“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 3:16-17 NKJV
“Life is like a helicopter. I don’t know how to operate a helicopter!”
That’s not an original quote from me, but I fully agree with it. In the same way, I don’t know how to operate life. All my attempts to get a helicopter off ground will fail. In the same way, all my attempts to do right in life will fail. David tells us this clearly.
“They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.” — Psalms 14:3 NKJV
So how can we learn to fly that helicopter? How can we, as Christians and Children of God, learn how to operate life and do the right thing at the right time? There are two points I want to talk about. So here we go.
Helicopter pilots have a book or two or three that they study. They have teachers too, but that’s a lesson for another time. They have books that tell them what to do, when to do it, what order to do it in, and the results are the helicopter lifting slowly off the ground? What is gonna happen if they ignore the books they were told to study? That helicopter will not go anywhere.
We have a book that tells us how to live our lives. We call it the Holy Bible. It tells us everything we need to know, rather God tells us in this Bible everything we need to know. When we read it, study it, and follow its directions, our lives move and God is then able to use us to fulfill God’s desires for us. A grounded and idle helicopter does no good for anyone. At the same time, God cannot use an idle Christian.
The first thing we need to look at is the first phrase in verse 16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God”
When a helicopter instructor looks for books to use to teach his students how to fly a helicopter, one thing he’d be stupid to ignore is looking up the author of the book. Look him up. He learns what he needs to know about him.
You could put me in a helicopter, let me look at all the gadgets and gizmos, buttons and gauges, and everything else in there. Give me enough time in there, and I could write a book explaining how I would think to fly it. I could give it a good title, publish it as a textbook, and sell it to aviation schools. Is my book going to teach anyone how to fly a helicopter? No. Why? Because I don’t know how to fly a helicopter. And anyone who looks at my credentials and my resume can see “This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I’m not buying his book.”
Scripture has the best author of all time in God Almighty. You will find no better and no more trustworthy author than God. A book written by God can be trusted at every point in life. If God is not a trustworthy God, His book should not be on shelves or in libraries much less should it be open in the laps of readers. But since God is the most trustworthy author, you can trust that His book is completely true and helpful at every point in life.
Now, I want to bring it all into the second half of verse 16 “…and is profitable….” It’s good for you.
“… for doctrine…” telling us what’s the right thing to do.
“… for reproof…” telling us what’s the wrong thing to do.
“… for correction…” telling us how to fix what’s wrong and make it right.
“… for instruction in righteousness.” Telling us what God wants us to do and where He wants us to go do it.
But why? Why do we need a book that has the best author and can do the most for the reader? Look at vs. 17. “That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Everything we need about how to live a Godly Christian life, how to get the helicopter of your Christian life off the ground and flying in the right direction, is in Scripture. It tells what we need to do, what to stop doing, how to stop doing what wrong and start doing what’s right, and then where to go and how to continue doing what’s right for God’s sake.
My prayer for you is that you find time to study and read your Bible. Take time to find out what God has in mind for you. I’m sure some of my readers probably already are studying scripture on your own, but if you’re not, I’d encourage you to start. There are many good, and even some free resources, to follow and help you build that habit of regularly reading and studying your Bible. It’s here for our benefit and it’s written by the best author ever. We’d be stupid not to use it.
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