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3. Bible Reading

2 Tim 3:10-17: Paul’s Charge to Timothy

10 Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11my persecutions, and my suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13But wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived. 14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, 15and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All scripture is inspired by God and is* useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

 

Introductory Notes

1. “Inspired by God”

The phrase “inspired by God” has been translated in many different ways: “inspired by God”; “given by inspiration of God”; “inspired of God”; “God-breathed” – to cite just a few.  Each is subtly different and carries different overtones – usually to do with the theology of the translator.

The Greek word that is being translated does not occur anywhere else in the New Testament, and there are very few other instances of the word – either several centuries earlier in ancient Greek documents, or in entirely different contexts.  Not unreasonably, when we consider the Word of God, we must look closely at the words themselves.  However, this is the only time we will venture into the original Greek for this study.

The Greek word is “Theopneustos”.  The Greeks loved joining words together to make a whole (though not quite as lengthily as modern German).  The one word has two words behind it: Theos (“God”) and “pneuma”.  The latter has several possible translations – “spirit”, “breath”, “life”, or even “inspiration”.  So the word could mean “God-breathed” (which some take to mean “God-dictated”), or “God-enlivened”, or simply “inspired about God” – rather like a work of art or the cosmos itself may inspire us to contemplate the wonders of God.

But by bringing God and “pneuma” together into one word the writer seems to be saying two things:  You cannot look at Scripture and not find God within it - in a way that is not quite true of anything else; and Scripture is a key place, unlike anywhere else, where you will find God in a very unique way.

2. “All Scripture”

The writer of 2 Timothy talks about “Scripture”, but we have to ask ourselves, to what is he referring?  Our modern day Bibles did not come into their present form until the third century – even the Jewish faith had not decided its full (what we call “Old Testament”) Canon much before then.  And there are still books in dispute to this day – the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches include texts in their Canon that the Protestant Churches do not.

In this case, it is likely that the author is referring to the Old Testament more or less as we know it; but there was a tradition at the time that various documents of the “New Testament” were in circulation in their early form as important scriptural documents (some of Paul’s letters, for example – see 2 Peter 3:14-16), and so maybe these were implied also. We simply do not know.  In the event, the Church decided a century or so later that there is a Canon of Scripture which had stood the test of time as being authentically “theopneustos” – inspired by God – even if some books or parts of books continued to be in dispute.  The vast majority are agreed upon.  What we call “The Bible” in the Reformed Churches is, rightly or wrongly, the “minimum” of what is agreed by other Christian denominations.

 

Discussion

a)         A starter for ten: Is there a particular passage from the Bible that is your favourite?

 

b)         “Sacred writings” (2 Timothy 3:15)

The writer of Psalm 119 is filled with enthusiasm for God’s Word – “the Law”.  He is likely referring for the most part to the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah (Genesis to Deuteronomy), for that will have been all the Scripture he knows (the rest was still in the process of development, or had not yet been written).  Those five books do not just have “laws” in them, but include the great drama from Adam to the Exodus of Israel from Egypt.  His long poem bristles with references to “the Law” (our translation – but the word he uses is “Torah” – a much broader term):

·         v1 “Happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.”

·         v34 “Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.”

·         v70 “I delight in your law”

·         v72 “The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.”

·         v97 “Oh how I love your law!  It is my meditation all day long.”

·         v163 “I love your law.”

·         v165 “Great peace have those who love your law”

Are these just the words of a religious fanatic, or do we share his view that “Scripture” is a life-giving delight?

Can you think of ways in which the Bible has changed or formed your way of life?

Imagine trying to live your Christian life without the Bible?  What difference would that make to you?

b)         “All Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Timothy 3:16)

i)          How seriously do we take the Bible?

ii)         Where do we take it sufficiently “seriously” that it makes a difference to us?

iii)        Where do we tend to “sit light” to what it says?

iv)        Are there places in the Bible where we disagree with what it says?

 

c)         “and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16)

            Consider some or all of the following passages.  What do they teach us about godly life?

·         Deuteronomy 5:6-21 – The Ten Commandments

·         Matthew 5:27-30 – Adultery in the heart

·         Matthew 4:43-48 – Love your enemies

·         Amos 2:6-8 – The Sins of Israel

·         Luke 18:18-40 – The rich young ruler

·         Hebrews 12:1-2 – Perseverance

 

d)         “equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17)

Read Luke 10:25-37 – the Parable of the Good Samaritan

i)          What was the real difference between the motivation of the “lawyer” and the lesson that Jesus taught him?  (Compare especially the two questions in verses 29 and 36.)

ii)         What might this say about our own motives for reading and learning from Scripture?

iii)        In what ways might this encourage us to read our Bibles?

iv)        What suggestions can we make for ways to read the Bible that bring it alive in new ways?

 

e)         Read together Psalm 1.  Turn it into a time of prayer.

You might like to read it responsively as follows:

Leader              Blessed are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked,

All                     nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the assembly of the scornful.

 

Leader              Their delight is in the law of the Lord
All                     and they meditate on his law day

and night.

 

Leader              Like a tree planted by streams of water bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither,

All                     whatever they do, it shall prosper.

 

Leader              As for the wicked, it is not so with

them;

All                     they are like chaff which the wind

blows away.

                                                                                                     

Leader              Therefore the wicked shall not be able to stand in the judgement,

All                     nor the sinner in the congregation of the righteous.

 

Leader              For the Lord knows the way of the

righteous,

All                     but the way of the wicked shall perish.