The Word of the Lord is powerful wisdom and effective to save us. It is able to heal us and transform our hearts and minds. God Himself uses it to make us ready to do every good work. His perfect Word is corrective, teaching us what is true, what is wrong in our lives and what needs to conform to His righteousness.
All Scripture is inspired by God.
- This is why we sing it.
- This is why we read it and listen to it.
- This is why we preach and teach it faithfully.
- This is why we persevere in sharing it with our children, who, like all of us, were born sinners in need of salvation.
If we’re trustworthy parents, our children can trust us to teach them what is true. And if we faithfully teach them from their childhood the perfect ways of God as revealed in His inspired Word, then, like Timothy, they will have the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus:
II Timothy 3:14-17—But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. All Scriptures is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip His people to do every good work.
Our aim should be that they would turn from trusting us or anyone or anything else for salvation. Rather, that they will take hold of the wisdom of the Scriptures and run to their only Savior, Jesus Christ, to receive His salvation by trusting in Him.
This should be our prayerful hope for all who don’t know Christ.
It’s easy for us to grow weary and be discouraged as we continuously share God’s Word with believers and unbelievers alike through our hymns, psalms, praise songs, sermons and conversations — especially when it appears that our message, God’s message, is falling on deaf ears and dull hearts. It’s also discouraging to us when our children seem to care less about the Word of God that we share with them.
In our discouragement, we should let the words of Paul to Timothy encourage us—Timothy heard the Scriptures from his childhood and they gave him the wisdom to receive the salvation that was revealed through Jesus Christ. The inspired Words of God inspired Timothy to receive this salvation and trust in Jesus. This is true for any of us who have received Christ’s salvation. We heard the Truth of Scripture and by God’s gracious Spirit we were inspired to receive salvation by trusting in Jesus Christ.
Let’s persevere together by God’s grace and power at work in us in humbly yielding and listening to God’s Word. It continually corrects and teaches us and prepares and equips us for every good work, including the critical work of teaching His Truth to everyone we meet. And let’s trust that the God who sent His Word, Jesus, to heal and save us will continue to faithfully perform His Word and save all who take hold of the wisdom of the Scriptures and receive His salvation.
God who promised is faithful.