Scripture That Makes You Wise
2 Timothy 3:16 Begins in Verse 15
Chained in Rome and nearly finished, Paul had one more letter to write. Most of his friends had scattered, and he knew how it was going to end: the time of my departure is at hand (2 Timothy 4:6). It went to Timothy, most likely in Ephesus, a young pastor Paul had first met years earlier in Lystra. Timothy's father was Greek. His mother, Eunice, was a Jewish believer, and so was his grandmother Lois, and between the two of them that boy grew up on the Scriptures (Acts 16:1, 2 Timothy 1:5).
Those Scriptures were Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. There was no Gospel of John on the table in Lystra, no Romans, no letter with Paul's name on it. That changes how you hear the most quoted verse in the letter.
You probably know the verse. You may have had it handed to you. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction. It gets used to win arguments about whether the Bible has errors in it, and it gets used to explain why somebody felt free to straighten you out. Both uses pick up Paul's thought in the middle, when he'd started it a verse earlier.
What Timothy Learned at Home
But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 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 complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)
So what did Paul say those scrolls were for? He answers it before he ever gets to verse 16. They're able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Verse 16 hangs on that purpose, and the four uses that follow serve it rather than replace it.
Think about what Paul's claiming. A boy reading Leviticus at his grandmother's table could be made wise for salvation through faith in a Man those scrolls don't name. The Old Testament was pointing to Jesus all along, and once you know Him you can finally see it. I've written more on how the Old Testament points to Christ.
Does "all Scripture" include the New Testament? Peter would later put Paul's letters alongside the rest of the Scriptures (2 Peter 3:16), so the principle reaches the whole Bible. But the Scriptures Timothy knew from childhood were the Old Testament, and if God breathed those out to make a boy wise about Jesus, the rest of the book wasn't given for any smaller purpose.
Reading It Cross-Eyed
I've told my church for years to read their Bibles cross-eyed. I mean read with the cross in your gaze.
Last fall I put one of those stereograms from the '90s up on the screen, the kind that looks like nothing but dots and squiggles until your eyes relax. I told the church I'd give ten bucks to anybody who could see the hidden picture. My wife's hand went up. Under all those dots was a shark, and it had been there the whole time for anybody willing to look longer than the surface.
That's close to what Paul means. Stare at the surface of the Old Testament and you'll leave asking who your Goliath is, or how you get from the pit to the prison to the palace like Joseph. Look longer, with the cross in view, and the same pages start showing you the Lamb, the ark, the High Priest, and the bronze serpent Moses lifted up in the wilderness.
None of that throws out what the stories say. David really faced Goliath, and Joseph really sat in that prison. Reading cross-eyed follows the history to where it was headed. Some chapters will look like dots for a long time. Leviticus doesn't open up on the first pass for anybody, and you don't have to force a picture that isn't coming yet.
Four Uses, One Direction
Now verse 16. Paul lists four things Scripture does, so let's take them one at a time. Doctrine is teaching, what God says is true. Reproof is the word that convinces you you've got something wrong. Correction is setting it straight again. And instruction in righteousness is training, the word Paul's world used for raising a child.
So yes, Scripture corrects, and I'd be lying to you if I said otherwise. The question is what it corrects you toward. Paul's answer sits one verse up. All four are aimed at the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Correction can name real conduct, and Paul's letters do it all the time. What it can't do is make your conduct the ground you stand on with God, because that ground is Jesus. The strongest pushback against all of this comes five verses later, in a charge Paul gave Timothy himself.
Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. (2 Timothy 4:2)
Timothy really is told to rebuke, and some of what he rebukes will be behavior. But the word he preaches is the gospel Paul defined back in chapter 2: Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel (2 Timothy 2:8). The rebuke serves that word, it's aimed hardest at people who will turn their ears away from the truth toward fables (4:4), and it comes with all longsuffering. That's a pastor guarding the gospel from being swapped for something that only looks like it, which is the same danger Paul described at the start of chapter 3 in A Form of Godliness.
Complete and Thoroughly Equipped
Then Paul tells Timothy where all of it lands: that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Complete is the goal, and he isn't talking about flawless. Good works are what the equipping is for, and Paul had told Timothy where his standing came from back in chapter 1: God saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works (2 Timothy 1:9). You don't read your way into being right with God. You're perfectly right with God because of what Jesus did, and the Scriptures keep showing you Him until you start living like it.
Near the end of the letter, Paul asks Timothy to bring three things: his cloak, the books, especially the parchments (2 Timothy 4:13). Nobody knows for certain what was on them, though many careful readers think they were copies of the Scriptures. If they're right, here's a man who met the risen Christ on the Damascus road, chained in Rome and close to the end, asking for the same scrolls Timothy learned at his grandmother's table. He'd spent his whole life reading them cross-eyed. He knew who he'd find in them.