2 Timothy 3:10-17: a reflection

10But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness, 11persecutions, and sufferings—those things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured those persecutions. The Lord delivered me out of them all. 12Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. 15From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, 17that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Paul reminds Timothy of what he has had since childhood: the holy Scriptures, which, he says, are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. And then a foundational statement about the Bible: all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Notice the range of what Scripture is profitable for. Not only for teaching, giving us truth to know, but also for reproof, showing us where we are wrong; for correction, setting us right; and for training in righteousness, forming us over time into godliness. God's word is not merely information; it teaches, rebukes, corrects, and trains, doing the full work of shaping a person into who God means them to be. And the aim is a complete, thoroughly equipped life, ready for every good work.

That should shape how we come to Scripture. It is easy to read the Bible only for comfort or information, and to resist its reproof and correction, the places where it shows us we are wrong and sets us right. But Paul says those uses are part of its profit. If you let Scripture only teach and never correct you, you are receiving half its gift. Come to God's word ready to be taught, yes, but also reproved, corrected, and trained, so that it can do its full work of making you complete and equipped for every good work. It is God-breathed; let it do all it is meant to do in you.

Lord, your word is God-breathed and profitable, not only to teach and comfort but to reprove, correct, and train me in righteousness. Keep me from receiving only half its gift, welcoming its comfort but resisting its correction. Help me come to Scripture ready to be taught and set right, so that it can do its full work of making me complete and equipped for every good work.