2 TIMOTHY 3:14-17
“Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make
my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them” (Jer.5:14).
“Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh rock in pieces?”
(Jer.23:29).

3. It is profitable for correction. God wants man to be set aright when he is wrong. The Bible teaches obedience by
teaching a person to discipline himself, even to the point of suffering (Heb.5:8).

“Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (Jn.15:3).
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (Jn.17:17).
“That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” (Eph.5:26).
“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love
of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently” (1 Pt.1:22).
“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy
word” (Ps.119:9).

4. It is profitable for instruction in righteousness. God wants man to know the right things to do, to think and to say.
The Bible reveals how to live “soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Tit.2:12-13).

“Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not
about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. Study to show thyself approved unto
God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim.2:14-15).
“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye
have tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Pt.2:2-3).
“And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do” (Dt.1:18).
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Ps.119:11).

5
(3:17) Scripture: Scripture perfects a man and equips him for every good work. By “perfect” (artios) is meant complete,
matured, filled. No person is complete or mature apart from Scripture. Man was made for God and he is to live by the
Word of God. If he tries to live without God and His Word, man fails in life. He lives an incomplete, immature, and misfitted
life. This is particularly true of the man of God, the person who claims to be a minister or teacher of God’s Word.

Thought 1. Scripture alone, the very Word of God itself, can make a person complete and equip him for every good
work.William Barclay’s comments on this point pierce the heart and need to be heeded by everyone of us:

“The study of the Scriptures trains a man in righteousness until he is equipped for every good
work. Here is the essential conclusion. The study of the Scriptures must never be selfish; it must nev-
er be simply for the good of a man’s own soul. Any change, any conversion which makes a man think
of nothing but of the fact that he has been saved is no true change and no true conversion. He must
study the Scriptures to make himself useful to God and useful to his fellow men. He must study, not
simply and solely to save his own soul, but that he may make himself such that God will use him to
help to save the souls and comfort the lives of others. No man is saved unless he is on fire to save his
fellow men” (The Letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, p.232).

What a convicting statement: “He must study...that God will use him to help to save the souls and comfort the
lives of others. No man is saved unless he is on fire to save his fellow men.” What an indictment that every man of
God must heed. We must study more and more—we must allow the Scripture to stir us more and more so that we
will reach out to save souls and to minister more and more.

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have com-
manded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Mt.28:19-20).
“Seach the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which
testify of me” (Jn.5:39).
“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with
all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of
men, not a few” (Acts 17:11-12).
“We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please our-
selves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ
pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on
me. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we
through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Ro.15:1-4).
“And it [God’s Word] shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life:
that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these sta-
tues, to do them” (Dt.17:19).
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