Thoroughly Equipped

 

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

—2 Timothy 3:16-17

As a firefighter in the mid-1960s, I can remember the efforts I took to make certain I always had the right equipment available to me when an alarm sounded and we had to respond. I even made a checklist that I would review before I began each shift:

• helmet
• boots
• bunker pants
• coat
• gloves
• flashlight
• pocket spanner wrench
• pocket knife
• self-contained breathing apparatus

Without the proper equipment at hand, I could not do the various tasks I might face when we arrived at a fire.

In the Scripture verse at the beginning of this blog post, the Apostle Paul urges his son-in-the-faith, Timothy, to make certain that Timothy keeps himself thoroughly equipped in order to accomplish every good work. Paul explains that the way to do this is to maintain a very close relationship to the written Word of God.

Paul insists that all Scripture comes to us from the very mouth of God. Paul uses the phrase “God-breathed” to describe how God has inspired the various authors to write down His words.

The Apostle continues, in this lesson for Timothy, to assert that the written Word of God is useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and for training in righteousness. Each of these specific uses of Scripture has a subtle, yet important, distinction.

As one who will lead a group of Christians as their pastor, or minister, Timothy must understand each of these distinctions. And, while Paul does not elaborate on these distinctions in this passage, he surely knows that, through past times of sharing, he has made clear to Timothy the various occasions where it will become necessary to use each one.

For our part, we need to remember this lesson, too. God’s written Word has great power and great importance in our spiritual formation and development. We depend on the Bible to help us learn more and more about this God who loves us with His everlating love. By setting aside time each day to read and meditate of what God’s written Word teaches, we open ourselves up to become vessels of knowledge that we can then share with others who may cross the pathway of our lives.

 

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