How to Study Scripture Part 1

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Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. - 2nd Timothy 2:15

This text comes from a larger context in which the Apostle Paul is instructing Timothy, a young Pastor in a mainstream area, Ephesus, in a church plant. For today we're going to just look at this text and do what it commands. 

First, we are to be diligent. This implies intent and desire. Bible reading is a basic spiritual discipline. It's the foremost way that God has designed for us to get to know who He is. He has not left us in the dark feeling and groping and wondering. There's a popular analogy about a group of blind folded people feeling up an elephant and each one has a part of the elephant and therefore each draws his/her own conclusion about what they're feeling. Well, if the elephant speaks, all bets are off! At that point the people have a choice to either believe what the elephant has said or walk in outright rebellion thinking that they know better and hold on to their delusion.

We must be intentional about our Bible reading. This means we need to make time for it. I know, we're all busy and we can make excuses, but the truth is, we make time for what we want to do. We'll plan it out and make sure that everything is in place. We do it every holiday season, especially for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. It's true of vacations we want to take and many other facets of life. Maybe we need to be truthful with ourselves, come clean with God and repent for not having a desire to be with Him, for not wanting to hear from Him, for not wanting to know Him. In short it may be time to repent for not loving The Lord Our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength which is the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37). God is gracious, when we come to Him, He will not turn us away. Ask Him for the strength to be diligent in Bible study. Ask Him to inflame our heart and captivate us all over again. Ask Him to fill us with awe and wonder of who He is. Life has a way of eroding that truth from our heart and it’s a good habit to ask God to help us before we begin reading.

  

Second is the why. Why are we being diligent? So that we may present ourselves approved to God. First, what this text is NOT saying is that if we’re faltering in our study that God somehow disapproves of us, nor is it saying that we study in order to gain approval from God. Therefore, it’s important to study and to understand the context of a verse or passage. Remember, Paul is instructing Timothy on being a faithful Pastor in a metropolitan area filled with secularism and false teaching. Therefore, this phrase, approved of God, has at its core being true to what God has said. Earlier in the text Paul exhorts Timothy to stay away from myths, genealogies, and wives-tales that only lead to strife. Paul is urgently warning Timothy, and us, to avoid false teaching and the way to do that is to be zealous, or diligent in our study of God’s Word. Knowing that we are have given attention to the Word of God we proclaim and teach God’s word with confidence knowing that if all of earth and hell come against us, all of heaven has our back.

This flows straight into the third point from our text and that is: We are workers who do not need to be ashamed. This doesn’t mean that we won't face opposition. We are in a war with all that would keep us from pursuing full life in God, through Christ, by the Holy Spirit and we die daily. We have brothers and sisters who are put to death because they believe in Christ and preach Him boldly. We will lose friends and family. This is not an easy walk but throughout scripture we see men and women who held on to Christ and stayed strong. This is not a strength that’s born of will power. This is a supernatural strength that comes from God Himself. Listen to what Paul says to Timothy:

⁸ Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, ⁹ for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained. ¹⁰ Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the ^[c]elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

¹¹ This is a faithful saying:

For if we died with Him,
We shall also live with Him.
¹² If we endure,
We shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him,
He also will deny us.
¹³ If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.

Paul is suffering and he tells Timothy that he’s suffering for the sake of the Gospel and not to be ashamed of him or of The Gospel of God.

Finally, Paul ends this portion of his exhortation in much the same way he started it and that is all of this comes as we rightly divide the word of truth. If there’s a right way to read God’s Word, it only stands to reason that there’s a wrong way. The elephant analogy is how most of us approach our Bible reading and study time. We read a portion of a passage and feel it up. We ask the wrong questions and end up with wrong conclusions. We ask, “What does this mean to me?” “How does this make me feel?” More accurate questions are “What’s happening in this text?” “What is it showing me about God, Christ and myself?” “How should I respond to this?” “Do I need to repent?” “Can I rejoice because God has set me free from this which I’m reading?” “How should I pray this text out?” “Who can I share this with?”

Let this be the foundation of our Bible study time. May we learn to love God with all of who we are as we learn who He is.

In Christ,

Storm