RD 101 Lesson 2
/By Jack Eberle
In our first lesson we looked at the necessity of “straight cutting” or right division from II Timothy 2:15. Another equally important passage to instill in our hearts is II Timothy 3:16-17. “Every Scripture (or writing) breathed-God:” When you read verse 15 you readily understand that God has not spoken of pagan writings here. Their writings were not the subject in II Timothy.
What a lesson! Every Scripture is breathed God said. Every Word was His breath. Paul didn’t write to Timothy. God breathed His very breath into the pen of the writer. The name of those writers is very secondary to the virtuality of the True Writer-God.
God further says His Word is profitable for four needs of His student. Make no mistake about it. If you would wish to be “man of God” you WILL be a student of His Word. Look at the four! (1) “profitable toward teaching” Try being a “man of God” without teaching. Your life may teach, but I don’t know a “speechless” man of God. Your “teaching” is a part of your life. Moses was both too voluble and too taciturn at various stages of his life. The “man of God” will be “apt to teach”. As the Word is in him, it will go out to others. (2) “Toward conviction” The Word of God teaches. The Word of God convicts. Conviction is placing the Truth in capital letters with exclamation marks behind it. It is written on the table of the heart. Conviction flows from person to person. As the cells of the body physiologically communicate, so the body believers communicate conviction one to another - from the Head down. (3) “toward correction.” The body corrects itself. The Word of God is the balm of correction. The person of the body will need correction since we still abide in this earthly sphere. A doctor once told me that cells tend to heal (correct) each other. The serious believer will bend to and accept the correction of the Word. Carnal man does not receive correction easily. The body member receives his ultimate correction from His precious Words, for “his yoke is easy”. (4) “toward discipline in the righteousness”
We must all accept the discipline of the Word to grow in “righteousness”. How tragic it is to see the Christian who has stopped growing. Here the analogy of the earthly, physical body to His body breaks down. While our earthly, fleshly bodies are dying, His body is growing and being nourished by the Head. (Eph.4:15) The Word enlightens us of this growth, thereby bringing each of us closer to the fullness. (Eph. 1:23) II Timothy reads, “thatcomplete may be the God man toward every good work fully fitted.”
How blessed it is to know that we are resurrected to be seated in Christ at the right hand of the Father. (Eph. 2:6-7) Yet we work out our salvations with “fear and trembling”. Still, we have the knowledge that we are “fully fitted to every good work.” (Ph’p 2:12, Titus 3:8).
