and that from a child thou hast known the sacred letters, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which [is] in Christ Jesus.
Paul has just warned of dangerous days and deceivers who grow worse and worse. Against that dark background he points Timothy back to something ordinary: the writings he knew as a small child, and what they can do.
One writer notes that the title itself carries authority, wherever it applies:
After speaking of Timothy having learned the truth from himself, the apostle says, "and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings." Here is the well-known book so entitled, which, as such, had authority. As a child, he had known it and learned its contents. And these scriptures, through faith in Christ Jesus (the great key to all), were able to make him wise to salvation. No doubt what Timothy knew as a child was the Old Testament. But whatever has a claim to be called the sacred writings comes under this title, and enjoys the privileges that go with it.
What Timothy received at home is what any family can hand on:
What a heritage for any child! To know the Holy Scriptures. We may have little to leave our children in the way of earthly goods. But if we have given them the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures from childhood, we have given them greater riches, greater treasures, than anything else this world has. Lois the grandmother and Eunice the mother both had real faith. His father was a Greek, so we may be sure it was they who taught Timothy the Holy Scriptures while he was still an infant — that is what the Greek word means.
For parents who see no result, another writer points to the gap between sowing and harvest:
It is good to have the young mind well stored with the precious truth of Scripture. For many years there may be no sign of the quickening work of God. But when that work does come, all that was learned in childhood becomes a mine of wealth. The Spirit of God can use it to enlighten the heart and settle it in the knowledge of the divine mind. The seed sown may take long to germinate.
Paul does not say Timothy already had this wisdom. He says the writings are able to give it:
Notice too that the apostle does not assume Timothy was already wise for salvation. Why is this? Because, I think, he needed the wisdom for the moment, as we do. Last year's wisdom is not enough for today… "Able to make you wise." What does this mean? A wise man does not only act rightly. He must act rightly, of course. But the wise man is the one who acts for God. The wise man is the one the mind of God controls.
The verse attaches a condition to the promise:
Even the sacred writings are only able to make wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. This however they are. Without faith in Christ salvation and wisdom from above are alike impossible.
One writer warns where Bible knowledge alone can lead:
The true knowledge of Scripture will always lead us to the feet of Jesus. But mere head-knowledge, without heart-love for Christ, will only make us more effective agents in the hands of Satan.
One writer points out how far this salvation reaches:
The Apostle Paul reminded Timothy that the sacred writings, which he had known "from childhood" — the Old Testament, therefore — were able to make him "wise for salvation." That means saved not only from future doom, but also from the dangers along the road we travel.
Paul answers the corruption he has just described. Notice what he does not offer as the safeguard:
The apostle shows that the decline will go on, that it will not be set aside. For "evil people and impostors," he says, "will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." Then he gives the resource for such times. It is as much as to say: you cannot trust the church, which will have only a form of godliness while denying the power. Your resource must be the holy scriptures of truth.
- Known — as a boy Timothy learned the Old Testament from Lois and Eunice. The title "sacred writings" carries authority wherever it applies.
- Sown — childhood knowledge may lie quiet for years. Then God's work begins, and the Spirit uses it as a mine of wealth.
- Able — the writings make wise for today, not out of last year's stock. A wise person acts for God.
- Through faith — Scripture makes wise only through faith in Christ Jesus. Head-knowledge without heart-love for Him leaves a man useful to Satan.
- Saved — this salvation covers coming judgment and the dangers along the road. So when deceivers multiply, Scripture is the resource, not the church.
Every scripture [is] divinely inspired, and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness;
Paul is writing to Timothy about dangerous days ahead. Against that background he points to something permanent. Scripture is breathed out by God, and that is why it is useful.
Commentators are careful to say the claim is about the text, not only about the men who produced it. One writer warns against confusing the two:
It is a distortion of the truth to say that the writers were inspired but the writings were not. If 2 Peter 1:21 supports the first, the claim for the second is even plainer in 2 Timothy 3:16... It is not a question of human weakness, but of God's power. Every Scripture is inspired by God. According to Paul, not only the men were inspired, but the writings as well.
One commentator explains the word by going back to the making of man:
In creation God shaped a body out of clay — "the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground" — and it became a living being only after God breathed into it. In the same way, these writings would otherwise be only a pile of separate pieces. But God breathed into every part, so they became one living whole. They are living and powerful, because they are the inspired Word of God.
Writers point out that this verse widens the frame. The wording quoted below comes from an older translation:
No doubt the Holy Scriptures Timothy had known since he was a child were the Old Testament Scriptures. But then the apostle states that "Every Scripture is divinely inspired." So he includes the New Testament and all the writings of the apostles. We know that Peter classes all Paul's letters with "the other Scriptures" (2 Peter 3:16).
If God breathed out all of it, then no part of it is dead weight. One commentator presses this to an uncomfortable but useful test:
Since all Scripture is from God, it is all profitable, even genealogies and names of cities. If my interpretation of it does not give spiritual profit, then my interpretation of it is not right.
Teaching, reproof, correction and training are not a random list. They form a sequence, and it starts where all real change starts:
Note the order. First it is profitable for doctrine. We get doctrine from the Word of God alone, and it is the foundation of everything. Next comes "reproof," or conviction. After that come correction and instruction in righteousness. It starts with doctrine and leads, after conviction and correction, to righteousness.
The same writer warns that letting go of this verse is where drift begins: "All apostasy starts with the denial of this fact."
The verse does not stop at teaching; it aims at a person fitted for work. The word translated "complete" appears nowhere else in the New Testament. One commentator draws out its force:
It means being ready right now for any situation. The man who knows the Word of God and is subject to it is ready for every emergency. He does not need to cram for the moment, or go and look things up in his reference books, or get ready on a point beforehand. He is ready now.
The placement matters. Paul says this where he has been describing dangerous days:
He brings out the infinite value of the Scriptures — that is, of what was written. They are the one supreme resource for dangerous times, when we no longer have apostles present to help us in person. It is not only what had been preached. It is something permanent, given for the good of God's people on earth.
- Breathed — the claim is not only that inspired men wrote. The writings themselves are God-breathed. The result is His, not just the process.
- Whole — the breath reaches every part, so every part repays reading. If a reading gives no profit, the fault is in the reading, not in the text.
- Ordered — the profit comes in order. Teaching first, then conviction, then correction, then training in righteousness.
- Finished — the goal is a person complete and fully equipped, ready right now for any situation.
- Timely — God gives all of this for dark days. The apostles are gone, and the written Word stands as the one permanent resource.