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.
Even if we don’t go to that extreme in cutting passages out of the Bible, we certainly take it upon ourselves to cut out certain parts of the Bible. “What, I can’t gamble? But the lotto is over 500 million! I’ll just cut out that small part.” “I’m supposed to treat my neighbor as I want to be treated? But I have some really juicy gossip about them! Well, I’ll just cut out that part and tape it back in later.” We have all read or heard some part in the Bible that gets in the way of what we want to do, and we delete that part so we can break God’s Word without sinning.
It would be nice but it’s not that way things are. When we go against God’s Word, whether we know we are doing it or not, we are sinning. This is one case where ignorance of the Law is no excuse. But even if God did excuse those sins we did not know we committed, the sins we know we committed would be enough to be found guilty in God’s eyes and sentenced to eternal punishment. All sinners, and everyone is a sinner as God told us in Psalms 14:2-3, “The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one”, we all go against the Word of God. It is our sins which sends us to hell.
God did not want to take His scissors and cut us out of His life. Not finding anyone good here on Earth, God decided to send someone who was good. The Second person of the Trinity was sent to Earth to be born man, and was named Jesus. Being True God, Jesus did not turn aside and become corrupt. He lived a perfect life, one completely and totally sinless. And even though His life would not merit any punishment, He took the punishment due all people and accepted the sentence of death and hell in their place. As told by Jesus in John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” Through God great love and mercy we have been given a pardon from our sins. To those who believe and trust in the saving grace of God, the perfect life Jesus lived is given to us. Our perfection is given back to us and God no longer sees the corruption in us.
Yet, with this faith and perfection restored, with a belief in God and His superiority above all things firmly implanted in our minds, there are time we still try to replace God’s authority with our own. We read the Bible and find passages that we believe contradict each other and we pick the one we want to believe then take out those trusty scissors and cut out the other one. This cannot be! If God is indeed perfect, then it follows His Word is also perfect. If God’s Word is perfect then there cannot be any contradictions. There are no contradictions in the Bible. Somewhere in Scriptures is the explanation that resolves the issue; it is in there, I promise you!
Paul told us that Holy Scriptures is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. For doctrine, our set of beliefs, everything that we know about God comes from the Bible. It is clear this is a text book of eternal truths for all times. Therefore, the Bible should be used for reproof, for the showing of errors in thinking and beliefs. To correct and expose transgressions; because there are so many heresies that are continually springing up, because false doctrines keep rearing its ugly head, it is necessary for the Christian, and especially teachers and preachers, to point out these false teachings from the Bible itself. It should be used for setting people right again after they have fallen to bring them back to a normal condition. For instruction in righteousness the Bible should enable a person to lead a life in thorough conformity with the righteousness of life that pleases God. In this respect, the Bible performs the function of a good schoolmaster. One that not only shows the right way, but also trains, encourages, urges the pupils on in their efforts. Day after day a Christian is sitting at the feet of the Holy Spirit, receiving from Him all the instructions which they will need to walk in the path of God.
Through inspiration, Paul told us the importance of Holy Scriptures. Not only is it the writings that God uses to tell the world who He is, it is also profitable for us to show us the errors of our ways, exposing false doctrines, and to instruct us on leading holy lives. Without God being held as the author and sole authority of the Bible, with people having the right to cut out passages they feel are not acceptable, all we have is just a book, a good book for sure, but nothing more than a book. But with the Lord in the Bible, we are blessed with the Word of God! We have His thoughts, His Laws, His plans, His love, His grace, and His mercy. We have the path of salvation laid out for us. There is nothing we need to know that is not between the covers. The Word of God stands strong against all who are in opposition and overcomes every attempt by those who would try to tear it apart. When we are told by the enemies of God that the Bible is wrong when it comes to this belief or that belief, we Christians know exactly what say; “You, your faiths and beliefs, you cut it out.” Amen.
