That Man May Be Perfect
That Man May Be Perfect
After establishing how the Word of God came
into existence, the next step in our building process
is to find out what is the function of His Word. Let
us look again at II Timothy 3:16.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God
[God-breathed], and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for [which is] instruction
in righteousness.
All Scripture from Genesis to Revelation is
profitable. The Scripture does not put you in the
red; it keeps you in the black. What is it profitable
for? It “...is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness.” All
Scripture is profitable in three areas: (1) doctrine,
which is how to believe rightly; (2) reproof, which
is to rebuke at the places where we are not believing
rightly; and (3) correction, which is to put us back
to right believing. The entire Word of God will do
just that. It will teach us how to believe rightly, it
will reprove us at the places where we are believing
wrongly, and it will correct us so that we can again
believe rightly. All three of these are “instruction in
righteousness.”
Many times a critic of the Bible comes along and
says, “Well, the Bible is not true. I feel that there
are too many contradictions; the Bible really is just
another book among the rest of them.” This is not
the testimony of the Word of God. The testimony of
the Word of God is that all Scripture is God-breathed
and is profitable for doctrine, which is to
teach us how to believe rightly, how to believe
positively. If we are going to tap the resources for
the more abundant life we must know how to
believe rightly. To the people who say that the
Bible has lots of error in it, I would like to state that
the true Word of God is accurate from Genesis to
Revelation. The errors have come in by man
propounding those errors. Men have brought their
opinions and desires into The Word. When men
come and say that they do not believe the Bible, we
must remember that the Bible was never written for
the unbeliever, the agnostic, or the infidel; the Bible
was not written for the God-rejectors and the God-deniers.
The Bible was written for men and women
who want to find answers. The Word of God is
given to men and women who want to tap resources
for the more abundant life. This is why the critic
who comes from the outside to the Word of God
has no footing to stand on to judge The Word
because The Word has already judged him.
The Bible was written so that you as a believer
need not be blown about by every wind of doctrine
or theory or ideology. This Word of God does not
change. Men change, ideologies change, opinions
change; but this Word of God lives and abides
forever. It endures, it stands. Let’s see this from
John 5:39. “Search the scriptures....” It does not say
search Shakespeare or Kant or Plato or Aristotle or
V.P. Wierwille’s writings or the writings of a
denomination. No, it says, “Search the scriptures...”
because all Scripture is God-breathed. Not all that
Wierwille writes will necessarily be God-breathed;
not what Calvin said, nor Luther, nor Wesley, nor
Graham, nor Roberts; but the Scriptures – they are
God-breathed.
John 5:39:
Search the scriptures; for in them...ye have
eternal life: and they [the Scriptures] are they
which testify of me.
The Scriptures tell us the truth about the Lord
Jesus Christ, and about God; this is doctrine – it is
right believing.
John 17:8:
For I have given unto them the words which
thou gavest me; and they have received them,
and have known surely that I came out from
thee, and they have believed that thou didst
send me.
Jesus gave them the words which God gave to
Him, the Scriptures, the Word of God. John 17:14
says, “I have given them thy word....” Without the
Word of God, which is right believing, you and I
could never walk in the greatness of the power of
God.
John 17:17:
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is
truth.
The Word is truth. This is the testimony that The
Word gives of itself. Eventually we have to come to
the testimony of The Word itself and let it speak.
We never bring God’s Word down to our level; we
always bring ourselves up to the level of God’s
Word. Never come to the Word of God with your
skepticism, your doubt, your opinion. You come to
the Word of God and let it speak for itself and then
you reevaluate and readapt your living to the
integrity and the accuracy of God’s Word.
What else does the Scripture do besides give
doctrine? It is also profitable for reproof. The
Scripture reproves us when we are not believing
rightly. The Word tells us where we are off; it
admonishes us for our wrong believing. No man has
a right to reprove any other man. The Word of God
has to do the reproving because what I might allow
in my life, somebody else might not allow in his
life.
Romans 14:22:
Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God.
Happy is he that condemneth not himself in
that thing which he alloweth.
I have experienced people’s reproof when they
did not like the ties that I wore, to cite one example.
I was then moving among circles that taught if you
offend somebody by what you do, you should quit
doing it. So I got rid of the old tie and found out
that the next tie offended someone else. I tried
every which way to please people because people
were reproving me for wearing this or wearing that.
I have come to the place in my life that I am
concerned about what God thinks and not what
people think. I take my reproof not from what
people say, but from what The Word says. These
Scriptures are God-breathed and these Scriptures
are profitable for right believing. Where we are
believing and acting wrongly, The Word reproves
us.
After doctrine and reproof, what is the third thing
the Scripture does? Not only does it teach us right
believing and reprove us when we are not believing
rightly, but it corrects us. The Word of God is
profitable to correct us, to bring us back to
believing rightly once more. Parents should utilize
this technique in training their children. Most of us
as parents say, “Don’t do that.” Seldom do we add
the correction and tell them what they ought to do.
But that is exactly what The Word does. It tells us
where we are believing wrongly; but then it gives
the correction and tells us how we can get back to
right believing.
There are many examples of correction in the
Bible. Take David, for instance. David was off the
ball. He found beautiful Bathsheba and then had her
husband shot while in the front lines of battle so
that he, David, could have Bathsheba as his wife. A
few people knew about the sequence of events
leading to David’s marriage, but nobody had a right
to say anything because David was king and every
woman in the kingdom was technically the property
of the king or belonged to the king. However, there
happened to be a little prophet whose name was
Nathan with whom God had a conversation. One
time God said to Nathan, “Nathan, you go over and
tell David that he has sinned.” And Nathan said,
“Oh, Lord, not me. I don’t want to go to David
because old David is handy at chopping off heads.”
But the Lord insisted, “You go over and tell him
about a man who had many sheep and his neighbor
had just one little lamb and that little lamb was so
precious to him that he took it to the table with him
and he took it to bed with him; he mothered it in his
bosom. You tell him that story. Tell him how the
rich man once had a visitor. And instead of taking
one of his own sheep to feed his visitor, the rich
man went over to the neighbor and picked up his
one lamb and butchered it.”
So Nathan went to see David and he said, “King
David, something terrible happened in this kingdom.
A rich man had company coming, and do you
know what this man did? He went over to his
neighbor and got that one little lamb that was so
precious, the only thing the poor neighbor had, and
he brought it to his home and slaughtered it.”
Nathan told David the whole story. David became
very angry and he said to Nathan, “You tell me who
the man is. Give me his name and I’ll have his head
chopped off.” Nathan looked David right in the eye
and he said to him, “You are the man.”
How would you like to have been Nathan? If
Nathan had gone down there with any other story,
do you know what would have happened to him?
David would have had Nathan beheaded. But God
told Nathan what to say so that David would trap
himself. The moment David said, “Let me know
who it is,” Nathan said, “You are the man.” At that
moment David recognized the truth of what Nathan
was bringing from God and David said, “Well, I am
sorry.” He turned to God and asked God to forgive
him. Then it says in the Word of God that David
was a man after God’s own heart. He was not after
God’s heart when he was out fooling around with
Bathsheba and having Uriah killed; no, but when he
was back in line, David was a man after God’s own
heart. When we rightly divide The Word and we
walk in the power of it – then we are men and
women after God’s own heart.
So all Scripture is God-breathed, profitable for
doctrine – right believing, for reproof – reprimanding
when we are believing wrongly, and for
correcting us – for putting us back in line for God.
This is instruction in righteousness. Isn’t that a
tremendous verse of Scripture when we examine it
closely to see the greatness of God’s Word.
After having the function of God–breathed
Scripture – doctrine, reproof, and correction which
are instruction in righteousness – disclosed in one
concise verse, God follows with the next line in II
Timothy 3 by giving the purpose of the God-breathed
Word.
II Timothy 3:17:
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly
furnished unto all good works.
The purpose, as it says, is “that the man of
God....” Let us see who is a man of God. The word
“man” in this usage means “one who is a spokesman
for God, one who speaks for God.”
Deuteronomy 33:1:
And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the
man of God blessed the children of Israel
before his death.
Moses was a man of God because he spoke for
God. Deuteronomy 18:15 reads,
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a
Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren,
like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.
Moses was this man of God. He was a prophet,
one who speaks for God. The greatness of this is
that every time that a believer speaks the accuracy
of God’s Word, he is like a man of God. When you
speak the accuracy of God’s Word, you are as a
man of God. When we speak His Word, we are
speaking as though God Himself were speaking.
God’s purpose is “that the man of God [the one
who speaks for God], may be perfect....” Somebody
may come along and say, “Well, you cannot be
perfect.” The Word of God says we are to be.
The Greek word for “perfect” is used only this
one time in the Bible which makes it especially
interesting in Biblical research and accuracy. The
word “perfect” is the Greek word artios used as an
adjective. Artios is defined in two ways. One way is
describing a ship when it is equipped for its voyage,
having on it everything needed to make a successful
trip. Whenever that ship is so perfectly outfitted that
it lacks nothing, then the word that is used in Greek
is artios. The other usage of artios regards the ball-and-
socket joint. As the ball of the hip fits into the
socket, for example, is called artios. If one should
have even the tiniest foreign particle in the ball-and-socket
joint of the hip, the pain would be excruciating.
God’s Word declares the purpose of the Word of
God is that the man of God may be perfect, without
one foreign body there to cause a blemish. The
purpose is for the man of God to be so perfect that
he has everything that is ever needed in every
situation, not lacking one thing. He is completely
prepared for a successful voyage.
Then in II Timothy 3:17 comes the next word:
“That the man of God may be perfect, throughly....”
The word is “throughly,” not “thoroughly.” I have
asked hundreds of people in classes to read this
verse of Scripture, and 99 out of 100 will read that
word “thoroughly.” When we do not read what is
written, how can we expect to understand the Word
of God? People are constantly reading into it. Our
minds project rather than read. It is basic that we
read what is written. II Timothy 3:17 does not say
“thoroughly;” it says “throughly.” You may ask,
“What is the difference?” You see, I can wash
hands thoroughly, but I cannot wash my hands
throughly. “Throughly” implies an inside job
whereas “thoroughly” is for the external. The
purpose of the Word of God is that the man of God
may be perfect, not on the outside, but on the
inside.
If the word “thoroughly” is in your Bible, it is a
proofreader’s oversight. If it were typed accurately,
the word would always be printed “throughly” One
cannot have perfection on the outside unless he first
has perfection on the inside. The purpose of the
Word of God is that the man of God may be perfect
on the inside as a starting point.
“That the man of God may be perfect, throughly
furnished....” At this point, the translation has failed
to communicate the impact of this verse. The word
“furnished” is from the same root word in Greek as
the word “perfect.” The Greek word for “perfect” is
artios; the Greek word for “furnished” in II Timothy
3:17 is exartizō. Exartizō is a verb whereas artios is
an adjective. Literally it says, “That the man of God
may be perfect, throughly perfected....” Not only is
the man to be perfect, but he is to be through and
through and throughly perfected.
In two short verses of Scripture, The Word tells
us both its own function and its purpose.
II Timothy 3:16, 17:
All scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly
furnished unto all good works.
What a foundational revelation to our study and
understanding of the Word of God!