2 Timothy iii. 16, 17
“All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may
be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” [R.V.: Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable, &c.]
offered much exhortation and consolation from other sources, he
adds that which is more perfect, derived from the Scriptures; and he is
reasonably full in offering consolation, because he has a great and sad
thing to say. For if Elisha, ho was with his master to his last breath, when he saw him departing as it were in death, rent his garments for grief, what think you must this disciple suffer, so loving and so beloved, upon hearing that his master was about to die, and that he could not enjoy his company when he was near his death, which is above all things apt to be distressing? For we are less grateful for the past time, when we have been deprived of the more recent intercourse of those who are departed. For this reason when he had previously offered much consolation, he then discourses concerning his own death: and this in no ordinary way, but in words adapted to comfort him and fill him with joy; so as to have it considered as a sacrifice rather than a death; a migration, as in fact it was, and a removal to a better state. “For I am now ready to be offered up” (2 Tim. iv. 6.), he says. For this reason he writes: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” All what Scripture? all that sacred writing, he means, of which I was speaking. This is said of what he was discoursing of; about which he said, “From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures.” All such, then, “is given by inspiration of God”; therefore, he means, do not doubt; and it is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
“For doctrine.” For
thence we shall know, whether we ought to learn or to be ignorant of
anything. And thence we may disprove what is false, thence we may be
corrected and brought to a right mind, may be comforted and consoled, and if anything is deficient, we may have it added to us.
“That the man of God may
be perfect.” For this is the exhortation of the Scripture given, that the man of God may be rendered perfect by it; without this therefore he cannot be perfect. Thou hast the Scriptures, he says, in place of me. If thou wouldest learn anything, thou mayest learn it from them. And if he thus wrote to Timothy, who was filled with the Spirit, how much more to us!
“Thoroughly furnished unto
all good works”; not merely taking part in them, he means, but
“thoroughly furnished.”
Chap. iv. 1. “I charge
thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall judge
the quick and the dead.”
He either means the wicked and
the just, or the departed and those that are still living; for many
will be left alive. In the former Epistle he raised his fears, saying, “I give thee charge in the sight of God, Who quickeneth all things” (1 Tim. vi. 13.): but here he sets before him what is more dreadful, “Who shall judge the quick and the dead,” that is, Who shall call them to account “at His appearing and His kingdom.” When shah He judge? at His appearing with glory, and in His kingdom. Either he says this to show that He will not come in the way that He now has come, or, “I call to witness His coming, and His kingdom.” He calls Him to witness, showing that he had reminded Him of that appearing. Then teaching him how he ought to preach the word, he adds,
Ver. 2. “Preach the
word: be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine.”