Would you dismember Jesus, don't dismember the Word.

2 Timothy 3:“Difficult Times Will Come”

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. ² For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. ⁶ For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, ⁷ always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁸ Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. ⁹ But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.

¹⁰ Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, ¹¹ persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! ¹² Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. ¹³ But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴ You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, ¹⁵ and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

As we have approached this portion of scripture in the daily readings in the One Year Bible, I have been anxious for this chapter in 2 Timothy. The chapter begins with Paul describing how things will be, how men will act in the last days. When you read through the description it's hard to argue that we are certainly moving toward those times.  The things Paul describes apply not only to individuals but to our culture as a whole. The verse in particular that is so important and even foundational to me is verse 16, All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 

 The key word in this verse is the word all. We need to first understand that both when Jesus spoke and even as Paul wrote his letters the scripture that they referred to was the old testament. That was the written word that they had at the time. So Paul is saying that all of that, all of what is contained in those writings is inspired, profitable etc. I would say too that we can place that same degree of value and authority in the  new testament writings as well. It reminds us though that we should not just dismiss all of the old as irrelevent because we no longer live under the law. Jesus Himself said of the law, in Matthew 5:17

 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

Back to the word all. We see then that even though some of the old testament writings might not be directly applicable to us. they still have value to us. God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We can not treat the word of God like a buffet line where we select only those things we want. All scripture means all scripture.

There is however another side of the all scripture meaning that I think can be equally lost or  misused as those who disregard certain portions of scripture they choose. By saying all scripture, it means also that we need to look at every verse of scripture both in the context of how it is shared but also in light of other scripture. The word of God is not meant to be broken down into sound bites. We live in a culture that loves to do that. With the influence of social media in our lives things tend to get broken down to just a few words. It is dangerous for us to apply scripture to our lives that way. Let me give you an example.

A man is feeling depressed so he turns to the word of God for direction. He opens to Matthew 27:5  And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself  He is unsure what this could possibly mean so he opens again, this time to Luke 10:37 it says ... Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

Is the word of God true, inspired, profitable? Yes, yes, yes. Yet we  can't create a doctrine from a few words or even a few verses taken out of context and not viewed in light of ALL scripture. This is not the place to get into deep theological debates around the issues that divide the church today. I simply hope that individually we will take the time to look at and understand all scripture in light of all scripture. Make sure that before you apply a sound bite seen on social media or even quoted on TV or  radio, make sure that what is being said whether positive or negative, that it lines up with the whole word of God. Jesus is the fulfillment of scripture. John 1:14 say this speaking of Jesus.

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus is the Word, full of grace and truth. We can not take part of Him. We need all He did and all He says. We need all scripture in view of all scripture. The word understood through the Word, Jesus.