Sermon On Names

Preach The Word: What Scripture Is And What It Does

There is something worth noticing right at the surface of these two passages from Second Timothy. Paul is writing to a younger pastor named Timothy, and the letter has the feel of a man who knows his time is short. He says so plainly in chapter four: "I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is near." This is not a theoretical discussion about ministry. This is a dying man telling a younger man what matters most. And what Paul keeps coming back to, again and again, is the Word. Not strategy. Not personality. Not cultural relevance, though none of those things are necessarily wrong. The Word. Scripture. That is what Paul wants Timothy to hold onto when Paul himself is gone.

So let's sit with that for a moment. Why does Paul, at the end of his life, come back to this?

Let me read from Second Timothy 3, beginning at verse 14, in the Christian Standard Bible.

"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."

And Then Chapter Four, Verses One Through Five:

"I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom: Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to have their ears tickled. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. But as for you, exercise self-control in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

Now, most of us in this room are not pastors by vocation. Some of us are. But Paul's words here reach well beyond the pulpit. They touch every person who has ever opened a Bible and wondered whether it really has anything to say to their life. They touch every person who has ever sat in a pew and asked whether what is being preached actually matters. And they touch every person who is still deciding what they believe about Jesus. So let's walk through what Paul is actually saying.

The first thing Paul establishes is where Scripture comes from.

He calls it "inspired by God." The Greek word behind that phrase is theopneustos, which literally means God-breathed. Paul is not saying that the human authors of Scripture were unusually creative or spiritually sensitive people who wrote beautiful things about God. He is saying that what they wrote came from God himself. The breath of God is in it. That is a staggering claim, and Paul does not soften it or qualify it. He says all Scripture. Not the parts we find comfortable. Not the passages that match our preferences. All of it.

Now, that raises an honest question. How do we know that is true? And the honest answer is that we come to trust the authority of Scripture the same way we come to trust anything deeply: through encounter. When you read the Bible consistently and prayerfully over time, something happens that is difficult to explain but impossible to deny. It speaks to the human condition with an accuracy that no human author could manufacture on their own. It describes the human heart, its capacity for self-deception, its longing for something beyond itself, its tendency to reach for the wrong things, with a precision that feels less like ancient literature and more like a mirror. That is not an accident. That is what it means for Scripture to be God-breathed.

But Paul does not stop at the origin of Scripture. He moves immediately to what Scripture does.

He says it is profitable for four things: teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. Let's not rush past those words. Teaching means it tells us what is true. Rebuking means it tells us when we are wrong. Correcting means it shows us how to get right. And training in righteousness means it shapes us over time into people who actually live differently.

Notice that Paul does not say Scripture is profitable only for the first one. It is easy to love the teaching function of Scripture. We enjoy learning. We enjoy understanding what the Bible says about God, about salvation, about the future. But rebuking is harder. Correcting is harder. Training is harder because it takes time and it requires us to keep showing up even when we do not feel like it.

And the purpose of all four of those things, Paul says, is so that the person of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. The word complete here carries the sense of being fitted out, like a ship that has everything it needs before it sets sail. Scripture is not meant to be a collection of inspiring thoughts. It is meant to outfit us for a life of faithfulness. That is a very different vision of what the Bible is for.

Now we come to chapter four, and the charge Paul gives is one of the most direct in all of his letters.

Preach the word.

He does not say preach what people want to hear. He does not say preach what is trending. He does not say preach whatever keeps the room full. He says preach the word. And he frames this charge with a solemnity that should stop us in our tracks. He says he is charging Timothy before God and before Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead. This is not casual instruction. This is a dying apostle invoking the final judgment as the weight behind his words.

And then Paul tells Timothy something that sounds almost like a warning. He says a time is coming when people will not tolerate sound doctrine. They will accumulate teachers who tell them what they want to hear. They will turn away from the truth and turn toward myths.

Now, before we assume Paul is talking about someone else, it is worth asking whether any of this sounds familiar. We live in a moment when the appetite for comfort is enormous and the appetite for truth is considerably smaller. We live in a moment when the most popular religious content tends to be content that makes people feel good about themselves rather than content that calls them to repentance and transformation. Paul is not surprised by this. He saw it coming. And his answer is not to give up or to despair. His answer is to keep preaching the word anyway, in season and out of season, which means when it is welcome and when it is not.

So what does this mean for us, sitting here today?

If you are a preacher, the charge is clear. The people in your congregation need the whole counsel of Scripture, not just the parts that generate applause. They need to be taught, rebuked, corrected, and trained. That is not a comfortable list, but it is a faithful one. And Paul reminds us that the goal is not to be liked. The goal is to be faithful to the One before whom we will all give an account.

But if you are not a preacher, this passage still has something to say to you. Because the question it raises is this: what are you doing with Scripture in your own life? Paul tells Timothy to continue in what he has learned and firmly believed. The word continue matters. This is not a one-time encounter. This is a sustained relationship with the Word of God over the course of a life. Are you in it? Are you reading it, sitting with it, letting it teach and rebuke and correct and train you? Or have you drifted into the pattern Paul warns about, surrounding yourself only with voices that confirm what you already believe and make you feel comfortable where you already are?

And if you are here today and you are not yet sure what you believe about Jesus, then the most important thing Paul says is in verse fifteen of chapter three. He says the Scriptures are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. That is the center of everything. The Bible is not primarily a book of moral instruction, though it contains moral instruction. It is not primarily a book of history, though it contains history. It is primarily a book that points to a person. Jesus Christ, who died for sin, rose from the dead, and offers forgiveness and new life to everyone who trusts in him. If you have never made that decision, the invitation is open to you today.

Here is the one thing I want you to carry out of this room.

The Word of God is not a resource to be consulted when life gets difficult. It is a foundation to be built on before the difficulty comes. Paul's charge to Timothy is really a charge to all of us: do not drift from the Scriptures. Stay in them. Let them do their work in you. Because the same God who breathed them into existence is still speaking through them, and what he is saying is not complicated. He is saying that you are loved, that you are broken, that you need a Savior, and that the Savior has come.

Preach that. Live that. Hold onto that.

And when the culture tells you the Bible is outdated, when the pressure mounts to soften the message, when the room gets quieter because the truth is harder than the myth, remember what Paul said. Be ready in season and out of season. Endure hardship. Do the work. Fulfill your ministry.

Because the word of God endures. And so does the grace of the God who gave it.

Sources Consulted

The Holy Bible, Christian Standard Bible. Holman Bible Publishers, 2017.

Mounce, William D. Pastoral Epistles. Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 46. Thomas Nelson, 2000.

Towner, Philip H. The Letters to Timothy and Titus. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Eerdmans, 2006.

Stott, John R. W. Guard the Gospel: The Message of 2 Timothy. InterVarsity Press, 1973.

Lea, Thomas D., and Hayne P. Griffin Jr. 1, 2 Timothy, Titus. New American Commentary, vol. 34. Broadman and Holman, 1992.