Free Bible Commentary
“2 Timothy 3:10-17”
Categories: 2 Timothy“Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
---End of Scripture verses---
“All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (verse 12). If we are trying our best to serve the Lord in truth and righteousness, people are going to take notice, and not all of them are going to like what they see. Some people are going to view your godliness as a personal affront to their sinful lifestyle choices. Others will ridicule you because they think your faith is ridiculous. Still others will give you a hard way to go just because they are mean-spirited and you are an easy target.
This should not trouble you in the slightest because it means you are following in the footsteps of Jesus and meeting with God’s approval. What should bother us is if we try our best to live our lives in such a way as to avoid all controversy whatsoever. This means we are not living a godly life by God’s standards because ALL who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus WILL be persecuted! Don’t go looking for trouble, but don’t avoid all trouble by sacrificing your godliness!
“All Scripture is inspired by God” (verse 16). That includes both Old Testament and New Testament Scripture, but nothing written outside of the books contained in THE BOOK that we call the Bible. Every word that is written in the Bible is “profitable”. Inspired revelation is good for teaching us God’s ways, laws and promises. It is adequate to reprove us and correct us when we choose to deviate from its teaching. It is the only work of literature that is able to perfectly train us in righteousness, even though we will fall short of its perfection.
God’s perfect word provides us “wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (verse 15). Everything recorded in the Old Testament was written in preparation for, and points the way to, God fulfilling His perfect plan of salvation by sending Jesus into the world to live and die and provide salvation for all people. Everything written in the New Testament tells us who Jesus is, what He did, and what He will do for us (in perfect accordance with Old Testament prophecy) if we live lives of faithfulness to Him. The Bible teaches us, reproves us, corrects us, trains us, saves us, gives us wisdom, equips us for every good work.
Maybe it’s time to start taking the Bible a lot more seriously! Seriously!
Please read 2 Timothy 4:1-5 for tomorrow.
Have a blessed day!
- Louie Taylor
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