Equipped for every good work
Dear Friends,
Last week we saw that it is God himself who equips us for doing his will (see Hebrews 13:20-21). This week we turn to another ‘equipping’ verse in the New Testament, and we get a clearer picture of how God does the equipping. Writing to his younger ministry colleague Timothy, Paul reminds him that, “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).
So, how does God equip us for every good work? It is through his own God-breathed Scriptures, as we allow ourselves to be ‘taught’ what we do not yet know or need reminding of, to be ‘rebuked’ for where we have gone astray in our thinking or living, to be ‘corrected’ and brought back into the right way, and so to be ‘trained’ to walk in the way of righteousness. Only God can do that for us, and only the Scriptures will do that.
That means that we will be at a serious disadvantage in trying to please God, to do his will and to do ‘every good work’ if we do not know our Bibles. It is through reading the Bible that we come to know God: what he’s like, what he’s doing in the world, how he sees the world, and what he wants from us.
Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)
02.02.2020