No Place to Stop!
Our youngest child, Deborah Sue, recently graduated from Texarkana (Arkansas) High School. She was so happy to be finished, to graduate, and to be done with school. We attended the diploma granting service called a commencement. The thing is that, when you commence something, you begin it, not end it. The Latin root of the word has to do with “beginning together.” Graduates come to the end of their school years and celebrate by beginning together, commencing something new, a new phase of their lives. This is altogether as it should be.
For students, graduation should be the beginning, not the end, of learning. When applied to the Christian life, this is even more true. For the Christian, there is not a place to stop learning, growing, serving and applying Scripture. Nobody gets to the place where he has arrived and needs no further Bible knowledge.
Paul wrote to the young preacher Timothy and commanded him to “study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). No matter what Timothy’s education and training, he would never reach a plateau where he did not need to spend time in God’s Word! If this was true for Timothy, whom the apostle Paul mentored, how much more is it true for us?
Notice three facts about Timothy’s continuing education program:
First, Timothy was to study to please God, not people, not churches and not to pass a test! The grand objective behind spending time, energy and effort in the Word was to please the Author of the Book. Spending time in the Word will help your teaching, improve your preaching and make you wise giving counsel, but this is not the primary purpose! “Study to shew thyself approved unto God.”
Second, Timothy was to study so he could be an effective laborer for the Lord. God’s preachers, indeed, all of God’s people, are to be workers for Him, who labor and are not ashamed of their Lord, their labor or their lives. God’s Word is the only thing that can make you “throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:17). Like Timothy, you are to be a “workman that needeth not to be ashamed.”
Third, as he spent quality and quantity time in the Word, Timothy was to gain knowledge to correctly handle, or “cut straight” the Word. Ultimately, the shame of God’s disapproval waits for all who mishandle, misinterpret or misapply God’s Word. Like Timothy, may you be one who is “rightly dividing the word of truth.”
To please God, to serve God without embarrassment and to understand, explain and teach Scripture rightly, you must study it! There is no shortcut; there is no other way! God’s children should spend quality time every day poring over His Word—reading, studying, memorizing and meditating on it!
For all these reasons and many more, Sunday School and BTC should be part of your continued training! These are not just for kids! In Sunday School on September 5, our Fall quarter begins a new decade of Bible study with Genesis! It will be a great time to begin again, at the beginning! BTC study will focus on Trials, Tests and Tribulations as you will learn from Bible characters who endured.
For more informationContact me, LarryClements@abaptist.org for more information.
