2 Timothy 3 and the Sufficiency of Scripture

 

2 Timothy 3

King James Version (KJV)

¹ This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

² For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

³ Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

⁴ Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

⁵ Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

⁶ For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,

⁷ Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

⁸ Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.

⁹ But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their's also was.

¹⁰ But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,

¹¹ Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.

¹² Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

¹³ But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

¹⁴ But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;

¹⁵ And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

¹⁶ All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

¹⁷ That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Paul here warns us that in these last days, perilous times will come. He urges Timothy to continue in the things he has learned and been assured of, knowing of whom he learned from.

He reminds Timothy of the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make him wise unto salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ. Today is no different, and Paul has been proven corect -- evil men and seducers have waxed worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Let us hold to that which Paul prescribed to Timothy, that is, the Holy Scriptures.

This is the ministry of this blog, to take what was given to us by the Holy Spirit, and hold to that which was given to the body of Christ, so that we will not be deceived. There is only one theopneustos, God-breathed body of doctrine and instruction the Church has today. There is only one theopneustos, God-breathed foundation upon which the Church can stand -- the Scriptures.

It is the Scriptures which are the sword of truth, and is able to make the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

Focusing on verses 16 and 17, we learn 3 things:

(1) The nature of Scripture

(2) What the uses of Scripture are

(3) What these particular uses are able to do for the man of God.

(1) The Nature of Scripture

¹⁶ All scripture is given by inspiration of God,

In the first case, we learn that the Scriptures are 'given by inspiration of God' -- that is, 'theopneustos'. This means that God is the primary author of Scripture, and have the characteristic of being the 'pneuma of Theos', ie., the breath of God. This is why the NIV translates 'theopneustos' as 'God-breathed'.

(2) The Uses of Scripture

and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

The second thing we learn, is that the 'God-breathed' Scriptures are profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. Interestingly, doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness over every facet of christian life. The Scriptures are profitable for correct belief, and correct practice.

(3) Scripture, Thoroughly Furnishing

¹⁷ That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

Because point 2 is true, point 3 is true. This is the meaning and importance of the 'That' at the beginning of verse 17. In point 2, we recognised that Scripture has the uses for correct belief, and for correct practice. Because Scripture has these uses, the man of God may be perfect, and thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

The context in these last 2 verses, is in regards to Scripture, without reference to any other source of doctrine. This is important because there are those who would say, that the Scriptures are not 'thoroughly furnishing', and that this passage does not teach that the Scriptures are thoroughly furnishing. For example, one may say:

"The tyres on my car are circular, so that my car may be fully equipped to travel to work. The fact that my tyres are circular, does not mean that my tyres alone are sufficient to bring me to work, but only that the fact that they are circular means that my tyres will not hinder me from getting to work. Likewise, the man of God is fully furnished and capable of being perfect, because he has everything he needs. If he did not have the scriptures, he would not be fully furnished. But, because he has everything he needs, including the scriptures, he is fully furnished. Rather, the scriptures are necessary for the man of God to be thoroughly furnished, but the scriptures are not sufficient to make the man of God thoroughly furnished."

This view teaches that the Scriptures are necessary, but not sufficient for every good work. In this scheme, the man of God can only be thoroughly furnished if he has the Scriptures, just like a car can only be fully equipped if it has tyres. This view though, does not teach that everyone who has the Scriptures, is thoroughly furnished, just as not everyone whos' car has tyres, has a fully equipped car. They will claim that there is another necessary thing that the man of God must have, in order to be thoroughly furnished.

Some may even ask, "Where does it say, that the Scripture alone, is thoroughly furnishing, or that the man of God is thoroughly furnished, through Scripture alone"?

Those who ask such questions, are not taking account the meanings of all of the words, and the context. If a child was dirty and required a bath, I would hardly offer him a glass of water saying that the water in the glass is cleansing, so that he may be fully bathed so as to be clean. If the Scriptures are not sufficient, then it would not be true that those properties or uses of Scripture, would mean that the man of God is thoroughly furnished -- anymore than the properties of the water in the glass, means that the glass of water means that the dirty child can be clean. Let us look at verses 16 and 17 again:

¹⁶ All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

¹⁷ That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

These verses take the logical form of:

A is x, therefore B may be y. [Scripture is ..., that the man of God may be....]

Paul prescribes for Timothy, the Scriptures. To say that the Scriptures are not sufficient, would be like saying that practicing the alphabet is valuable, so that one may be thoroughly furnished to be the next spelling-bee champion, or to say that practicing the 5 times table, is able to make one a thoroughly furnished mathematician. How could Paul tell Timothy, that the Scriptures being profitable, means that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works? Paul does not qualify the statement with claiming any other necessary body of doctrine -- rather, he says that the Scriptures are profitable for these things, and therefore, the man of God may be thoroughly furnished. Paul's unqualified statement that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished due to the nature of Scripture, means that Scripture is thoroughly furnishing unto all good works.

Taking another look at the opposing view, let us suppose that Scripture is not thoroughly furnishing, unless it is joined to something else, eg., tradition. Verses 16 and 17 then would seem to suggest that the man of God can not be thoroughly furnished until he also has the Scriptures, as it says that there are certain qualities of the Scriptures which make the man of God able to be thoroughly furnished. If the Scriptures did not add anything to these traditions, then the man of God would not need the Scriptures to be thoroughly furnished. One could ask our opponent then, what did Scripture add to tradition, which was not also a part of tradition? If one wants to believe that Scripture is necessary but not sufficient, then one must also believe that tradition or any other source posited, must be also necessary but not sufficient. If tradition is also not sufficient, then there must be some Biblical truth which is not also traditional truth. Given the fact that Scriptural truth was also delivered through preaching, it seems that the preaching tradition would include Scriptural truth as part of it. What prophet or apostle, would ever have a Scriptural truth, not to also be received orally? If however, Scriptural truth is contained within the oral tradition, then how does Scripture add anything to that tradition, which that tradition does not contain within itself? Tradition would be not only necessary, but sufficient if it contained all the truths of Scripture. There would be no way then, that Scripture makes the man of God Thoroughly furnished, or that the Scriptures are necessary.

The quick reply from our opponent, may be that the Epistles might have been received by the various churches during the 1st Century, before they could have heard the oral instruction from the apostles themselves. In this way, those churches would have content within those writings, which they had not previously received orally. This would be a blunder on their part, as this ignores the very congregations who received the epistles. When the Corinthian christians received 1 and 2 Corinthians, would those letters not have been read to them? The vast majority would have received 1 and 2 Corinthians be hearing it before they could read it for themselves, and so what they orally received, would contain what was in Scripture.

Our opponent may say that what they received orally was not tradition, but Scripture. Even though they received it orally, it is not tradition because it is Scripture. Tradition is thus defined as any of God's truth which is not Scriptural. If this tradition were committed to writing, then it could only maintain it's identity as tradition and not Scripture, if it did not have the peculiar mark of Scripture -- being 'theopneustos'. This causes more problems for our opponent, as there must be a way for the man of God to discern what is 'theopneustos', and what is not 'theopneustos'.

It has been suggested that tradition is not 'theopneustos', because it does not correspond word-for-word, to the exact way the Apostles delivered their teachings.What Roman Catholic apologist Jimmy Akin says.

Every sermon or paraphrase of Scripture then, would not be 'theopneustos', and would therefore be part of tradition. However, this would mean that tradition would contain within itself, the truths of Scripture. How then, is tradition insufficient and therefore Scripture necessary under this scheme? If tradition contains the truths of Scripture, then it is not true that Scripture is necessary for the man of God to be thoroughly furnished. Interestingly, Jimmy Akin says that tradition and Scripture need not be different in content.(Emphasis Mine). 

Furthermore, since the Apostolic Traditions passed down outside of Apostolic Scripture do not have to be materially different from those in Apostolic Scripture, but simply restatements or authentic interpretations of Apostolic Scripture,

What he doesn't realise, is that Scripture and tradition must be different in content, if both are to be considered necessary.

The opponent may say that Scripture is neither sufficient nor necessary, and say that we don't really need Scripture at all. He may say that Scripture can be helpful, but we have all of it's truth in tradition. Ofcourse, this would be utterly absurd, as why would Paul prescribe Scripture for Timothy and the man of God, and secondly, why would God provide us with a 'God-breathed', 'theopneustos' body of truth, if we do not require it? In most cases, one will not hear such a statement coming from the mouth of a professed christian. Rather, most will firmly hold to the necessity of Scripture as a rule of faith. What many have not come to realise however, is that a rule of faith which contains the truths of Scripture but is not Scripture itself, makes the necessity of Scripture redundant. Paul then is prescribing and commending for the church, that body of 'God-breathed' truth which is not only necessary or partially furnishing, but thoroughly furnishing unto all good works.

 Troy Smalley