A few springs ago, Lane stepped wrong on a rock down by the lake and his ankle went one way while his leg went the other. There was no sound, just sudden swelling and nausea, and we both knew right away something was wrong. We had to hobble him up the hill from the shoreline to the cabin just to get him help, and it was scary. He ended up in a boot for months. Truth is, that ankle still gives him trouble now and then. Healing isn’t always a straight line back to stronger than before. Sometimes it’s just steady, ongoing work.
That’s actually a good way into what Paul is talking about in 2 Timothy 3:16-17. Paul tells us that every part of Scripture is God inspired, God breathed, and useful one way or another, showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, and training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.
In verse 16, Paul is letting us know that the origin of Scripture is God. Scripture is not an ordinary book with an ordinary storyline. Scripture is divinely inspired by God and serves as the only plumb line and ultimate practical guide for knowing what’s right and wrong, leading us to salvation, correcting our mistakes, and providing us the best spiritual training to live the way God wants us to.
In verse 17, Paul tells us why we should make God’s Word the number one priority of our life. Scripture puts us together and makes our life complete. Paul chooses a very special word here that basically means God’s Word mends and repairs all our brokenness, the way a doctor mends and repairs a badly broken and crushed bone. God takes the fragments of our life and aligns our inner life to serve Him.
Right now, you might be saying to yourself that might work for others, but you don’t know my past and there’s no way God could never use my life to serve Him.
It’s true, our lives might feel broken, shattered, and beyond repair. We’ve all sinned and made terrible mistakes. But Jesus Christ says, I want to forgive, heal, restore, and rebuild what you would call awful, what you are most embarrassed about, what you feel the greatest shame and guilt over, those areas of your life that your friends, and maybe your family, hold over your head and condemn you for. Why? Because in those areas of weakness, I can make you strong again, even stronger than ever before, so that I can use you to serve Me and do the tasks I need done in the lives of others.
Paul goes on to say that once our life has been put back together and made complete, God’s Word shapes us up in ways that prepare us to tackle the spiritual tasks God wants us to do. In some ways, Paul is suggesting that God’s Word is like an athletic coach dedicated to equipping and preparing the athlete for life’s biggest game.
Through the power of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, God’s Word restores and heals all the fractured, broken, and shattered parts of our life. And once made complete, God uses His Word to prepare us for His purposes, to serve, to complete the tasks, and to answer the calling God has in store for us.
This week:
Let’s offer all our flaws, our brokenness, our mistakes to Jesus Christ.
Let’s make God’s Word our number one priority.
Let’s ask God to equip and prepare us for any open doors of Christian service He wants us to do.