Understanding The Four-Fold Benefits Of God's Word by Joseph Akinrinola

It is not funny when some Christians, even leaders, claimed to be New Testament believers. I assume they are being naïve, not knowing there was no Matthew to Revelation as at the time of the Apostles. Thus, 2 Timothy 3:16 was referring to the Old Testament. Note the words “all scripture” in the singular and “is.” The books from Genesis to Malachi are codified into one as God’s breath.

This implies we have all the plans of God for our existence embedded in the Scriptures. As you know, you only get the benefit of a will if you know the content and detail. That means if you do not take time to seek the interpretation, you may miss a lot of your benefits. That leads us to explore the four-fold benefits of the word of God.

God is His word. The word of God contains all that we need for life and ministry. However, believers, these days seek to find an alternative to the word to no avail. The world with the best knowledge still discovers a vacuum without the word of God.

Our limited understanding of the four-fold ministry of the word of God accounts for the way we handle the word. In this post, I will share the four-fold impact of God’s word.

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NKJV)

Doctrine

Doctrines are the principles, ideology, and ethics of a group of people. These principles may be that of a social, religious, or political group. These doctrines guide the pattern of life of the group. It is these ethics that determine what action or attitudes are wrong or right. To the Christians, the word of God is our pattern of life. That is what makes us different. It follows, therefore, that the world’s opinion does not count so long as we are in line with the word of God. Once you are a child of God, what pleases God is your primary concern. Jesus said he came to do his father’s biddings. This should be our doctrine. (John 6:38) Whether we preach, teach, work, or play pleasing God should be our ultimate goal, then our achievement becomes secondary. In your ministry, business, family, recreation, the social, and political world, the word of God should have the final say. Doctrines have divided us as Christians more than uniting us. I assume God will sometimes laugh or frown at our childish argument and conflict on doctrinal issues that have no eternal value. It is time we jointly rebuke sin, fight injustice, and racism instead of defending denominational doctrines. The way out of this is to apply the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 14, especially verse 19.

Reprove

To reproof is to show your displeasure to an action or behavior. Part of the four-fold ministry of God’s word is to reproof us for any wrongdoing. Though none of us like this aspect of God’s word, yet we must accept it if we want the best from God. His words confirm reprove as our mark of being children of God. Hebrews 12:8, Proverbs 3:12.

God’s reproof comes in several ways. Some come when reading his word, others through a sermon, a friend, or those ahead of us in life or ministry. Whichever way, God’s word is to whip us back in line. This prevents us from drifting further into error. The word of God remains infallible, whereas our nation’s constitution is perverted.

Corrections

To correct is to change the error. A believer faces many challenges that often lead to error. The mistake can be in our walk with God or men. Often we feel bad when we err, but we do not even know what next to do. That is when the word of God comes to our aid. Recent happening in America’s political happenings, shows all democracies are far from being perfect. Until Christ comes, the word of God remains the source to correct man’s error.

Instructions

Instructions are set out rules of operation. God gave the Ten Commandments to the Jews as an emerging nation, just coming out of Egypt, to guide them. As they went further, the book of Leviticus gave further instructions on worship, relationship, leadership, and business. The books of Timothy and Titus are regarded as Pastoral Epistles or instructions. The two epistles are typical instructions for living as both a Christian and a minister. In both books, Paul gave instructions on the pattern of living for the leaders and the led. He addressed all age groups. With that, each believer will know how to comport himself or herself both in the church and society. The word of God should lead us to precept by precept until Christ is formed in us. The four-fold impact of God’s word will accomplish one goal, which is to perfect us. “that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:17 NKJV) Beloved, the Bible has the answer to all questions about our total being. God gave this one asset to Joshua for him to succeed. Joshua 1:8. That advice holds sway today for Christians, both old and young. We run into a crisis when replacing the word of God with man’s ideology. As we can see, that has failed us.

What is worrisome now is leaving almost no legacy of the word of God to the next generation. We focus more on building structures than building lives. Today we celebrate charisma over character. However, you and I can change the narratives by demonstrating our resolve to live the word of God before our young people.

I am Joseph, an author, blogger, and content writer from Nigeria. In the field of writing, I deliver unique, grammatically correct, and plagiarism-free content. Currently, I work with three online firms specializing in motivation, human capacity development, lifestyle, relationship, and spiritual writings.