God-breathed Words
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2 Timothy 3:14-16; 4:2-5
14. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15. and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
4. 2. preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. 3. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, 4. and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. 5. As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.
My NIV translation of verse 16 states all scripture is God-breathed. Paul could have written this letter to me! His reminder to Timothy that all scripture in inspired by God is the only explanation for my ability to get up every weekday morning to post a devotion. There is no other area of my life where I am nearly that disciplined! Truly, the devotions come from the God-breathed words in the bible. And my discipline is through God’s faithfulness and His ardent desire for an intimate relationship with me. He wants me to use the God-breathed abilities I have been given to do His work. And I am unable to refuse him. The few mornings I intentionally did not post a devotion, I felt as if God gave me His ok because of things going on in my life and His working in me through those experiences. He knew - as I have come to learn - that those experiences would be shared later.
Paul isn’t saying that every single word is the absolute, literal truth. Much of the Old Testament -- especially the earlier books -- record the oral traditions that had been passed down for many generations. It does not matter to me if the stories are an actual, factual recounting of real events. What matters is that I find God in them and through reading them and meditating upon them. I see his work revealed and displayed in the words recorded. I feel his presence and his tender love--even his patient gentle rebukes--as I delve in to the words of and about so many wise, brave, good, though flawed human beings. And I find tremendous comfort as I see those same flaws in myself -- and as I grow to see my own wisdom, by own bravery, and to embrace my own inherent goodness.
The temptations of this world are too strong for man. It’s so hard to be the person we want to be and to live the life we want to live. My fear is not of a terrorist attack -- that’s not what keeps me awake at night! It is that Christ will come again on a day when I am not living the kind of life He told me to live. I hope and pray that it does not happen on a day when I have yelled at my kids and snapped at my husband, and decided that one of the latest reported mass murderers is beyond God’s grace, and I actually say out loud that the world is beyond saving and mankind is beyond hope. That scares me more than suicide bombers and hurricanes and wars. And Paul understood that Timothy was just like all of us -- he needed encouragement. He needed to be reminded what he was about.
“5. As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.” Paul rejoiced in his suffering, because he fully trusted what was to come. He longed to be with his beloved Savior, and for that he was willing to endure anything this world could throw at him. In light of what Paul and countless others endured to advance the gospel of Christ and spread the God-breathed words of life to all mankind, I think I can get up early and post a devotion!
I hope today you consciously decide not to succumb to the lies and deceits of this world. And that you find your truth in the God-breathed words recorded for you long ago in the bible.
Mary
