Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness 17 that the man of God may be equipped for every good work.
In order to properly understand the things that I will be addressing in later posts it is vital that you have a proper understanding of exactly what the Bible is and why it is important. This will be a broad generalization when considering the purpose of the Bible and if anyone would like to know more about a certain aspect then feel free to send me a message or leave a comment and I will do what I can to address your question. For example I am not going to break down the sections of the Bible and explain their purposes in this post; that is another post for another time.
The above verses from 1 Timothy 3 are excellent in explicitly stating the broad purposes of the Bible. The first and most important thing to look at is the first few words, "All scripture is breathed out by God." This states pretty clearly that all of the Scripture, which is the Bible, comes directly from God. Was God the one that penned it out? No. But He did dictate it to the men who did, and they wrote exactly what He told them. Some people may try to point out that because the Bible was penned by man that it is inherently faulty because man is faulty. That type of thinking is faulty on two counts. The first count is that these were men of God. They knew exactly who God is. They knew that He is both all-knowing and all-powerful. So you are going to try to sell me the fact that they were going to try to change God's word to suit their own purposes all the while knowing that one day they were going to have to give an account of their actions to God? Not gonna happen. The second point goes back to the fact that God is all-knowing. Do you really believe that God would make the mistake of choosing someone to pen out His will knowing that the man He chose would change it, therefore condemning future generations? That is also not happening.
Verse 16 of 1 Timothy 3 goes on to tell us what it is that scripture is to be used for and that is, "for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." Let's take a brief look at each of these items. What is the Bible teaching? The Bible educates us as to who God is. It shows us that God is specifically our Sovereign King, our Just Judge, our Loving Father, our Merciful Savior, and our Closest Friend. These are several aspects of God that I will go into detail about at a later date but if you want to explore them yourself all you have to do is simply open up your Bible and start reading.
Lets move on to reproof. Dictionary.com states that reproof means, "the act of reproving, censuring, or rebuking." The key word in that definition is rebuking. The Bible is the means by which we can learn the difference between what is right and what is wrong (Exodus 20). The Bible also tells us exactly what will happen to us if we do not change our sinful ways (Romans 6:23). This goes hand in hand with correction. The Bible does not only expose us to what it is we shouldn't do but it also spends a great deal of time explaining the things that we should be doing along with the proper ways of doing them.
Now for the interesting one, "training in righteousness." This is a combination of the first three things we talked about. If we allow the Bible to teach us and discipline us then we are training to be righteous. But here is the kicker. We can't be righteous on our own merits no matter how much we try. Romans 4 deals with this issue stating that if you put your whole faith in God, who sent His Son to die for our sins and raised him on the third day then it will be credited to you as righteousness. Of course there is more to it than that but that is just an overview. The point is the Bible trains us to be more righteous by helping us realize that the only way for that to be possible is by faith in the sacrifice of Jesus, the Son of God.
While verse 16 explains to us what the Bible is for, verse 17 explains to us why it is important. Scripture should be the primary tool used when spreading the Gospel. It contains everything we need to complete our mission. That is why it is imperative that we as Christians must actively study it and learn from it. The Bible is the Word of God. Why should we try to use our own words when advancing or defending our faith when God gave us His own words? When we are trying to spread the Gospel we will be met with resistance because as stated in Ephesians 6:12, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritually forces of evil in the heavenly places." A few verses later in Ephesians 6:17 after explaining the other parts that make up the Armor of God it explains to us what the Word of God is, " and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." The Bible is our primary weapon against the darkness because it is through the message that is contained in the Bible that will bring the lost into the light. But as Christians we must be very cautious because the devil will try to use the Bible against us just as he tried to use the scriptures against Jesus in the desert during Jesus's period of temptation. (Matthew 4:1-11) How did Jesus defeat the devil? He used scripture. People will pick out points in scripture to try to use against us but as long as we study and maintain a growing knowledge of what the Bible says we can use the Bible to defeat their attacks.
There is still so much that can be said about the Bible, but hopefully you now have a grasp of its importance. The Bible is the primary tool God gave us to help with our spiritual growth so that we might better use His word to spread the Gospel. Like anything else the more time you spend with the Bible the better you will know it and understand what it contains. It is of the utmost importance that the Christian donates a healthy amount of time to studying and understanding the Bible, because a working knowledge of the Bible is essential in fulfilling our mission while not falling into the traps that are placed by the enemy.
