2 Timothy 3:14-17
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
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.
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
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.
Timothy's mother and grandmother (and perhaps others, but we know about these two because Paul names them earlier in the book) gave this young man a wonderful gift early in life.
They taught him the scriptures.
"From infancy..." Paul says, "you have known..."
Most of us parents have a significant degree of guilt around this very topic, perhaps.
As my oldest son and I watched Star Wars together this weekend, a guilt pang rang through me as I realized that perhaps he knows more about the drama of Darth and Luke than David and Goliath.
Could Timothy really have known the scriptures "from infancy?"
It's almost as though Paul implies that Timothy carried a God-implanted yearning for knowledge about his creator from the time of his birth.
I don't know if that's far from the truth.
I have found that my children, and all the ones I know at church, are amazingly curious about the Bible and its stories.
I have actually found that same curiosity and interest to be alive within us older folks, too.
There is a magnetic field around the Bible somehow. It does draw us, even though we may find it frustrating or difficult at times...the question always lingers..."what if this book can really teach us the ways of God?"
In the 10 years that I've been involved in pastoral ministry, I've heard a lot of excuses for not reading the Bible. I've made many of them myself from time to time.
"I just can't understand it...I need to take some classes...I need to learn how to read it first..."
My great-grandfather, Ernest, was not a classroom-educated man. He didn't have that opportunity. But he got the greatest theological education that anyone could ever have. He read the Bible.
His belief was that God's power and Holy Spirit would be present to guide the honest reader, and to show us what we need from scripture.
In 84 years of life, his curiosity never failed. He yearned for God and found him in the worn pages of his special book.
They taught him the scriptures.
"From infancy..." Paul says, "you have known..."
Most of us parents have a significant degree of guilt around this very topic, perhaps.
As my oldest son and I watched Star Wars together this weekend, a guilt pang rang through me as I realized that perhaps he knows more about the drama of Darth and Luke than David and Goliath.
Could Timothy really have known the scriptures "from infancy?"
It's almost as though Paul implies that Timothy carried a God-implanted yearning for knowledge about his creator from the time of his birth.
I don't know if that's far from the truth.
I have found that my children, and all the ones I know at church, are amazingly curious about the Bible and its stories.
I have actually found that same curiosity and interest to be alive within us older folks, too.
There is a magnetic field around the Bible somehow. It does draw us, even though we may find it frustrating or difficult at times...the question always lingers..."what if this book can really teach us the ways of God?"
In the 10 years that I've been involved in pastoral ministry, I've heard a lot of excuses for not reading the Bible. I've made many of them myself from time to time.
"I just can't understand it...I need to take some classes...I need to learn how to read it first..."
My great-grandfather, Ernest, was not a classroom-educated man. He didn't have that opportunity. But he got the greatest theological education that anyone could ever have. He read the Bible.
His belief was that God's power and Holy Spirit would be present to guide the honest reader, and to show us what we need from scripture.
In 84 years of life, his curiosity never failed. He yearned for God and found him in the worn pages of his special book.
Prayer: We believe by faith that all scripture is breathed by you for our salvation. But there are words we find there that we still don't understand. There are verses that we just find too hard and there are words that give us great peace. Teach us to humbly learn all that we can of your word as you guide us.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen.
Tomorrow's Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:1-5
1 comment:
One of my greatest struggles parallels the "pang" you referred to: pursuing the Bible with the same fervor or want with which I pursue my favorite TV shows, comic books, or activities. And one of my favorite ways of deceiving myself is by explaining the inconsistency away by placing my desire for the Bible on a separate plane than my desire for anything else. Or worse: I would convince myself that the Scripture I heard in church or at CCF was sufficient enough to sustain me.
It wasnt until I began an accountability relationship with a great buddy of mine that I realized how untrue my previous convictions were.
In coming to know God through the Bible on my own time, I truly developed a yearning for more. I found that though I was only supposed to read two chapters of Romans each night, I was often knocking off two, sometimes three times that amount out of a desire to know my God better; like your magnetic theory.
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