All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2Timothy 3: 16-17
Note the definitive statements. ALL Scripture is divinely inspired. It is all we need to prepare Christians for EVERY good work. We either believe what we believe or we do not. Picking and choosing is simply making it up as we go along; recreating God in our own image. No beloved, we must accept the Word God has given us as the first step to finding His knowledge for our lives.
Along with accepting His Word, we must store it up according to verse one. We must not only accept the Word of God but we must remember it. Why? Because within it is the truth we need to get through this life. To defeat the works of the enemy in our lives. So when the enemy tells us we are no good we can remind ourselves that we are children of God (1John 3:1). When the enemy says that we need to be afraid we can remind ourselves that God has not given us a spirit of fear (2Timothy 1:7). When the enemy tells us that we will never achieve what we are working on we can remind ourselves that we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). When the enemy says we will never reach the next level God has for us we can remind ourselves that He who started a good work in us will be faithful to complete it (Philippians 1:6). We store up His Word because it contains all the answers we need to whatever the world or the enemy wants to throw at us. When Jesus Himself was tempted by the devil He answered every temptation with a Scripture. He did not engage in a conversation with the enemy. He did not debate him or point out where he was wrong. He simply relayed the promises God had already made to Him knowing they trump anything else! Storing up His Word also keeps us in line with how God wants us to behave. David spoke to this:
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11
We also need to hide His Word in our hearts to remind us of the paths of righteousness He wants us to walk on. To avoid the ways of the world and the heartache they cause. We must accept all of God's Word and actively seek to store it up inside of us.
Verse two says that we must turn our ear to wisdom and apply our hearts to understanding. Interesting observations from this verse. First of all God is telling us that we need to turn our ear to wisdom to God in other words. This speaks to what we choose to listen to. The world is full of messages they want you to hear. Messages of greed and self-reliance. Messages of hate and intolerance. Messages of passing the buck and survival of the fittest. We cannot turn our ears to these messages. Verse two here starts by reminding us that we have to choose what we listen to. God does not want us conforming to the world:
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12: 2
To test and approve the perfect and pleasing will of God! The knowledge of God! This world has nothing for us as believers. We must turn our ears to God and the things of God. But the end of verse two reminds us that hearing is not good enough. Knowledge without application is useless. If you knew driving off a cliff would kill you but you did it anyway, what good did that knowledge gain you? Many Christians today know the truth about the cliff the world is offering and are driving off of it anyway. That is because while they have turned their ears to wisdom, they have not applied it in their hearts to understand it.
