“Why We Preach” (Part 2)

We are considering this week Paul’s instructions to Timothy (2 Timothy 3:14-17) as an expression of why we preach the Word of God. On Monday, we saw it as essential to people’s spiritual training. Today, however, we look at what the Word is, as opposed to what it does.

Character of the Word (v.16)

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

Why does this training work? Verse 16 speaks to why the Bible is a trustworthy representative of the mind of God. It is not authoritative or life-changing because we have theologically declared it to be so. It is authoritative and life-changing because of its very character, which is seen first of all as:

         Inspired (theopneustos)- it means “breathed out by God.” This idea is further explained in 2 Peter 1:21, where the method is given as well. What does it mean? The essence of it is that God’s words were given through men, superintended by the Holy Spirit, so that they wrote without error. How does it fit together?

• Inspiration versus Inspiring or inspirational
• Verbal Inspiration- every word of God is pure
• Plenary Inspiration- all scripture is equally inspired
• Process- God breathed and scripture came into being (Gen 2, “breath of life). It is not mechanical dictation, each writer had his own style, personality, vocabulary, etc. but the end product was the Word of God.

Inspiration gives us a book we can trust, because God is the God of all truth (Deut.32:4), Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6) and the Spirit is the Spirit of truth (John 16:13). Now, what value does it have?

         Profitable- it sufficient for the needs of our hearts and our spiritual growth. Four areas…

• Teaching- instructing us in God’s truth
• Reproof- not for “finding fault” but for challenging wrong thinking and living
• Correction- restore those in error to right standing
• Training in righteousness- training here is paidean (childrearing), so it speaks of literally instructing God’s children in God’s ways.

Warren Wiersbe put it together well: teaching deals with what is right, reproof deals with what is wrong, correction deals with how to get right, and training deals with how to stay right! But all of this for what purpose?

Now, with the training the scriptures give to us and the character of the Word in hand, on Friday we will consider a final reason to preach the Word.