Helpful

The scriptures referred to are 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5.

When I was working as a nurse on a Psych floor, I was in charge of the chalk board in the dining area. Every morning I would write the date and day of the week because each day in a hospital feels the same and that is disorienting to patients. I would also write the weather. I decided to also add some interesting bit of trivia, of which, as everyone knows, I have an endless supply. I became known to the patients as Mr. Trivia. I still love random, odd facts but I also realize that it is more important to have knowledge that is useful. Unfortunately there are some people who get so caught up in all the details found in the 31,000 verses and 66 books of the Bible that they seem to lose track of the useful stuff in there. At the jail, while I have created handouts on the essential beliefs of the faith and the basics of following Jesus, I also have a whole file of Biblical FAQs about such things as the nephilim, Jewish holidays, demons, etc, that I copy and send to inmates asking about such things. I have another group of files about various religions and denominations to send out when I can't find a book that covers what is asked for. And I have recently started a file folder of religious esoterica, to cover such things as New Testament apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, angelology, the Book of Enoch and other things that, while interesting, are not really useful for understanding or for living the faith.

Apparently this obsession with the minutiae of religion is not new. Last week in our reading from 2 Timothy Paul wrote, “warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening.” (2 Timothy 2:14) This week he warns of how “people will not endure healthy teachings, but to have their hearing tickled, they will heap on teachers for themselves to suit their own desires, and will turn off their hearing of the truth but turn out to hear myths.” (my own translation) In his letter to Titus, Paul says, “But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.” (Titus 3:9) The word translated “unprofitable” basically means “useless.” And it is the antonym of the word Paul uses in talking about scripture in today's reading. Paul says, (again my translation) “All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, for persuading, for straightening out again and for training in justness, so that the person of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.” The Greek word for “useful” can also mean “helpful.”

Why is that important? Because it means the Bible is not an encyclopedia of random facts about God and related matters. It is meant to help us get closer to God and to follow Jesus. And yet there are people who seem to think that its primary use is as a database for debates. So folks use it as a pretext to argue about evolution, despite the fact that the Bible's composition predates science, and despite the fact that the Bible is not really interested in how things developed physically but in how we are supposed to grow spiritually and morally. Those are practical, not theoretical concerns.

In fact there are precious few texts for those who are wholly devoted to the mystical. Usually you simply have to take a single text and meditate on it. Here's some trivia: the word “heaven” occurs 582 times in scripture but “earth” occurs 987 times, 405 times more often. The Bible is much more focused on how we live now on earth than in how we will live in heaven. I've noticed that people who speculate an awful lot about heaven are like people who always imagine what it's like being rich and successful: their daydreams often substitute for the actions that would actually get them to their goal.

Paul mentions 4 of the ways in which God-breathed scripture helps us. First, it is useful for teaching. So if we are not to get sucked into the black hole of the trivial stuff, what are we to teach? In the Great Commission Jesus sent the disciples into all the world to make disciples, baptizing them and “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:18-20) So our priority should be to transmit what Jesus taught. And his teachings were very practical. They were about how we should treat our neighbors, the disadvantaged, even our enemies. He taught us to forgive others as God forgives us. He taught us to be peacemakers, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be humble, to be generous, to be wise. Even when when his disciples asked him about the end times, he brought it back to the present: “Blessed is the slave whose master finds him at work when he comes.” (Matthew 24:46) As as some wag put it, “Jesus is coming! Look busy!” Paul writes to Titus about how God's grace teaches us “to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:12-13, NET, emphasis mine) So much for those who say Christianity is about “pie in the sky in the sweet by and by.”

Secondly, Paul says that God-breathed scripture is useful for persuading. Most translations use the words “rebuking” or “reproof” but the primary meaning of the Greek word is “proof” or “conviction.” So Paul is speaking about using scripture as evidence, which fits in with another possible meaning of the word, “persuasion.” Many people have come to Jesus because they recognized in scripture the ring of truth. What it said resonated with them. When Jesus' taught the 5000 he had fed about the necessity of eating his body and drinking his blood, it turned off a great many of his followers. And he asked the Twelve if they were going to leave, too. And Peter said, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68) Because they knew the rest of what he taught was true, they were willing to accept the parts they didn't yet understand. He had persuaded them, and in large part because he was able to back it with scripture. If we don't count the parallel accounts in the gospels, Jesus quoted the Hebrew Bible more than 40 times, citing at least a dozen of its books. The New Testament as a whole quotes the Old more than 300 times, including all but 5 books in the Hebrew Bible. That sounds like trivia but my point is to show how much Jesus and his disciples relied on the scriptures that existed in their time to make their case. So keen are the insights we find in the Bible even secular people quote it as received wisdom, often unwittingly.

Thirdly, Paul tells us that God-breathed scriptures are helpful for "straightening out again." That's the literal meaning, with most translations opting for the word “correction.” But it means returning something to its original state. Ironically, the Bible is particularly vulnerable to distortion. People have used it to justify racism, slavery, misogyny, greed, torture, and murder. They pluck texts out of context and twist the meanings. They ignore or try to explain away bits they don't like. They magnify minor points and diminish major ones. As Jesus put it, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!” (Matthew 23:23-24) In other words, when using the Bible one needs to be balanced and give matters their proper weight. We shouldn't spend too much of our time and effort on the little things and neglect the larger issues. In theology and in ethics as in art, when you exaggerate certain features of your subject, you get a caricature rather than a true picture, in this case, of God and his message. Knowing scripture well and being able to discern the essence of what God intends to communicate to us is vital to getting things back on track.

It's not hard to see the kind of distortions that have derailed our efforts to spread the gospel. So-called Christian leaders and politicians and celebrities have tried to make the faith all about money and prosperity, or all about sexual issues, or all about opposition to other faiths, or all about political systems or nations. It's not that the Bible doesn't have some things to say about such topics, but that is not the main thrust of its message. For one thing, the competing religions mentioned in the Bible were about sex and human sacrifice and the emperor worship cult that existed back then, not characteristics of major religions today. On the other hand, neither democracy nor today's political parties nor for that matter most modern nations existed 2000 years ago. So we have to be very careful in applying the Bible to anything specific in those areas today. When it comes to matters that still persist, money is mentioned 144 times, riches 182 times, wealth 29, adultery 70 times, fornication 45, and sodomy 5. When we come to what Jesus mentioned in the passage from Matthew when he excoriated the scribes and Pharisees and if we add the issues he said in the parallel passage in Luke, we find that justice is mentioned in the Bible 125 times, judgment 294, mercy 360, faith 356, and love more than 400 times. It's pretty obvious those are what God is mainly focused on, and what our sharing of the gospel should emphasize.

Finally Paul says that God-breathed scripture is helpful for training in justness. I could have gone with the word “righteousness” but it is a churchy word that few understand and many confuse with self-righteousness. But because the Greek word is associated with justice, I opted for justness, or being a just person. So it is not merely about being blameless in personal morality but also in social morality. It is not enough to refrain from things harmful to oneself, you also must not do things that are harmful to others, nor, through inaction, allow them to be harmed. In fact, by taking the near universal Golden Rule of not treating others as we would not like to be treated, and stating it positively, ie, that we should treat others as we would have them treat us (Luke 6:31), Jesus made Christians into activists. We cannot turn a blind eye to injustice or be content with a status quo that condones or allows unnecessary suffering by others. After all, in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and Levite who passed by the man beaten and left for dead did not further mistreat him. But it was the Samaritan who went out of his way to give the man the help we all would want if we were in the victim's situation. And that is what we are to emulate. (Luke 10:30-37) Steeping oneself in scripture helps one become a person who loves his neighbor or even his enemy as Jesus tells us to do.

And the purpose of this use of scripture is, as Paul says, is “so that the person of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.” Again the Christian is a person with a mission and God doesn't want us either incompletely trained or poorly equipped. In fact, most experts will tell you that the most important part of being prepared is to be mentally equipped. Your knowledge and wisdom and spirit are crucial. You are not going to win over a person to Christ by peppering him with trivia or going down the rabbit hole of debating things like evolution or abortion or homosexuality. What you need to be equipped with is knowledge about Jesus—who he is, what he has done for us and what our response should be. You need to be equipped with the wisdom to know what to say and when to say it and when not to say it. As the book of Proverbs says, “a word at the right time—how good it is!” (Proverbs 15:23)

But the most vital part of being equipped by scripture is to use it in the right spirit. In his extended metaphor of the armor of God, Paul enumerates all these things that protect us: belt, breastplate, shield and helmet. He only lists one weapon: “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:13-17) That's why I have been emphasizing the translation “God-breathed.” God expresses himself in the Bible, revealing what he thinks is essential and what is important for us to know and to do. But just as you have to be on the right frequency to get a radio transmission, you have to be tuned into God's Spirit when you study his word to make sure the message you are receiving is not garbled nor that some of the message has dropped out.

As Shakespeare pointed out, “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” If we are not careful, our adversaries can grab our weapon and use it against us. They usually do this by quoting verses out of context and without trying to understand the background or the commonly accepted interpretation or even a common sense one. Sometimes it's friendly fire. I recently heard a fundamentalist preacher say that Jesus' prescription for masturbation was to “cut off your hand if it offends you!” Wow! Just wow! I have heard Monty Python quotes used more appropriately than that mangled attempt at hermeneutics. And he is just handing critics of Christianity ammunition. An opponent will divert you onto tempting side issues if they can't counter your main point. We need to stay on message and get it right.

Paul said scripture was to help us be "fully equipped for every good work." And since actions speak louder than words, let us use actions to express the gospel. Jesus said to teach others “to obey everything I have commanded you.” The best way to teach at times is to show, not tell. If I tell you God loves you but do not show that love by helping you when you need it, the words ring hollow. It's even harder to believe the words “I love you” if the speaker is simultaneously kicking you in the ribs. What a person does speaks volumes about who they are and what they believe and what they value, regardless of any words to the contrary.

The Bible is supposed to help us in our mission to spread the gospel and plant the seeds of the kingdom. It is supposed to help us work out how to show our love for God and for other people in various situations. It is supposed to guide us as we follow Jesus. It is supposed to help us become more Christlike. And it is okay to enjoy digging into the details so long as that doesn't hinder or divert us from or contradict those primary uses. Jesus didn't come to start a debating society. He came to found the kingdom of God. He came to call us and to heal us and make us whole and equip us for every good work. We must never get so focused on the written word of God that we forget that Jesus is the living Word of God. He is the focus of the written word. As Luther said, the Bible is like the manger that held the Christ child. It would be stupid to get so caught up in analyzing the workmanship and appropriateness of that feeding trough that one neglects the wonderful, loving person in the center of it. It would be churlish not to respond to the arms reaching out to us. It would be a lost opportunity not to embrace him.

A lot of Christians carry Bibles around with them. That's fine, so long as they don't leave Jesus at home on a shelf. We are called to be Christbearers. We are to carry the living Word of God everywhere and into every situation. The words and the Spirit of Jesus, the light of the world, must so permeate our thoughts, our speech and our actions that we fulfill what he said to his followers: “You are the light of the world...let you light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16) If we let the living Word of God dwell in us, even the illiterate should be able to read his love and even the blind should be be able to see his light.