THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus
Message Three
The Bible Being God’s Breathing
Scripture Reading: 2 Tim. 3:14-17; Eph. 6:17-18a; John 6:63; Gal. 3:2; Acts 6:10; 2 Cor. 3:6; Isa. 6:1-8
I. “All Scripture is God-breathed”—2 Tim. 3:16a: (2004 WT, msg. 8)
A. The Scripture, the word of God, is the breathing out of God—vv. 16. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
B. God’s speaking is God’s breathing out; hence His word is spirit, or breath—John 6:63. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
C. 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—cf. footnote 2, Tim. 3:16. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, 2 Tim. 3:16, footnote 2)
D. As the embodiment of God the Spirit, the Scripture (God’s word) is also the embodiment of Christ; Christ is God’s living Word (Rev. 19:13), and the Scripture is God’s written word—Rev. 19:13, cf. footnote 2, Tim. 3:16. (Holy Bible Recovery Version, 2 Tim. 3:16, footnote 2)
E. This all reveals that being a man of God with the breath of God requires the exercise of our spirit, the continual receiving of the Spirit, and the breathing in of God’s word—1 Tim. 4:7; Gal. 3:2; Eph. 6:17-18a. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
II. The antidote of the divine inoculation against the decline of the church is the God-breathed Scripture, which is profitable for teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work—2 Tim. 3:14-17: (2004 WT, msg. 8)
A. The Bible is God’s breath, this breath is the Spirit, and the Spirit gives life—John 6:63. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
1. Our reading of the Bible should our inhaling of God to receive life, and our teaching of the Bible should be our exhaling of God to impart life—Acts 6:4. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
2. We need to read the Bible by means of all prayer and petition in the spirit to inhale God and minister the word as the Spirit to exhale God into others—Eph. 6:17-18; Acts 6:10; 2 Cor. 3:6. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
B. On God’s side, the Bible is God’s breathing; on our side the Bible is for us to receive the breath of God as our profit in four matters: teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness—2 Tim. 3:16; Phil. 3:9: (2004 WT, msg. 8)
1. Teaching equals revelation; to teach is to roll away the veil so that others may see something of the Triune God and His economy—Eph. 1:17; 3:9. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
2. Conviction comes from the revelation we have seen; whenever we see something of God, we realize our mistakes, wrongdoings, shortcomings, and sins and the result is that we are convicted and reproved; the more we see God, know God, and love God, the more we abhor ourselves and deny ourselves—cf. Isa. 6:1-8; Job 42:5-6; Matt. 16:24. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
3. Correction follows conviction and is a matter of setting right what is wrong, turning someone to the right way, and restoring to an upright state—cf. 7:13-14; James 5:19-20. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
4. Instruction in righteousness is be divinely instructed to enjoy Christ as our lived-out righteousness and to be divinely disciplined in being right with God and with man—Phil. 3:9. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
C. The issue of God’s breathing out of Himself through the Scripture for teaching, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness is that the man of God becomes complete, fully equipped for every good work—2 Tim. 3:16-17: (2004 WT, msg. 8)
1. A man of God is a God-man, one who partakes of God life and nature (John 1:13; 2 Pet. 1:4), thus, being one with God in His life and nature (1 Cor. 6:17) and thereby expressing Him. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
2. God’s breathing produces God-men; we need to continually inhale the Triune God by reading the Scripture with prayer to receive revelation, conviction, correction, and instruction in righteousness—John 1:12-13: (2004 WT, msg. 8)
a. The Bible itself is beneficial and unchanging, but whether or not we receive the full benefit from the Bible depends on how we contact it—Eph. 6:17. (CWWL, 1969, vol. 2, Practicing the Church Life by Exercising the Spirit, ch. 8)
b. The way to taste and enjoy the word of God is to pray-read the Bible, that is, to use the word of the Bible as our prayer—v. 17. (CWWL, 1969, vol. 2, Practicing the Church Life by Exercising the Spirit, ch. 8)
III. To receive the word of God as the breath of God in order to be constituted with God is also to receive the word of God as the sword of the Spirit in order to slay God’s adversary—vv. 17-18a: (2004 WT, msg. 8)
A. Satan is not only the enemy outside of us but also the adversary inside of us; to deal with this inward adversary, we need to experience the killing power of the word, praying over the constant word of the Bible so that it becomes the instant word of the Spirit—John 6:63; Eph. 5:26; Rev. 2:7. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
B. The sword, the Spirit, and the word are one; when the constant word in the Bible becomes the instant word (the applied word spoken at the moment by the Spirit in any situation), that word is the Spirit as the sword that kills the adversary—Heb. 4:12. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
C. The more we take the word of God by means of all prayer in spirit, the more the negative elements in our being are slain; eventually, the self, the worst foe of all, the enemy of the Body, will be put to death—cf. Rev. 1:16; 2:16. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
D. Whenever we are troubled by something negative within us, we should take the word of God by means of prayer in spirit; when the negative things in us are killed through pray-reading, the Lord is victorious—Eph. 6:17. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
E. We are preserved in the church life and in the ministry by receiving the word as the Spirit to be the killing sword, which is a spiritual antibiotic to kill the “germs” within us so that we can live a healthy Body life, a healthy church life—v. 17; Rev. 1:16. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
F. The overcomers keep the Lord’s word by always coming to the Lord to contact Him as the living Word in the written Word so that He can become the applied word as the dispensing Spirit in them—3:8; John 1:1; 5:39-40; 6:63. (2004 WT, msg. 8)
G. The overcomers are fully constituted with the Spirit as the word of God to be the bride of Christ and the new man, the corporate man of God with the breath of God as the killing sword for the destruction of the enemies of God and the manifestation of the sons of God—Rev. 2:7; 22:17a; 19:13-15; 2 Thes. 2:8. (2004 WT, msg. 8)