Learn the Value and Power of the Bible—Part 2
This is Part 2 of a 3-part series. You may read Part 1 here.
The Nature of Scripture’s Power (v. 16b)
It is often said that Scripture is sufficient. That means it is powerful, but it is more than merely strong. It is supremely powerful. By “supreme” I don’t mean it’s like a pizza that has about a dozen toppings on it, as in, “It’s a pizza that is bigger and has more toppings than any other pizza—guaranteed to provide two days of heartburn.” When I say Scripture is supremely powerful, I mean it is infinitely powerful; it has a power that is without limit or end. There is no power beyond its power. There is no power that supersedes the power of Scripture. It really is limit-less—without limits and has influence and ability in every circumstance and situation of life.
What kinds of things does Scripture do and in what circumstances will it demonstrate its limitless power? Paul tells us in verse 16.
It will teach you (because you are ignorant)
Paul says that all Scripture is profitable for teaching. The word “profitable” speaks to its value—it “[proves] serviceable to the moral and spiritual needs of man.”¹ The entire volume of the Bible—every word and phrase—has profit to the one who will read it with care. There is nothing unprofitable in the Book. Some parts are, to be sure, harder to understand (even Peter acknowledged this, 2 Peter 3:16), and some parts are harder to apply (like the genealogies²), but there is profit and value in every word. This value is extended in four areas: teaching, conviction, restoration, and training. How does Scripture teach?
Part of the effect of the fall of Adam into sin was a corruption of the mind. Theologians call it the noetic effect of sin, which most simply means that because of sin, the mind does not think the way that God designed it to think. John Frame describes it this way:
Although we generally consider Satan to be knowledgeable and intelligent, and although many opponents of God seem wise to the world and to themselves, they are guilty of the worst imaginable stupidity. They haven’t a ghost of a chance to defeat God. Yet sinners embrace sin with reckless enthusiasm. This is the root of its noetic effects.³
The failure of the mind to work is particularly true of the unbeliever, as Paul demonstrates in Ephesians 4:17–19. Because of the fall into sin, the unbeliever’s thinking is futile (v. 17), his understanding is darkened (v. 18), he is ignorant (v. 18), his heart is hardened (v. 18), and he is callous (v. 19). But even at salvation, the noetic effect of sin is not completely reversed in the believer. Frame explains:
Regeneration does not, however, immediately convey to the believer a sense of cognitive rest about all matters pertaining to the faith. Our basic presuppositional commitment to Christ begins at regeneration, but other commitments develop more gradually—or at least it takes a while for us to become conscious of them. Thus, there is not only noetic regeneration; there is also noetic sanctification. There is a radical change at the beginning, gradual change after that.⁴
The New Testament writers emphasize this gradual change in our thinking when 16 times they ask the question, “Do you not know?” Invariably, that question is not being asked of unbelievers, but believers, as the New Testament books were written to churches filled with believers. The implication is that there is something the readers don’t know or understand that they should know. But their minds are still under the influence of sin’s noetic effect.
The unbeliever and the believer both need a teacher, and the Scriptures are that teacher. The truth of Scripture gives knowledge to those who are blind (unbelievers) and growing understanding to those who are His (believers). The Scriptures are profitable to us in that they increasingly inform and teach and guide us to the truth of God when we don’t know what to do or when we have been taught and believe incorrectly. It has been noted that God’s truth contained in God’s Word are the first and last pieces of the believer’s armor—we are to stand, having put on the belt of truth (Ephesians 6:14) and taken up the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17). From the beginning to end of our spiritual lives, the Word of God is what teaches us. John MacArthur said that “When it comes to godly living and godly service, to growing in ‘the discipline and instruction of the Lord’ (Ephesians 6:4), God-breathed Scripture provides for us the comprehensive and complete body of divine truth necessary to live as our heavenly Father desires for us to live.”⁵ We need Scripture to teach us because we are ignorant, and Scripture teaches us exactly what we need to know to live adequately and be equipped to do good for the glory of God (v. 17). This is part of the power of God’s authoritative Word.
It will convict you (because you are rebellious)
Scripture also is profitable to give reproof. This word can refer to a refutation of doctrinal error.⁶ But most often it
means “to show someone his sin and to summon him to repentance.” This may be a private matter between two people, as in Matthew 18:15 and Ephesians 5:11. But it may also be a congregational affair under the leader, as in the Pastorals: 1 Timothy 5:20; 2 Timothy 4:2; Titus 1:9, 13; 2:15.…The word does not mean only “to blame” or “to reprove,” not “to convince” in the sense of proof, not “to reveal” or “expose,” but “to set right,” namely, “to point away from sin to repentance.” It implies educative discipline.⁷
This is Scripture’s further power: it exposes us where we are in sinful error. Notice also the connection to the previous word, teach. As it teaches, Scripture informs the mind and conscience about what is right and true. As the mind is informed, it is also then brought under conviction (reproof) for areas of both ignorant disobedience and willful rebellion. Scripture is powerful to expose every aspect of error, falsehood, and sin in the believer’s life.
The natural (fleshly) and ungodly inclination is to be rebellious and to resist this reproof. What Moses said of Israel could be said of every person: “You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you” (Deuteronomy 9:24). But when we are willing to be taught by Scripture, the error of our ways will be revealed and exposed, enabling us to be repentant. The rebuke and conviction that come from Scripture are powerful tools and blessing in the life of the believer, painful as they may be at the moment, for the Word of God is a sword that cuts into our lives, separating the spiritual from the fleshly (2 Timothy 4:2; Hebrews 4:12) with the intention of producing confession.
Part of the blessing that comes from the rebuke of Scripture is that it doesn’t leave us in a state of being rebuked. It also corrects and restores us.
It will restore you (because you are incapable)
Not only is Scripture powerful to expose our sinful error, but it is also powerful to change us and transform us from that error. That is what is meant by the word correct. The word comes from a word that means to straighten. It refers to putting people “upright on their feet.”⁸ In the vernacular, we’d say, “it straightens us out.” The idea is that even when we experience the convicting rebuke of Scripture, we are incapable of doing anything about that rebuke. We can’t fix ourselves any more than a patient with cancer can perform surgery on himself. We need something and someone outside of us to change us. Scripture is that tool, used by the Holy Spirit, to change us.
This is a further powerful grace of the Bible; the intent of God and His Word is not to expose our sin and leave us in awareness of our misery, but to transform our lives and to restore us to His intended purposes for our lives—to live for His glory. This word correct, then, must be combined with the previous word reproof. Correction cannot happen without reproof. It takes the rebuke of Scripture to produce a yearning and willingness for correction. And rebuke without correction is hopeless as it leaves one in his sin without possibility of change. That means that there must always be the pain of rebuke in the believer before there can be the joy of restoration. But it also means that with the Word of God there is always hope for transformation. The believer with the Bible is not consigned to a vain despair of endlessly repeating his sin without possibility of pleasing God. Because he has Scripture, he has the hope that he and his exposed sin will be restored to God and used by God for God’s glory.
That hope leads to Paul’s final explanation of the Word’s power—it trains us.
It will train you (because you need oversight)
The word Paul uses for training is a pedagogical term. While including discipline, training is discipline that instructs. It is “the act of providing guidance for responsible living, upbringing, training, instruction.”⁹ It is further, a particular kind of instruction—it is instruction in righteousness. Scripture is not a book to educate our scientific minds, or give us strategies for our sporting endeavors, or to provide specific regulations for our diets. The Bible is the tool to inform us about righteous and holy living. The Word of God, like nothing else, will train you to be righteous—to think and live in the right way before God and for the right reasons. Scripture is the teacher that gives oversight and direction to train us to do what we cannot naturally do on our own—to live in holiness with God.
Having been justified by faith, Scripture provides direction for how the believer must and can live life in this wayward world. Some have suggested that the Bible is powerful to save and produce justification—to give us “the wisdom that leads to salvation” (v. 14), but that it is inadequate for the complex problems experienced by many of our counselees and disciples. Yet the context of the passage resists and refutes such an argument. The assertion of Scripture’s sufficiency made in verses 16–17 follow the acknowledgement of “difficult times” (v. 1)—times that include manifestations of rebellious sin like selfishness, greedy love of money, disobedience to parents, irreconciled and broken relationships, hostile gossip, lack of self-restraint, haters of anything good, and lovers of pleasure instead of lovers of God (vv. 2–4). The Word of God is sufficient to transform all those things and more.
The Word of God is sufficient to provide wisdom for conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and perseverance (v. 10). The Word of God can empower and enable one to stand faithfully under the onslaught of unjust persecution and suffering (vv. 11–12). It is for days and troubles like those that Paul exhorts his disciple Timothy, “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of.” Note also that Paul’s imperative continue is a present tense verb that means he is to live habitually and continually in the Word of God so that he can thrive in these circumstances. He further reminds Timothy that the Word of God was adequate for him in his childhood (v. 15) and implies by that statement that it is still adequate for him in his adulthood, which is why Paul says what he does about Scripture in verse 16. Further, as will be noted below, the intent of Scripture is not only to make one a believer in Christ, but also to make one able to live like Christ (v. 17). Scripture is adequate to prepare the believer for every good work to which he has been called in his salvation (v. 17; cf. Ephesians 2:10). The Word of God is the powerful tool for bringing one to salvation, but also the powerful tool for keeping one in salvation and working out his salvation in the complexities of life.
This verse asserts the power of Scripture by demonstrating that it (alone) is “profitable for doctrine (what is right), for reproof (what is not right), for correction (how to get right), and for instruction in righteousness (how to stay right).”¹⁰ The Scripture is powerful to do all this. Why does God give Scripture to us to do these things? That question is answered in verse 17.
Part 3 coming soon.
¹ D. Edmond Hiebert, Second Timothy, 101.
² Even the genealogies are of value though. They remind us that while we don’t know all the names of all the people on earth, God does. They remind us that God knows all the stories of all people everywhere and that all people will be justly accountable to Him. They remind us that while others may forget faithful good works done through the power of the Spirit, the Lord will not forget and the Lord will justly recompense both the unrighteous and the righteous. Finally, as we read the genealogies carefully, we also find tidbits of grace, as in Matthew 1:1–18, where four “unvirtuous” women are used in the Messianic line, God redeemed sin and sinners and uses them for His glory, including people like Judah and David in Messiah’s history, and bringing in the outcast and Gentiles, like Rahab and Ruth, as a manifestation of the blessing of the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12:3).
³ John M. Frame. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Kindle Locations 22223-22226), P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
⁴ Frame. Systematic Theology (Kindle Locations 19646-19649). My emphasis.
⁵ John MacArthur, 2 Timothy, 154.
⁶ LEGNT, 506.
⁷ TDNT, II: 474.
⁸ LEGNT, 506.
⁹ BDAG, 748.
¹⁰ Wiersbe, Be Faithful, 161.
