All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
According to 2 Timothy 3:16-17, the Bible is ultimately a good works manual. It doesn’t tell us how to live the good life. It tells us how to live a life that is good.
To equip us for good works, the Bible teaches us about God and how we can be saved from our bad works
Because all the Bible comes from God, all of it is helpful to us in accomplishing this goal of being equipped for good works. The word of God is a tool that provides us with a world view that is true to reality (teaching, lit. doctrine). It tells us about the nature of God, that he is infinite, personal and holy; the nature of God’s ways in this world, that he is sovereign, loving, faithful, and in the process of redeeming a people for himself; and the nature of our soul, that we have been created in God’s image but are sinners in need of redemption from God’s wrath for our bad works through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
To equip us for good works, the Bible rebukes us by addressing our conscious and willful sin
Then the Bible confronts us about specific sin in our lives (rebuking). It never flinches. It never glosses over. It goes directly to our inner person and speaks to our conscience. It shows us how we have raised our rebel fist in God’s face and it calls us to repentance and faith in Christ.
To equip us for good works, the Bible corrects our bad habits and unconscious sin
God’s word doesn’t stop at rebuking major sin in our lives. It goes on to deal with our faults and foibles (correcting), those areas of weakness we would rather just live with. It doesn’t settle. It insists that we become like Jesus Christ.
Finally, to equip us for good works, the Bible gives us specific teaching on what the good works are that God wants us to do
The Bible tells us when we are ready (thoroughly equipped) to do good and it shows us time and again what the good is that we are to do (training in righteousness). It gives us real life models, examples, teaching, history, and ultimately, it gives us Jesus Christ and the church.
The church, then, is a good works factory, a place where the word of God is taught in its entirety, where people are brought to faith in Christ, conformed to his will in practice, and are then sent out to do good works. Doing good works is how the early church grew and spread. Doing good works is how the church today will grow and spread.
This post first appeared in Doing Good Well: Thirty Daily Meditations on Developing a Biblical and Focused Discipline of Good Works, by Herb Reese, and in NewCommandment.org.
