The point is that the Bible tells us about its own purposes and powers, what it is for and what it can do. The Bible tells us what are the important things in life and what questions we should ask about them, and then it answers those questions. And since the Bible is the very word and mind of God, it is God who is saying these things to us.

Therefore, the Bible should define both the questions and the answers. It is authoritative and sufficient to tell us what questions to ask and then to answer those questions. The Bible is sufficient because it is at the same time God's revelation of the right questions and God's revelation of the right answers to those questions. If the Bible does not address something, then who says we need to know it? But if there is no need to know it, then how can the Bible be insufficient if it does not address it? In contrast, human philosophy asks the wrong questions, and then it cannot even answer those wrong questions.

Those who go to the Bible only for the answers and not the questions betray a feigned reverence. They are not treating God as God, but as a mere expert that they wish to consult in order to attain their own goals. Underlying all of this is their rebellion and unbelief – they either refuse to let God define their goals or they doubt that God's will is better, or both.

In our example, the goal of making a profit is so dear to the person's heart that rather than letting Scripture challenge or modify it, he would even shield it from Scripture. The goal is tenaciously held, and not open to question – he only wishes to know how to attain it. It so drives his agenda that he never even thought to ask the Bible whether it is right, or whether he is thinking about it the right way.

Again, here we are not at all considering what the Bible says about wealth and stocks, but we are making the point that the Bible should define both our questions and our answers at the very beginning of our thinking. We also mentioned a question about whom to marry. Applying our point to this question, we are saying that rather than carrying to the Bible all that the person thinks that he knows about marriage and then demanding it to tell him whom to marry on such a basis, the person should start by learning what the Bible teaches about God and man, then men and women, Christ and the Church, and the marriage covenant in general. Then, instead of demanding the Bible to answer a question that it never asked, or at least not in the way and with the assumptions that this person asks his question, the answer as to whom he should marry should be a logical application of what the Bible teaches about marriage.

A person who pays no attention when the Bible talks about what marriage is cannot expect to rightly derive an answer from the Bible as to whom he should marry. But for one who starts with the Bible on the subject, the answer is easy – applying what Scripture says about marriage to what providence has arranged around a person often eliminates all other possibilities except one.²⁴ Pastors and counselors sometimes assume that the Bible offers only general guidance on the subject, but this is not true. The Bible gives very specific criteria and instructions, and providence never confuses us with too many options.

Consistent with what we are teaching here, in what follows even the idea of sufficiency is derived from our passage, and the questions "Sufficient for what?" and "Sufficient for whom?" are also thus derived. Paul tells us that the Scripture is God-breathed, and on this basis, it is useful or profitable, and also sufficient. But he tells us more than this, since he also mentions for what and for whom the Scripture is sufficient.

Of course, to learn all that for which Scripture is sufficient, one must read the entire Bible and note all the topics, situations, and people that it addresses. But our project is much more modest – we will limit ourselves to 2 Timothy 3 and 4.

 

Notes

²⁴ See Vincent Cheung, "Unfading Beauty" in Renewing the Mind.

(to be continued)

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