3:16 Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 3:17 that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work. (NET)

Since some of you may not be forum folks.  I thought that I should share some of the foundational texts for my pilgrimage before the Lord. 

Now I will not take the time to argue for inerrancy, though I fervently believe the Scriptures are without error, but rather let me speak of:

 useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,  (2 Timothy 2:16b)

I always appreciated these words - I preached and taught them on a regular basis, but it was Jay Adams, author of Competent to Counsel and many other books, who really opened my mind to these words.

First, we  identify the pattern, an inclusio - or sandwich - with the 2 positive commands serving as the bread around the 2 negative commands. 

Secondly, we must also see the affinity of the bread and meat on each side of the sandwich.  I believe Adams correctly identified teaching and reproof as the positive and negative aspects of instruction.  Teaching identifies those things God wishes us to know and to do. 

Now reproof and training are also paired.  Reproof shows us those things which we should not be doing so that we can "cease and desist" from our sin.  Correction is the process by which we move away from our sinful state, as identified by our reproof, to the ideals which we have been taught.

Likewise, after the Scripture has told us the standard, identified our shortcomings, and helped us come into conformance with God's standards, training in righteousness helps us to stay there.  When the diet is over, one may not then eat anything one wishes.  This training tells us the actions that we should take - as result of the knowledge we have gained - so that we might not again need to be reproved and corrected concerning the same problems.

I will attempt to give some examples in my next post, so that we might be better able to apply these words to our lives.

In Him, John

 (updated 10/7/09)