had learned and had become convinced of, because he knew from whom he had learned it. In 2 Timothy 1:5 Paul wrote of the sincerity of Timothy’s young faith as he observed it first of all being lived out in the life of his grandmother, Lois, and then his mother, Eunice. That flame of faith that burned in the lives of his grandmother and his mother now burns in his own life. And Paul wants Timothy to fan that flame into a roaring fire of spiritual life and vitality.
In the earliest of biblical writings the Israelite people were instructed to love the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their mind and with all their strength… and they were to then impress them on their children. They were to make sure that their lives and their faith made an impression on their children. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) It was the custom in Jewish homes to begin to instill the knowledge of the law into the hearts and minds of children at an early age and that same spiritual nurture and care of children carries over into the spiritual life of the Christian home as well.
The nurture of the spiritual life in a children begins at infancy and continues throughout their lives. And it begins with moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas and loving aunts and uncles and with the support of the faith community and opportunities for learning in the life and ministry of the church.
And the outcome of that kind of impression and influence in the life of a child is salvation.
B. The effect of Scripture (wise for salvation…)
The goal is not simply to instill a bunch of spiritual information and spiritual values into a child’s life but the goal is that the child will one day chose to become a follower of Christ.
At 8:05 a.m., Saturday, October 9 a powerful drill fitted with air-hammers pulverized the last few feet of volcanic rock and broke into the chamber where the trapped Chilean miners had waited over two months to be rescued.
For two months professional drill teams had drilled and hammered and clawed their way making a 26 inch in diameter hole that extended 2,050 feet into solid rock to rescue the trapped miners.
The shaft was 26 inches and 2,050 feet long or deep. For days the drill teams drilled away… inch by inch down into the earth foot by foot until they had a shaft from which to raise the trapped miners in the Phoenix rescue capsule.
I like to think of that digging away in terms of the cumulative effect… inch by inch and foot by foot ultimately resulted in the liberation of the trapped miners. And it is the cumulative effect of minute by minute, hour by hour, day my day, month by month, year by year of the influence of Scripture as lived out and taught by loving parents and their support team that results in the child coming to faith.
Scripture as taught by parents and their spiritual support team results in the child coming to faith. And it is Scripture that prepares us for serving God and others.
II. Scripture Prepares Us for Serving God and Others.
All Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. II Timothy 3:16-17
A. All Scripture is Inspired by God or God-Breathed
This speaks to the origin and authority of Scripture.
The bible teaches that “No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
People wrote the bible but their inspiration was not human imagination. Authors like J.K. Rowling dig deep into the recesses of their fertile imaginations to create books like the Harry Potter series. But biblical writers wrote as they were carried along or inspired by God’s Spirit. Our text says that, “All Scripture is inspired by God or God-breathed.”
The bibles we hold in our hands may have been written by forty different writers but each was writing under the inspiration of God so it is essentially the work of one author and what we hold is the Word God wants us to have. It is the Word of God that makes us wise unto salvation (or prepares us for salvation) and it is the Word that is useful in enabling us to become people who serve God and others.
B. All Scripture is Useful (or Profitable or Helpful)
This speaks to the Scriptures proper use or function…
1. Teaching or to help us learn and know what is true about God.
The Scriptures are how God lets us know things about himself and God’s activities. The Scriptures are where we learn the essential about God’s involvement in human history and in the lives of people. It is Scripture that gives us a God-perspective of history. It is Scripture that gives us insight into God’s mercy and grace and the coming of the Christ. It is Scripture that gives us a window into the life and activities of Christ. It is Scripture that unfolds the way God’s Spirit works to transform us and conform us to the image of Christ. It is Scripture that gives us a window into our Christian hope and eternal life.
William Barclay says, “The fact remains that the only place in all the world where we can get a first-hand account of that person and his teachings is in the New Testament. That is the reason why the Church which has no Bible is a Church in whose work an essential and irreplaceable element is missing.” (Wm. Barclay, The Letters to Timothy, Titus and Philemon, p. 230)
2. Reproof.
The bible is not about nit-picking and finding fault. Reproof is more about convincing a person of the error of his ways and pointing him in the right direction. The benefit of reproof is that it convinces us that we are sinful and in need of grace and forgiveness.
It is about making us aware that who we are and what we are doing or not doing is contrary to the will and way of God. The impatient person learns that impatience is not the way of a loving person. The bitter person learns that the loving person keeps no record of wrongs. The person bent on vengeance learns that turning the other cheek is the Christ-like way. The person caught in a web of unwholesome thinking is reminded that it is a worthy effort to train one’s mind to think on things that are true and noble and right. The parents who have given little thought to the spiritual nurture of their children begin to value and see that their kiddos receive spiritual instruction.
3. Correction.
Correction has to do with testing or measuring. We bring our thoughts and our theories and our lifestyles to the bible and we measure them against what God teaches.
The person who thinks abortion is not a moral issue in which God has weighed in reads Psalm 139 and realizes that the unborn are precious in the eyes of a loving God who is intimately involved in the making of the baby.
The man or woman who flirts with the affections of a person other than the one to whom he or she is committed learns that adultery happens in the heart before in happens in the bedroom and sees that those kinds of thoughts do not receive God’s blessing… no matter how right and wonderful it might feel!
The son or daughter who dishonors or neglects his or her parents can hold their actions and attitudes up to the standards of Scripture and see that they do not measure up. And it is in discovering where we do not measure up that we find how it is that we may.
4. Training in Righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
All this nurture in the Word of God from our infancy is not only toward the end that we all be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ… it is also to equip us or ready us or prepare us to serve God and others. The Christian who thinks it is all about himself or herself has missed the point of the whole process. We ultimately are here to do some good for God and others.
Archie Lindberg was a member of the church we served in Red Oak, Iowa. Archie enjoyed woodworking and had quite an elaborate shop attached to his farm home there in the country, south of Emerson. He made many beautiful pieces but he also enjoyed making things that amused. He made all kinds of gadgets and gizmos. One of the things he made was a thing he called “A Do Nothing.”
It was a block of wood with perpendicular grooves with little slides in each groove that slid back and forth when you turned the little crank…
If you were to ask, “What is it good for?” The answer would be, “Absolutely nothing… it does nothing.” It is a “do nothing.”
That is not the case with Scripture. This is what Scripture does:
1. It is useful for teaching
2. It is useful for reproof
3. It is useful for correction
4. It is useful for training in righteousness
Conclusion
Bonnie and I keep our suitcases on a shelf in the basement. Whenever we are preparing to go on a trip we retrieve the suitcases, tote them up to the bedroom where we will do our packing. Once the bags are in place we begin to ponder the question of “what to bring?”
From the closets we select what we think we might need to wear. From the bathroom we gather up all of the essentials for personal care. And then there is always some hanging stuff.
We tend to over-pack because “you never know.” Before our recent trip to St. Paul to see the new grandson and family, I checked my Weather Bug App on my Droid and learned that the weather was going to be in the 40s overnight and mid to high 60s during the day… So we knew we didn’t need to pack umbrellas and overcoats and boots… (But we take them just in case.)
When our text says that the Word of God thoroughly equips us for every good work it means that when we are instructed in the Word of God, we are thoroughly prepared for anything we encounter in our journey through life. Just as everything we needed for our trip to Minnesota was “in the bag,” everything we need for our journey through life is “in the book.”
The Word of God teaches us things about ourselves and our God and how to navigate our way through life that we could never discover in any other way
All Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. II Timothy 3:16-17
