2 Timothy 3:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Thus “the man of God may be complete, prepared for every good work” (2 Tim 3:17). For right doctrine will bring us no benefit when life is corrupt.

Likewise, there is no benefit from a virtuous life when sound faith is absent.

Without an experienced guide one may fail to understand the word of God, and may interpret it otherwise, to the harm of one’s soul. Then the purpose for which the word of God was given to us is not attained.

Read, for example, the sorrowful pages in the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Enter into the groans of the psalmist, and your soul will involuntarily respond to the laments of the God-inspired men.

The Psalter alone awakens so many varied feelings in the one who reads it. It awakens sorrow, consolation, hope, repentance, gratitude to the Lord, prayer for mercy, and caution in speech and in dealing with people.

Read more often, more often, the Proverbs of Solomon and the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, especially in Russian translation.

And the divine Gospel of our Savior, how much it speaks to our heart! It was proclaimed and given to us for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.

But do many, many people read it? Do they read it often? Does every Orthodox household with literate inhabitants even possess it?

Meanwhile, the Church takes great care for the swift spread of sacred Scripture in the Russian language.

Instead of drinking away your hard-earned coin on wine, or spending money on sweets, whims, or unnecessary fashionable clothing, buy, every Orthodox Christian, the New Testament for yourself and for others.

Read it yourself every day, and especially on feast days. You will gain understanding yourself, save yourself, and save those who hear you (1 Tim 4:16).

A good book is the best friend. Sacred Scripture, as a message, a letter from heaven, is the highest consolation for our spirit.

Therefore, Christians, attend to yourselves, to those around you, and to the teaching of Christ. Occupy yourselves with this constantly (1 Tim 4:16).

Hold fast to righteousness, faith, love, and peace with all who call upon the Lord from a pure heart. Avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they give birth to quarrels. Thus teaches the holy Apostle (2 Tim 2:22-23).

To be in one respect what this name requires, and in another to incline toward the contrary, means nothing other than to divide oneself in hostility.

It means to stir up an inner battle between virtue and vice, and to produce in one’s life division and discord with oneself. “For what communion has light with darkness?” (2 Cor 6:14), says the Apostle.

For this reason the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy, the bishop of the Church of Ephesus, that Scripture “is profitable for teaching,” “that the man of God may be complete.”

To the Ephesians the same Apostle writes that Christ gave “teachers” “until we all attain” “to a perfect man.”

Thus the perfection of the Christian is made dependent not on Scripture alone, but also on the guidance of teachers given by Christ. Like Philip, they preach the Gospel beginning “from Scripture.”

When someone has renewed and corrected the moral path of his life, he still must know how to stand firmly on the path of virtue and walk this path without deviation.

Scripture also helps and teaches this, which the Apostle called “discipline in righteousness,” that is, instruction in righteousness.

From this is revealed the full importance for the pastor of the Church of a thorough and deep study of sacred Scripture.

For all pastoral activity consists precisely in what, according to the Apostle, the God-inspired Scripture is profitable for. It consists in teaching people truth and goodness, reproving their errors and vices, correcting their morals and convictions, and instructing them, that is, strengthening them on the path of righteousness.

“In the Scriptures,” he says, “it is set forth what one must do and what one must not do. They are light for those in darkness.

Whoever knows Scripture as he should will not be scandalized by anything that happens. He bears everything courageously and finds grounds and examples for everything.

Every sacred Scripture is God-inspired. Therefore, he says, do not doubt it. If it is necessary to know something, or if perplexity arises about something, it can be learned from here.

If it is necessary to expose falsehood, this too can be drawn from here. If it is necessary to be corrected, if something is lacking and needed, this too is drawn from Scripture. Without the Scriptures it is impossible to be perfect.”

“Scripture is God-inspired and profitable, as the breathing of the all-good God, which is life-giving for every creature, especially the rational one (see Ps 103:30; Ps 118:50).

The holy prophet David depicts the soul-saving quality of the word of God in this way: ‘The law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making infants wise.

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes’ (Ps 18:8-9). The usefulness of divine Scripture indicated by the Apostle accords with this.”

Saint Ephrem the Syrian advises praying before reading sacred Scripture, so as to understand its power and meaning.

“And having made prayer,” he says, “give yourself to reading. Remember that many who relied on their own judgment did not understand what they read and fell into error.

Our days pass like a shadow, and we do not notice how swiftly our Judge approaches. We must take care for the one thing needful. Your soul also needs food, without which it will die, and it will find this food nowhere except in the word of God.”

We usually call a person disorderly when everything about him is out of place. We call someone well-ordered when everything is in place.

Saint Paul promises precisely such perfection to the one who takes divine Scripture as the guide in forming his intellectual, moral, and religious side, and follows it without deviation.

“For this reason,” he says, “the instruction of the Scriptures was given, that the man of God might be complete. Consequently, without them it is impossible to be perfect” (Chrysostom).

“Correction and ordering of character occur through Scripture, so that in the man who lives according to God there may be no lack in anything good.

Therefore, if you also desire to become such a well-ordered man, artios, that is, perfect, sound, and always even in all things, take the divine Scriptures as counselors for this” (Theophylact).

The explained meaning of perfection is indicated precisely in the final words: “prepared for every good work.”

“Prepared,” exertismenos, means fit and adapted. That is, he is one who both knows and is able to do every good, and to do it in the best way.

This is what Scripture makes the man of God! It does not make him merely one who takes part in good works, as though only not alien to them.

It makes him adjusted only to them, so that he does nothing except good works. “He does not say prepared for this or that work, but for every work” (Theophylact).

All this said about Scripture has application both in pastoral practice and in the life of each person.

Scripture teaches everyone, reproves, corrects, and trains in every good. Through this it leads him to complete perfection.

For the pastor, upon whom lies the task of leading the flock along the whole path indicated, Scripture gives full guidance even to details.

Therefore both pastors and everyone else should study the divine Scriptures, not somehow, not superficially, but according to their very substance.

Chrysostom presents Saint Paul as suggesting to Saint Timothy: “In place of me, he says, you have the Scriptures. Whenever you wish to learn anything, you can learn it from here.”

Immediately afterward he adds: “If this was said to Timothy, who was filled with the Holy Spirit, how much more is it fitting to say this to us?”