The Authority of Scripture
For the past few weeks, we have been in a series entitled The Story of God. More than anything else, this series is about what we as Christians think about when we think about the Bible. The premise behind the series is found in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, in which Paul instructs Timothy that, “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.”
In this passage we see Paul layout four uses of scripture: teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training. Each of these are priorities of the kingdom of God, and are ways in which we can use scripture. Let’s briefly look at each of these categories, how scripture can be used, and their function in the church community.
Teaching - This seems to be the most obvious one. We use scripture to teach the body of Christ. The more you read scripture and the more you teach scripture, there is something that becomes more and more clear. There is so much wisdom found in the Bible. Scripture is rich with meaning from start to finish. If you love stories, there are great stories in the Bible. If you love history (and you know I do), you can find it in scripture. If you love poetry, open up Psalms and dig in. If you love ethical teaching, again, the Bible is your book. If you love rhetoric that speaks truth to power and cries out for justice, crack open the prophets and start reading. So, as a church community we embrace the God-breathed word and teach one another these stories. We dig into what God was communicating to his people so we can understand how God wants us to live in our place and our time.
Rebuking - To rebuke is to reprimand or disapprove of something. Honestly, this is the one that makes us most uncomfortable. When I think of rebuke, I think of that time in the 5th grade when I didn’t do my math homework for five straight days. The teacher sent a note home, and what was waiting for me at home was, for lack of a better word, a strong rebuke. We shy away from this one because it has been misused and abused by spiritual leaders for a long time. Yet, Paul is clear. Part of the role of scripture is to rebuke things that go against the word of God. Part of the role of the church is to stand up for truth. As we do that, we find a balance when we add in the other priorities of scripture, especially love and humility. And we must be willing to allow scripture to rebuke us and our life, as much as we are compelled to rebuke others.
Correcting - My father-in-law has this thing he says that has stuck with me for a long time. He says, “always be ready to allow scripture to change your mind.” The actual definition of biblical repentance is “to change your mind so profoundly that you change your ways.” The Greek word for repent is Metanoia (Meta - beyond, and Noein - to think). It means to go beyond your current thinking. Our understanding of scripture was never meant to be fixed or static. Instead, we are invited to continue to learn and change based on what we learn. If the word of God is going to play the role in our life that God meant for it to play, we must be willing to change our minds when we learn something new. We need to be malleable and teachable and committed to a life of learning and changing.
Training - Consider how Paul ends this particular comment, “…so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” In other words, we don’t study scripture just to become smarter. We don’t dig into the word just to know more about God. We study the word of God so that we can be equipped to do the work of God. We train. We practice. We go to church to learn and consider what scripture would say about how we live, and then we leave the church and go do those things. We use scripture to train us to be a Christian, and then we leave church to go and be that kind of Christian. The word of God has no significance for us if it doesn’t follow us out of our church gatherings and into our community. We train, and then we do.
If you take all of these things together, you begin to get a full picture of what the word of God is meant to be in a worshiping community. Scripture is God-breathed, it is useful, and its priorities are deeply relevant and deeply needed in the world in which we live.
George Welty
