TheOldATrain
From CityView Baptist Church
15 January 2010 - 4:40am
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV): "All Scripture is breathed out by God (literally, 'God-breathed') and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."
I've tried to put together a relatively straightforward treatment of this text, hopefully one that doesn't come across sounding like a dry, boring theology lesson.
The feedback I'm most interested in is
1) lyrical content
2) singability, particularly for those who are vocally untrained
Cheers.
GOD, YOU BREATHED
God, You breathed
Every word that ended up in Scripture;
Every stroke of every letter
Is what You wanted to say.
God, You breathed
Purpose and power into Your revelation;
Every detail is beneficial
For equipping the saints:
CHORUS
For teaching right belief and understanding,
Rebuking every bending of Your Truth,
Correcting every form of sinful practice,
And training up Your church in righteous living.
ENDING
So we’ll be well-prepared through each good work
To bring to life the words You’ve said…
The words You’ve said…
(c) 2010 Alex Morris
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Marc Proctor
From New Hope Church
2 March 2010 - 4:51pm
Hey Alex! Just noticed this fell through the cracks, thought I'd give a thought or two to give it a "bump".
I think you put it together nicely. As far as singability, I think it would be fine. I'd have no trouble following it. For lyrical content, this line was a tad awkward to me "Rebuking every bending of Your Truth," I'm not sure what this statement means. Maybe I'm just slow though!
Its a nice song! Captured the 2 Timothy scripture nicely!
Thanks, Marc, for the bump and the feedback.
As I understand the passage, teaching and rebuking have to do with doctrine; correcting and training have to do with practice, so one could almost paraphrase it as,
All Scripture is God-breathed and is therefore useful for
teaching correct doctrine,
rebuking false doctrine,
correcting bad practice,
training in proper practice
So the Scripture helps us identify and respond to error and false teaching that often comes in small and subtle packages, i.e., just a slight bending or twisting of God's Truth.
Thanks for listening and taking the time to respond.
Alex
Hi Alex,
I'll answer the second point first. I found the melody easy to pick up, although the verse melody is stronger than the chorus.
Lyrically it's clear and concise. I'd question the phrase "every detail is beneficial for equipping the saints". There's a difference between all scipture being God-breathed, and every detail of scripture being beneficial (which isn't an idea found in 2 Tim). When Paul refers to "scripture" he's probably referring to the OT ("from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures"), but that's another discussion.
But I like the overall focus on the importance of scripture while being explicit about God's role in its authorship (i.e. it's God-focused, not Bible focused!)
Paul
Paul,
Thanks for responding. Your posts are always insightful.
You're right; there are two ideas at work in this song -- inspiration in the general sense (the thrust of 2 Tim 3:16-17) and verbal plenary inspiration (not in 2 Tim 3:16-17 but taught elsewhere in the NT); and the line "every detail is beneficial for equipping the saints" is sort of a combination of those two ideas.
I'm sure we'd all agree that not every detail of Scripture is equally beneficial (i.e., genealogies, epistolary "greeting lists", and prophecies against extinct people groups might tend to have less present-day application than John 3:16), but I think the line does express a true treaching of Scripture as a whole.
Thanks for listening. I always look forward to reading your posts.
I'll be curious to see where that discussion on the new heavens and the new earth ends up going :^)
Alex
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