CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
2 Timothy 3:14. Knowing of whom.—R.V. margin, “Gr. what persons.” The apostle does not take the sole credit of the discipleship of Timothy, whose “faith does not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”
2 Timothy 3:15. From a child.—R.V. “a babe,” from earliest infancy. The Holy Scriptures.—R.V. “the sacred writings.” A comprehensive term including, like our Lord’s threefold division in Luke 24:44, all the Jewish canonical Scriptures.
2 Timothy 3:16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable.—R.V. “Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable.” Note that the “scripture” of this verse is not the same as the “sacred writings” of 2 Timothy 3:15. Here it is simply “every writing inspired of God.” The inbreathing of the Holy Ghost is the condition of its being profitable. For correction.—Setting upright again something that was out of the perpendicular. For instruction.—Fatherly discipline or process of education, often by chastisement or severe methods. The word of God does not always speak smooth things to us.
2 Timothy 3:17. Throughly furnished.—Completely fitted out, as a soldier with full accoutrements, or a workman with tools.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 2 Timothy 3:14-17
The Use of the Bible in the Christian Life.
I. Instruction in the Bible from earliest youth imposes fidelity to its teachings (vers.14, 15).—Timothy had been taught the Scriptures from his childhood. The reverence of his Jewish mother for the word of God was transferred to her child, and his early life was impregnated with the spirit and teaching of the Old Testament. In the study thus early begun, and still further developed as the years sped on, Timothy is urged to continue. Childhood is the most impressionable age, and instructions then received are never forgotten. Nothing makes so lasting an impression on the young mind as the word of God.
II. The most accurate knowledge of the Bible will not save the soul apart from faith in Christ.—“Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). It is a good thing to drill the young mind in a knowledge of the word of God and to store it with memory texts, but care should be taken to show how all scripture reveals Christ and leads to Christ. The knowledge of the Bible makes us wise in knowing Christ as our Saviour. He who has not faith has not the true wisdom. The Jews knew the Bible well, but they remained ignorant because they rejected Christ.
III. The Bible is a collection of Divinely inspired writings.—“All scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16). R.V. “Every scripture inspired of God.” As most of the New Testament books were written when Paul wrote this his latest epistle, they are included in the clause. Knapp defines inspiration as, “An extraordinary Divine agency upon teachers whilst giving instruction, oral or written, by which they were taught how and what they should speak or write.” The Bible is true because it is God-inspired. The same cannot be said of any other book. A learned infidel who examined the Bible for himself, and came to the irresistible conclusion of its Divine authorship, said, “It would have been as easy for a mole to have written Sir Isaac Newton’s treatise on optics as for uninspired men to have written the Bible.”
IV. The prime use of the Bible is to teach authoritative truth and mould the Christian life.—
1. The study of Divine truth disciplines the mind and heart. “Is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). Doctrine and reproof embrace the speculative parts of divinity, correction and instruction the practical. The devout and diligent study of the Bible is a mental and moral discipline. Every man is definitely the better for close and thoughtful contact with the word of God. Queen Elizabeth said, “I walk many times in the pleasant fields of the Holy Scriptures, where I pick up the goodliest herbs of sentences by pruning, eat them by reading, digest them by musing, and lay them up at length in the high seat of memory by gathering them together, so that, having tasted their sweetness, I may less perceive the bitterness of life.”
2. The study of Divine truth is a moral equipment for the highest service. “That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:17). The man of God loves the book of God; by its study he is more fully perfected in his moral character, and out of its treasury he is accoutred for all the requirements of his work. The best work is done by the man who knows his Bible best.
Lessons.—
1. The Bible is the God-inspired book.
2. The young should be taught to know and love the Bible.
3. The Bible supplies the best armour and weapons for the Christian warrior.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2 Timothy 3:15. The Importance of Early Instruction in the Bible.
I. The advantage of a knowledge of the Scriptures.—
1. They communicate truths of immense value.
2. These truths cannot be obtained but by Divine Revelation 3. Their knowledge is the noblest improvement of the mind.
II. The Holy Scriptures are made effectual to salvation.—
1. They discover the method of salvation.
2. They make men wise unto salvation through faith.—P. Hutchison.
2 Timothy 3:16-17. The Inspiration and Utility of the Scriptures.
I. The inspiration of the Scriptures.—
1. What is inspiration? The infallible record of an infallible Revelation 2. The object of inspiration. To give certainty to that written under its guidance.
II. The utility of the Scriptures.—
1. As an unvarying standard of doctrine.
2. Useful in the confutation of all religious error.
3. Useful as an infallible standard of right and wrong.
4. Useful for instruction in righteousness.—Homiletic Monthly.
Inspiration
I. The breath of God is in the Holy Scriptures, but only the man of God can have fellowship with it.
II. By this fellowship with God the man of God becomes complete.
III. By this fellowship with God the man of God gains complete fitness for every good work.—Preacher’s Magazine.