Week 39, September 22–28: 2 Timothy, Isaiah 58–66; Galatians, Ephesians 1–3

• Sun      9/22     2 Tim 1–4
• Mon     9/23     Isa 58–60
• Tue      9/24     Isa 61–63
• Wed     9/25     Isa 64–66
• Thu      9/26     Gal 1–3
• Fri        9/27     Gal 4–6
• Sat       9/28     Eph 1–3

We start this week by reading 2 Timothy, Paul’s second epistle to his friend Timothy, his spiritual son and partner in ministry. We will be going through this letter for the next few weeks in our Sunday morning sermons, which is the reason we are reading it out of canonical order here in the reading plan.

Second Timothy includes the short passage that may be the most important text in the Bible about the Bible. In 2 Tim. 3:16–17 we find a summary of what Scripture is, and we mentioned these verses in the first post of this series as we began the read thru. Paul is encouraging and exhorting Timothy to continue in his ministry of the gospel, unashamed of the gospel and guarding it as a good deposit that has been entrusted to him (1:8–14). There will be challenges and suffering along the way, but the charge to Timothy, and to all who follow Christ, is to carry on, resting in the faithfulness of God. In his strength, we are to conduct ourselves as faithful followers of Christ, remembering him and living as workers approved by God through Christ, unashamed and “rightly handling the word of truth.” (2:15)

Paul warns Timothy that difficult days are coming. The last days, before Christ returns, will be characterized by all sorts of sin. (The list at the beginning of chapter 3 sounds quite familiar to our time, and those in the early church could have said the same.) In contrast to the sin of those around him, Paul reminds Timothy that he is different. Paul assures Timothy, and us, that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” even while the evil get more evil and the deceivers become more fully deceived themselves (3:12–13).

But you, on the other hand, Paul exhorts, “continue in what you have learned and fully believed.” Stay the course, press on in what you know is true, confident in the one from whom you learned it, and most importantly, continuing as directed by the sacred writings, “which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” This is where Paul inserts the summary definition of these sacred writings, the Scriptures, God’s word of truth that produces wisdom and keeps us steadfast, approved by God, faithful guardians of the gospel in godless days.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16–17)

“All Scripture” A profound insight from the Greek here is that the word for “all” means… all. Whatever he is going to assert in the rest of the passage applies to the whole Bible, every bit of it. In Paul and Timothy’s time, Scripture meant the books that we call the Old Testament. It could be that Paul knew of some writings that would become part of the New Testament and considered them scriptural too, but he is primarily talking about the Hebrew Bible, the OT. Of course, the message of this verse expands to include the NT now too, but it is important to keep in mind that he is referring to all Scripture—Genesis and Galatians, Job and Jude, 1-2 Chronicles and 1–2 Corinthians, and even Leviticus!

“is breathed out by God” It appears Paul made up a word here, melding together the word for “God” with a word for “breathe,” which also conveys the idea of “spirit” or “spiration.” The nature of the Bible is that it comes from God himself, his very breath. It is from God’s own Spirit. This is why we talk about the Bible being the inspired word of God.

“and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The Bible, all of it, is given by God for our benefit. It has multiple uses, but each of them, whether instructing us in the path we should walk, correcting our course when we stray, or developing the skills and discipline to travel well in a way that is pleasing to him—all of it is not only glorifying to God, but it is also good for us, useful to our benefit… so long as we read it.

“that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Reading the Bible is profitable for these things, and the way it ultimately profits us is to carry us, men and women of God, increasingly towards maturity as followers of Christ. It is not to say that if we read the Bible we will all be perfect at once, but this verse is claiming that the aim and result of prioritizing the role of the Bible in our lives is to move us towards what God wants for us; that is, the completion of the good work he has begun in us (Phil. 1:6). This good work is fundamentally a work of God, and it produces good works in us too. This is saying that the Bible doesn’t just teach us truth, though it does do that and that is fundamentally important; but the effect of reading the Bible goes beyond instruction too. It also includes equipping for behavior. God’s inspired word is incalculably valuable for our intellectual, spiritual, and ethical lives. It shapes our thinking, our affections, and our actions. This is why we read it.

The last chapters of Isaiah bring the book to a conclusion with a mixture of themes and tones. On the one hand, the end of Isaiah draws together some of the dark and ominous threads of Isaiah’s prophetic rebuke. God’s people, he says, “have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations.” So God’s judgement will come upon them. “I also will choose harsh treatment for them, because when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen; but the did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight.” (Isa. 66:3–4) The Lord has turned his judgement on his own people, because they have turned from him.

However, on the other hand, the thread of hope in a future of God’s mercy and grace also comes together with the thread of sin and judgement. He goes on to call the people to “rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her.” (v. 10) The day is coming when God’s people will repent and return to him with humility and a spirit of contrition (v. 2), and they will be restored. Of Jerusalem, the Lord says, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream,” and he offers these comforting words: “You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the grass; and the hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants, and he shall show his indignation against his enemies.” (v. 14)

The message of the prophets is a message of judgement in the present and in the near future, coupled with a message of eventual repentance and restoration. This anticipates the good news of the New Covenant, which was yet future from Isaiah’s time, but has now come with the coming of Christ.

This good news of the New Covenant that Isaiah and the prophets anticipated is the gospel of Christ we read about in the NT. Our reading this week includes Galatians and the first half of Ephesians. Galatians is a corrective letter to a group of churches who are in danger of losing sight of the true gospel. Paul uses some of the harshest language in the NT to rebuke them for turning to “a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” (Gal. 1:6–7) We walked through Galatians in a sermon series last year, and reading it again now gives us another chance to heed its warning, to reject anything that adds to or changes the gospel of God’s gracious salvation through the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus, and to live out the gospel in a life that bears fruit that can only be produced by God’s own Spirit.