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Pentecost+19 – The Word of God
Rev. Dr. Les Martin
St. Timothy icon by Tim Wilson
Pentecost+19 2025
Rev. Dr. Les Martin
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed…be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. – II Timothy 3:14a and 4:5b
In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There is a sense in which the four chapters of 2 Timothy say the same thing over and over, but with a slightly different focus each time. Today in our reading, Paul is urging Timothy to continue in the faith he has learned and firmly believed and locates it in three primary sources for his spiritual son. In order of importance there is first, in Chapter 4 verse 1, “the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,” next there is the proclamation of Jesus by other believers, when Paul says in 3:14 that Timothy knows “from whom you learned it”- a reference to Paul, Lois, Eunice and the church as whole. Lastly, there are “the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation… breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
Therefore, in our reading Paul is suggesting that the Word of God- revealed, proclaimed, and written- is what Timothy should cling to to fulfill his ministry in the face of people who would seek different path of wisdom and hope, more suitable to their own self-centered desires.
In our current context, you and I are likely to equate the term “the Word of God” with the Bible. That’s true enough as far as it goes, but it is not the whole picture. Rather, the church has always understood that the Word of God comes to us in three ways: first and foremost, Jesus himself, next the proclamation- or Gospel- concerning this Jesus, both historical and contemporary, and then also the Sacred Scriptures which we think of as the Word of God. As the Rev. Dr. Paul Van Buren writes:
There is but one Word of God, but that Word is to be met and has been known in three forms within the life of the church.
I want to consider all three today, for if they are a firm foundation of St Timothy in his life and ministry, surely they serve as such for us as well.
First, there is Jesus. He is the true and primary expression of the Word of God, the Logos, or ordering principle of all creation. As the prologue to the Gospel of John teaches:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. The Word was with God in the beginning. All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life… (John 1:1-4a, NET)
The Word who is fully God, who creates and gives life to all creation. The one whose name is Emmanuel and Jesus– the God who is with us, the God who saves. The Word does not just create and give life: when creation was subject to futility, and humanity lost to sin, this Word of God came to be with us, to be sacrificed on our behalf, to restore our fellowship with God. There can be no true proclamation of the Word, no proper understanding of Scripture that does not rest on this fact. Our faith is in the living and active God who is Jesus, not in whatever we may hear preached to us here and there, nor on various interpretations of what we find in the Bible. The Word of God is always first and foremost Jesus- an individual person, uniquely both God and man- not merely a teaching, sermon or a book.
Next, as we see in the pages of the Bible, the Word of God is a proclamation. It is the Gospel, good news, the Message about Jesus. It is the message that Lois and Eunice and Paul told Timothy. In 1 John 1:3 we read:
We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (NLT)
That’s how it worked: those who had seen and heard the Lord extended fellowship to those yet to believe through the proclamation of Jesus to them. Fellowship with them, and with God. The church throughout the world and throughout time, grounding our speech in that original proclamation, has been doing the same by extension ever since.
What is the proclamation? In the words of theologian Robert Jenson, the most basic form is this: “the God of Israel raised the Servant Jesus from the dead.” Many implications abound in this simple sentence, don’t they? For today, I would only add: “And he wants to do the same to you not only in at the end of your life, but every single day of your life.”
The God of Israel raised the Servant Jesus from the dead, and he wants to do the same to you not only at the end of your life, but every single day of your life. This is the Word of God as proclamation, on which Timothy’s faith- and ours- rests.
Lastly, we need to talk about Scripture. Scripture, when it rests upon Jesus and the proclamation of the Church concerning him is indeed the Word of God written for us, useful teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. It helps to form us as people made in and by the truth of Jesus. Paul uses the phrase “inspired by God,” literally “God-breathed.” In the Genesis creation account, God breathes life into humankind; so too God breathes life into his word. We must not smother it. We have to let it breathe. It is the word of God, and it is not only inspired but inspiring—it can breathe new life into us.
However, when it is divorced from Jesus- when it becomes a set of principles, life-hacks and morals, a philosophy or political agenda- well, the Bible is still what is, but our use of it has gone awry. It is not a fortune-telling book, a science book, or an instruction manual. It is a testament to the revelation of Christ and work of God with his people. When we forget that, for us as Christians, the purpose of the Bible is to point us to Jesus and his way, but instead indulge in private interpretations or hit ourselves or others over the head with some form of moralism drawn from its’ pages, we are committing spiritual malpractice.
Jesus, the Gospel, and the Scriptures- the three forms of the Word of God. So what? Why is Paul so keen to have Timothy understand this? What are the lessons for us today? Paul urges Timothy to “continue” in our first verse today, and in “fulfill” his ministry in the last. The task is the same for us- to continue in the teaching and fellowship of the church and fulfill our ministry. All of this, in the midst of a people with itching ears, who prefer their own teachings and beliefs to those we have received. The three forms of the word of God are given to us that we might continue in the truth and fulfill our ministry.
Think of them like a triangle. A triangle is sturdy and coherent because all three sides support each other. Take one out, and the whole thing falls apart. When we separate Jesus from the proclamation about him and the Scriptures that bear witness to God’s mind, he becomes a self-help guru, or maybe an ancient alien, or worst of all a “bless-me” idol made in our own image. It is inevitable. What he can no longer be in our hearts and imaginations is Emmanuel Jesus, the living and active God outside of us and for us.
Separate the proclamation from both scriptures and Jesus, and you have what Paul is warning about explicitly: a myriad of teachers and theologies designed not to express the truth, but to give permission and license to the disordered passions fallen humanity seeks to satisfy their cravings. I mean, have you seen what’s preached out there on the Internet these days?
When we take up scripture apart from Jesus and the faithful proclamation about him, it quickly becomes a treasure-trove of legalism, conspiracies, and man-made schemes that testifies not to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, but to whatever pet theory may be rattling around in our brains.
Scripture is the Word of God, but it cannot be so apart from the other Words of God- Christ himself and the faithful proclamation of who he is. This is why there simply can be no such thing as faithful private interpretation of Holy Scripture. The Bible simply wasn’t designed to work that way. Paul Van Buren again:
“… reading Scripture and hearing what is to be heard there is not a matter of private interpretation, but can only take place in the same context which led to its writing, namely, in faith, on the basis of promise, and in the company of the church.”
Today, Paul is saying to Timothy that both his ministry and the church will endure if he remains rooted in the Word of God: in the presence of Jesus, the Christ; in the living and active proclamation of Jesus by his faithful witnesses; and in the sacred scriptures. This is because Jesus himself reaches out to Timothy to aid and strengthen him, and he reaches out to him as well through the preaching and teaching of the church, and through the scriptures that testify to his mighty acts. Held up by Christ, with the voices of Paul and Lois and Eunice, and all the great crowd of witnesses in his ears, with the word of God, written in his hands, he will endure. So will we. For the truth remains what it always has been:
The God of Israel raised the Servant Jesus from the dead, and he wants to do the same to you not only at the end of your life, but every single day of your life.
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By Rev. Doug FloydRev. Dr. Les Martin
St. Timothy icon by Tim Wilson
Pentecost+19 2025
Rev. Dr. Les Martin
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed…be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. – II Timothy 3:14a and 4:5b
In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There is a sense in which the four chapters of 2 Timothy say the same thing over and over, but with a slightly different focus each time. Today in our reading, Paul is urging Timothy to continue in the faith he has learned and firmly believed and locates it in three primary sources for his spiritual son. In order of importance there is first, in Chapter 4 verse 1, “the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,” next there is the proclamation of Jesus by other believers, when Paul says in 3:14 that Timothy knows “from whom you learned it”- a reference to Paul, Lois, Eunice and the church as whole. Lastly, there are “the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation… breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
Therefore, in our reading Paul is suggesting that the Word of God- revealed, proclaimed, and written- is what Timothy should cling to to fulfill his ministry in the face of people who would seek different path of wisdom and hope, more suitable to their own self-centered desires.
In our current context, you and I are likely to equate the term “the Word of God” with the Bible. That’s true enough as far as it goes, but it is not the whole picture. Rather, the church has always understood that the Word of God comes to us in three ways: first and foremost, Jesus himself, next the proclamation- or Gospel- concerning this Jesus, both historical and contemporary, and then also the Sacred Scriptures which we think of as the Word of God. As the Rev. Dr. Paul Van Buren writes:
There is but one Word of God, but that Word is to be met and has been known in three forms within the life of the church.
I want to consider all three today, for if they are a firm foundation of St Timothy in his life and ministry, surely they serve as such for us as well.
First, there is Jesus. He is the true and primary expression of the Word of God, the Logos, or ordering principle of all creation. As the prologue to the Gospel of John teaches:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. The Word was with God in the beginning. All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life… (John 1:1-4a, NET)
The Word who is fully God, who creates and gives life to all creation. The one whose name is Emmanuel and Jesus– the God who is with us, the God who saves. The Word does not just create and give life: when creation was subject to futility, and humanity lost to sin, this Word of God came to be with us, to be sacrificed on our behalf, to restore our fellowship with God. There can be no true proclamation of the Word, no proper understanding of Scripture that does not rest on this fact. Our faith is in the living and active God who is Jesus, not in whatever we may hear preached to us here and there, nor on various interpretations of what we find in the Bible. The Word of God is always first and foremost Jesus- an individual person, uniquely both God and man- not merely a teaching, sermon or a book.
Next, as we see in the pages of the Bible, the Word of God is a proclamation. It is the Gospel, good news, the Message about Jesus. It is the message that Lois and Eunice and Paul told Timothy. In 1 John 1:3 we read:
We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (NLT)
That’s how it worked: those who had seen and heard the Lord extended fellowship to those yet to believe through the proclamation of Jesus to them. Fellowship with them, and with God. The church throughout the world and throughout time, grounding our speech in that original proclamation, has been doing the same by extension ever since.
What is the proclamation? In the words of theologian Robert Jenson, the most basic form is this: “the God of Israel raised the Servant Jesus from the dead.” Many implications abound in this simple sentence, don’t they? For today, I would only add: “And he wants to do the same to you not only in at the end of your life, but every single day of your life.”
The God of Israel raised the Servant Jesus from the dead, and he wants to do the same to you not only at the end of your life, but every single day of your life. This is the Word of God as proclamation, on which Timothy’s faith- and ours- rests.
Lastly, we need to talk about Scripture. Scripture, when it rests upon Jesus and the proclamation of the Church concerning him is indeed the Word of God written for us, useful teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. It helps to form us as people made in and by the truth of Jesus. Paul uses the phrase “inspired by God,” literally “God-breathed.” In the Genesis creation account, God breathes life into humankind; so too God breathes life into his word. We must not smother it. We have to let it breathe. It is the word of God, and it is not only inspired but inspiring—it can breathe new life into us.
However, when it is divorced from Jesus- when it becomes a set of principles, life-hacks and morals, a philosophy or political agenda- well, the Bible is still what is, but our use of it has gone awry. It is not a fortune-telling book, a science book, or an instruction manual. It is a testament to the revelation of Christ and work of God with his people. When we forget that, for us as Christians, the purpose of the Bible is to point us to Jesus and his way, but instead indulge in private interpretations or hit ourselves or others over the head with some form of moralism drawn from its’ pages, we are committing spiritual malpractice.
Jesus, the Gospel, and the Scriptures- the three forms of the Word of God. So what? Why is Paul so keen to have Timothy understand this? What are the lessons for us today? Paul urges Timothy to “continue” in our first verse today, and in “fulfill” his ministry in the last. The task is the same for us- to continue in the teaching and fellowship of the church and fulfill our ministry. All of this, in the midst of a people with itching ears, who prefer their own teachings and beliefs to those we have received. The three forms of the word of God are given to us that we might continue in the truth and fulfill our ministry.
Think of them like a triangle. A triangle is sturdy and coherent because all three sides support each other. Take one out, and the whole thing falls apart. When we separate Jesus from the proclamation about him and the Scriptures that bear witness to God’s mind, he becomes a self-help guru, or maybe an ancient alien, or worst of all a “bless-me” idol made in our own image. It is inevitable. What he can no longer be in our hearts and imaginations is Emmanuel Jesus, the living and active God outside of us and for us.
Separate the proclamation from both scriptures and Jesus, and you have what Paul is warning about explicitly: a myriad of teachers and theologies designed not to express the truth, but to give permission and license to the disordered passions fallen humanity seeks to satisfy their cravings. I mean, have you seen what’s preached out there on the Internet these days?
When we take up scripture apart from Jesus and the faithful proclamation about him, it quickly becomes a treasure-trove of legalism, conspiracies, and man-made schemes that testifies not to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, but to whatever pet theory may be rattling around in our brains.
Scripture is the Word of God, but it cannot be so apart from the other Words of God- Christ himself and the faithful proclamation of who he is. This is why there simply can be no such thing as faithful private interpretation of Holy Scripture. The Bible simply wasn’t designed to work that way. Paul Van Buren again:
“… reading Scripture and hearing what is to be heard there is not a matter of private interpretation, but can only take place in the same context which led to its writing, namely, in faith, on the basis of promise, and in the company of the church.”
Today, Paul is saying to Timothy that both his ministry and the church will endure if he remains rooted in the Word of God: in the presence of Jesus, the Christ; in the living and active proclamation of Jesus by his faithful witnesses; and in the sacred scriptures. This is because Jesus himself reaches out to Timothy to aid and strengthen him, and he reaches out to him as well through the preaching and teaching of the church, and through the scriptures that testify to his mighty acts. Held up by Christ, with the voices of Paul and Lois and Eunice, and all the great crowd of witnesses in his ears, with the word of God, written in his hands, he will endure. So will we. For the truth remains what it always has been:
The God of Israel raised the Servant Jesus from the dead, and he wants to do the same to you not only at the end of your life, but every single day of your life.