BST Quick Tips: Equipped for Every Good Work

The purpose of reading the Bible isn't simply for you to check something off your to-do list each day. We're meant to read so that our lives can reflect what's in God's Word.

In his second letter to Timothy, the apostle Paul makes clear the reason Christians have Scripture:

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Unfortunately, it's easy to fall into thinking that reading the Bible is simply something we should do because we're supposed to. But Paul's instructions weren't for Timothy to simply know the Scripture well enough to quote inspirational verses when needed. He wanted his young disciple's life to reflect what he read in the Bible in the way he dealt with others.

Paul also adds something important. He says that reading Scripture equips us for "every good work" or, as the NLT puts it, "every good thing God wants us to do." In other words, reading the Bible is meant to arm us for doing good, to transform us for what God wants us to do.

Don't let the routine of reading the Bible be nothing more than a chance to say you've done it. Let God use His Word to equip you for the work He's called you to do.