Outline

«　WEEK 5　DAY 6　»

　　2 Tim. 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.

　　In 2 Timothy 3:14-17 is a man of God with the breath of God. The Scripture, the Word of God, is the breath of God. God’s speaking is God’s breathing. Hence, His word is spirit (John 6:63), pneuma, or breath. Thus, the Scripture is the embodiment of God as the Spirit. The Spirit is therefore the very essence, the substance, of the Scripture, just as phosphorus is the essential substance in matches. We must strike the Spirit of the Scripture with our spirit to catch the divine fire. As the embodiment of God the Spirit, the Scripture is also the embodiment of Christ. Christ is God’s living Word (Rev. 19:13), and the Scripture is God’s written word (Matt. 4:4). This Scripture makes the man of God complete and equips him.

　　In caring for a local church,…the preaching of the word is vital. In 2 Timothy 3:14-17 God’s speaking is His breathing. We should be men of God with the breath of God. Our reading of the Scripture is our inhaling of God’s breath. God is breathing, and we are inhaling. Then we are able to proclaim the word in season and out of season. Our preaching is our exhaling. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 3, “Elders’ Training, Book 6: The Crucial Points of the Truth in Paul’s Epistles,” pp. 549-550)

　　In order for us to participate in the recovery of the proper church life, we need to enjoy the humanity of Jesus so that we may become proper persons…We need to apply the humanity of Jesus to every detail of our daily walk…We need to be strong to stand against the tide of this age by enjoying the humanity of Jesus. For instance, while people today are full of hatred and are without natural affection, we must be filled with the loving affection in the humanity of Jesus.

　　In 2 Timothy we see not only a picture of corrupted humanity on the negative side but also the way to enjoy the humanity of Jesus on the positive side. In order to enjoy the humanity of Jesus, we first need to call on the Lord (2:22). By calling upon the name of the Lord, we may partake of His humanity.

　　Second, we need to inhale the breath of God in the Bible [cf. 3:16]…Since the Bible is the breathing out of God, we may inhale the breath of God in the holy Word. We need to inhale what God has exhaled. Each time we come to the Bible, we need to freshly breathe in the divine breath.

　　Third, we need to exercise our God-given spirit…God has given us a spirit that is powerful in our will, loving in our emotion, and sober in our mind [cf. 1:7]. Apart from Christ, every human being is unbalanced in his thinking. However, because God has given us a spirit of sobermindedness, we may have a sober, sound, and healthy mind. We need to exercise our God-given spirit that is strong in our will, loving in our emotion, and sober, sound, and clear in our mind.

　　Fourth, we need to experience Christ who is in our spirit. Second Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” We should enjoy Christ who dwells in our spirit.

　　Fifth, we need to pursue Christ in the church, the Body of Christ. Second Timothy 2:22 says that we need to pursue Christ “with those,” that is, with the saints. To pursue Christ is not an individualistic matter but a corporate matter. We must pursue Christ with the other members of the Body.

　　The recovery of the proper church life depends on the proper humanity. Today we can have such a humanity because we can partake of the humanity of Jesus by calling upon the name of the Lord, breathing in the breath of God in the Bible, exercising our spirit of power, love, and sobermindedness, experiencing Christ who dwells in our spirit, and pursuing Christ with many dear saints. In these difficult times, we must be not merely good men but God-men, men of God, in order that we may have the proper church life. (CWWL, 1971, vol. 2, pp. 245-246)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msgs. 33, 37