Daily Devotion: The Word Revealed - Reading God's Word, Obeying the Call to Love - 2 Timothy 3:16&17

God’s Word is the most historically credible work of all antiquity.  With regard to historical reliability, the Bible stands far, far above all other books.  The life and times of God’s Word is supported again and again by recent archeological discoveries.  But even better than the Bible’s historically accurate accounts, God’s Word is exactly that, The Word of God Himself.  Scripture tells us it is God breathed, God inspired.  Second Timothy 3:16-17, “¹⁶ All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  The Bible is a divine work of God our Father through human authors.  These authors were supernaturally guided in a fashion where their words and their language communicated everything that God desired to be communicated.

Throughout this credible, reliable, historically accurate book, the Bible, we hear the constant theme from God, “I love you with an unchanging love.”  It is amazing to receive such a letter to us, a love letter from a perfectly Holy God who has chosen to save us from our sins and reveal to us what we need to know concerning that loving salvation.  In the Bible, we see all that God has chosen to reveal about His nature, His will, and His passion.  We learn of His creative ability.  We learn that humanity is the pinnacle of His creative powers.  According to Genesis 1:26-28, we are the only creation to be made in God’s own image. And as His creation, made in His image, God relates to us through His Word, He communicates with us, He tells about Himself, He tells how He loves us, He tells us how to relate to Him, He tells us how to love Him.

From creation to the present, God has revealed Himself to us through His spoken and then written Word, the Bible.  Second Timothy 3:16 provides a wealth of information concerning the role of the Bible in our lives.  “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness...” In His Word God provides all we need concerning what we are to believe (doctrine).  We are told what we are not to believe (reproof).  God reveals to us how we should not live our lives (correction).  Finally, God lovingly tells us how we are to live (instruction in righteousness).  That covers virtually every possibility: what to believe, what not to believe, how not to live, how to live.

Often many of us scratch our heads and think, “we have no idea what to believe or what to do.”  As we deal with problems unique to the modern times of our world, the Bible is often viewed as out of touch, or simply irrelevant.  The times and customs of the Bible are thought of as out of step with modern humanity.  While the numerous modern inventions that we don’t feel we could live without were not present in biblical times, the principles communicated in God’s Word are timeless.  What was true concerning God, man, salvation, God’s love for His redeemed children, and their calling to love God above all else have not changed.  Therefore, we must approach the Bible as God’s divinely appointed means of revealing all that we need to know for how to love God.

As we read and study the Bible, we must focus on what we can do to love God in a manner consistent with how He calls us to love Him.  We must seek that which we can do to love one another in a manner consistent with how He calls us to love one another.  And we must even read the Bible to discover what we can do to love our enemies in a manner consistent with how God calls us to do even this.  If we are to love as we are called to love by the Bible, we must read God’s love letter to us over and over again. 

Today, this “The Word Revealed” devotional is a call to stay faithful in reading God’s Holy Word.  The necessity of reading God’s Word regularly is the same regardless of circumstances.  However, if ever there was a time to be in His Word regularly, it is time such as this.  Let us eagerly search His Word for the timeless truths of God, especially concerning His calling us to love as His Word instructs us to love.