2 Timothy 3:17 - Exposition

Complete for perfect , A.V.; furnished completely for throughly furnished , A.V.; every good work for all good works , A.V. Complete ( ἄρτιος ); only here in the New Testament, but common in classical Greek. "Complete, perfect of its kind" (Liddell and Scott). Furnished completely ( ἐξηρτισμένος , containing the same root as ἄρτιος ); elsewhere in the New Testament only in Acts 21:5 in the sense of "completing" a term of days. It is nearly synonymous with καταρτίζω (Ma Acts 21:16 ; Luke 6:40 ; 2 Corinthians 13:11 ; Hebrews 13:21 ; 1 Peter 5:10 ). In late classical Greek ἐξαρτίζω means, as here, "to equip fully." As regards the question whether the man of God is restricted in its meaning to the minister of Christ, or comprehends all Christians, two things seem to decide in favour of the former: the one that "the man of God" is in the Old Testament invariably applied to prophets in the immediate service of God (see 1 Timothy 6:11 , note); the other that in 1 Timothy 6:11 it undoubtedly refers to Timothy in his character of chief pastor of the Church, and that here too the whole force of the description of the uses and excellence of Holy Scripture is brought to bear upon the exhortations in 1 Timothy 6:14 , "Continue thou in the things which thou hast heard," addressed to Timothy as the Bishop of the Ephesian Church (see, too, 1 Timothy 4:1-5 , where it is abundantly clear that all that precedes was intended to bear directly upon Timothy's faithful and vigorous discharge of his office as an evangelist).