What It Is For

When did Scripture last tell you something you did not want to hear, and you let it stand?

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. The line gets quoted as a claim about where the Bible came from and stops there, and the rest of it is a list of four jobs. Profitable is an unglamorous word meaning useful. Paul is telling a young minister what the thing is for.

Walk the four, because Scripture shows each one happening.

Doctrine, which is teaching. On the road to Emmaus, two people who had given up get this: beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. They were handed the book they already owned, opened.

Reproof. Nathan walks into the palace with a story about a lamb, lets the king pass sentence on the man in it, and says four words. Thou art the man. David had the law by heart. What he needed was somebody willing to point it at him.

Correction. Josiah's workmen turn up a book in the temple during repairs. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. A national reformation follows from a reading.

Instruction in righteousness, the slowest of the four. Paul has just named it in Timothy's own life: from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures. Somebody read to him for years; Paul names his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice.

One honest note. When Paul wrote all scripture to Timothy, what Timothy had known from childhood was the Hebrew Bible. The verse most often used to defend the New Testament was written about the Old.

Back to the opening question, sharpened. Doctrine we enjoy, and instruction we are used to. Which of the other two have you let in this year, and who in your life is allowed to be Nathan?

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 51 is Dwelling in Love (1 John 4:16).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two