David Bahn – Reflections

2 Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (NIV)

The Holy Bible is without-a-doubt-true, reliable, and profitable for faith and life.

“God-breathed,” θεόπνευστος (theopneustos), is a unique term. It’s found only once in the New Testament, and is an echo of the words of Genesis 2:7 and Psalm 33:6. It expresses something of God’s activity in creating Scripture and enlivening it with His Spirit. Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit would call to their minds all that Jesus said and did (John 14:25-26). Paul says his teaching is not just words taught by “human wisdom but taught by the Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 2:13) As a pastor I have pledged to be faithful to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as “the only rule and norm by which all teachings and teachers are to be judged.” (Formula of Concord) These foundational truths are vitally important to a true biblical faith. The trustworthiness of the Bible is founded on God’s act of breathing out His word and truth to men who spoke from and for God.

Because the Bible comes from God it is profitable or useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking (!), and training in righteousness. We do well when we look to Scripture not just to validate our already-held beliefs, or prove a worn personal favorite truth. We do well to let God’s word speak to us also in those places where we need correction or even reproof.

The goodness, faithfulness, love and grace of God moves our hearts to do this willingly. It’s not just a matter of the Bible being true (a phone book may be true!) that moves our hearts to rely on these things. Our hearts are moved when we recognize that breathed out these words loves us. He breathes out the Holy Spirit to point us to Jesus, His Son who was sent by the Father to die for our sins.

When we begin to put these truths together: that God is gracious and loving, that he breathed out the words of Scripture, that these truths are profitable for our spiritual growth, we discover another important thing about the “God-breathed” nature of Scripture. It is alive. This is not some dusty and dead theological treatise. This is the living word of God. And when we remember that “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14) in Jesus Christ we begin to catch a glimpse of the profound depths of living water that flows in these verses. For these words bring life, the Good News of our salvation and promises worth living for and dying for, and holding on to till our last breath.

These verses were important to Nici; she stressed them over and over again to her students. They are important to me; I preach and teach the truths of the Bible. Are they important to you?