During the past several days, we’ve begun a blog “journey” to understand the purpose of Scripture, and we started with its primary role in leading us to salvation. Now, in this second installment of the series, we turn our attention to another vital function of God’s Word: equipping us for obedience. How does Scripture prepare believers to live out their faith? In this post, we’ll explore Paul’s profound words in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, which illuminate the ways Scripture instructs, corrects, and strengthens us for every good work. By the end, you’ll see how the Bible becomes an essential guide for practical obedience, grounding us in truth amidst a world full of distractions and myths.
In 2 Timothy 3:16–17, Paul writes, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” One of the reasons God gave us his word is to equip us for every good work. In other words, the goal of reading the Word of God is obedience.
It's worth noting that this is the exact obedience that Jesus commands in the Great Commission, “Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18–20). The goal of the Great Commission is not simply conversion, but obedience. The good news is that God has prepared good works for us to do, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). Paul is telling us that the purpose of the word is to equip us for good works, for obedience to our God.
Helpfully, Paul also tells us how we can use the Bible to equip us for every good work—teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. It should be no surprise, then, that right after Paul talks about the purpose of Scripture, he commands Timothy to preach. Notice how Paul’s instruction about preaching sounds very similar to the purpose of Scripture. Paul writes, “Preach the word: be ready in season and out of season: rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2). In other words, Timothy is to preach the word according to the purpose of the word. Makes sense!
We need the preaching of the word because we are tempted to turn away from the word. Paul continues, “For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound teaching, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. They will turn away from the truth and will turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3–4).
Paul’s choice of “myth” here to contrast with the truth is intriguing. Myths are false narratives that lead to disobedience, whereas God’s word is truth that leads to obedience. Consider the use of myth elsewhere and its consistent contrast with both truth and obedience.
“As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith. Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:3–5)
“But have nothing to do with pointless and silly myths. Rather, train yourself for godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7)
False doctrine, endless genealogies, empty speculations, pointless and silly myths are opposed to God’s plan, sound doctrine, love, pure conscience, sincere faith, and godliness. Paul tells Timothy to preach the word because he understands that people are consistently inundated with and drawn to false messages that oppose God’s desire for his people and lead us down the path of disobedience.
Think about all the messages we receive. We have online ads that are designed to target our hopes and desires, social media specifically designed to keep us engrossed in silly memes and other people’s stories for hours, news outlets that mostly stoke our fears and turn us against our neighbors, entertainment that sells us different ways of being human, political movements that offer salvation apart from Christ—and you can get all these messages in the palm of your hand in the span of five minutes sitting on your couch at home. We have never been more inundated with possible myths to scratch our itching ears than we are now. These messages may distract us from what God is calling us to do or entice us to follow the world instead of the Word.
But there is no reason to despair. God has given us a weapon in this war. God has given us his word to understand God’s plan and sound doctrine so that we might live godly lives, loving God and neighbor with a pure conscience and sincere faith.
As you think about your life, what messages, false narratives, or myths are you most tempted to believe? How does the word of God combat these myths, center you back on Christ, and equip you to love God and neighbor by the power of the Spirit?