“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16)
There are times when a familiar Bible verse speaks in a new way like the above verse did to me this week. Most probably because I continue to learn about Bible focused on repentance. This verse explains the benefits of the Bible in four ways. Teaching with lessons, reproach, correctness, and righteousness. Each is interconnected, and the lesson is to see what God’s will, path, and truth are. Perhaps the first benefit you get when you look at the Bible is this. However, he says that this is only the beginning, and you must go further. When asking about my past contemplation, I think there have been many times when I concentrated on lessons or enlightenment.
From the second point on, it emphasizes contemplation centred on repentance. Blame is looking into how I am living incorrectly in the light of the lessons of the Bible. These days, I am trying to do this with no matter what Bible verse I see. It is natural that this reproach is followed by correctness. It is to turn away from the wrong. You should not only realise your mistakes and think you should fix it but make practical and concrete decisions for recovery and change.
In other words, even if you realise it but take no action, there is no repentance from it. It should be clear enough to check whether you are practicing it by saying, “I should call someone today and ask them to meet me, I should confess to my daughter this evening,” rather than “I should do this.”
Finally, to educate with righteousness is to make this a habit and renew one’s character by continuously repeating the lessons that are considered to be right. If the lesson is a theory, doing righteous is a practice accompanied by continuous training. If doing right is a recovery that turns back on the wrong, educating with righteousness is continuing to move forward in the direction of righteousness.
The Bible concentrated on repentance means that the Bible is beneficial when doing so. The 17th verse, which follows, clearly proves what change the Bible will eventually bring about. “So that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17).
You can fully become God’s people with the ability to do all the good things that He is capable of. I have studied, reflected, taught, and preached the Bible for more than 30 years, but I think there have been many times when I stayed only in finding lessons. It should be a biblical contemplation that trains to be reproached, corrected, and consistently righteous.
I am grateful to God for teaching me to make progress in faith every day. Let’s practice together to become reading the Bible and contemplation centred on repentance. Let’s all go in this direction together. I’ll lead the way, so follow me.
