All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
– 2 Timothy 3:16–17
Is that not the most awesome description of the Bible, of this gift we have in God’s Word? Scripture that has been breathed out by God. How God has spoken to us through a word that is totally inspired by his spirit. Just look at the Bible from Genesis 1:1 to the very last verse in Revelation 22. Every single verse of the Bible breathed out by God himself. Inspired by his Holy Spirit to help us in all these ways.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 Teaches Us the Sufficiency of God’s Word
It’s profitable. What a word. There’s nothing more profitable in the world than God’s Word. It’s profitable for teaching us. Just think of all the ways the Bible teaches us who God is. The Bible teaches us the nature and character and attributes of God. Teaches us who we are. Teaches us what God is doing in the world, how to understand what is happening in our lives. It reproves us, corrects us, trains us in righteousness.
We need all of these things. We are all prone to wander today. That’s the nature of our humanity, that we are all prone all day long to turn from God and his ways to ourselves and our own ways, which means we need the Word of God to reprove us, to correct us, to train us every day in righteousness, to live in a right relationship with God, to experience life to the full in right relationship with God so that you and I may be complete.
Don’t we want that in our lives? To be complete, to be full, to be fulfilled, to be all that God has created us to be, and not just complete for ourselves, but equipped for every good work. What a picture.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 Teaches Us the Transformative Power of the Word
You and I are created today for good work, to do good work that is good for others and glorifying to God and good for us, which is why we need in a Psalm 1:1 kind of way to meditate on God’s Word day and night, to meditate on these words that are breathed out by God. Indeed, this is our daily bread. This is the only way we can live, by meditating on God’s Word and then living according to it, living according to its teaching, and reproof and correction and training in righteousness. Let’s just pray this over each other today.
God, we praise you for your Word. We praise you for breathing it out. We praise you for the process of your Holy Spirit, inspiring all these different people over all these different time periods to write down your Word in ways that today we can be taught and reproved and corrected and trained in righteousness, that we can be made complete and equipped for every good work. God, we praise you for your Word. Help us to steward this supernatural gift that you have given to us. We pray that today all of its prophet would be ours, that you would teach us today, that you would prove us today and help us to receive your reproof and your correction. Help us to humbly receive your teaching and your training in righteousness.
God, we pray that you would use your Word today to make us complete and to equip us for good work all day long. Oh God, we love your Word and we pray for its full effect in our lives. And we pray that you would help us to share this Word with others.
Prayer for the Lost
Oh God, I think of people who are living right now today, apart from your Word around us. God, help us to speak your truth, your Word. Your God breeds Word into others that they might have life, of us to share the gospel, the story of Jesus at the center of Your Word with somebody today.
And God, we pray specifically today for Bible-less people around the world for thousands of languages that still don’t have a full copy of your breathed-out Word. God, we pray that you would bless all those who are working in Bible translation. We praise you for the opportunity we have in our day to be able to get your Word translated into every language in the world. May it be so soon we pray, oh God, all of this according to your Word, in 2 Timothy 3:16–17, in Jesus’ name.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
