The Bible
2 Timothy 3v16-17
1st January 2021
As the new year begins, it can be good to invest more completely in good habits. I'd like to suggest to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ that we spend more time and energy studying the Bible. Paul taught us that:
2 Timothy 3v16-17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training
in righteousness,
so that the man [or person] of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
I believe that statement to be absolutely true.
Firstly, I believe that all scripture is God-breathed, and therefore is absolutely true. Since God never makes a mistake, I believe the Bible to be inerrant – without error.
I don't believe myself or my teaching to be inerrant, of course. I don't get everything right. I trust that as I continue to study the Bible, my understanding will improve. Any error is always in us, and never in the Bible.
Secondly, I believe that all the Bible is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. Not one word of the Old testament or the New Testament can be ignored or treated as somehow irrelevant. Jesus said:
Matthew 5:17-19
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to
abolish them but to fulfil them.
For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the
least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is
accomplished.
Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others
accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practises and
teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
We may not always find it easy to know how to apply Old Testament teaching in our New Testament context, but it all matters. It's all relevant, and it's all true.
We are called to teach ourselves, to rebuke ourselves, to correct ourselves, and to train ourselves. And the most important way we do this is by reading the Bible, studying it, and applying it to ourselves.
Sometimes, we may be called upon to teach, rebuke, correct or train others. But we must only do so kindly, gently, humbly, and in a godly way. And we can't teach, rebuke, correct or train others if we haven't taught, rebuked, corrected and trained ourselves. The key here is humility. If you don't know that you really have no inherent right to correct others, then you shouldn't be doing it.
Thirdly, I believe that the Bible equips us for every good work. If you want to be effective in God's service, then study the Bible, and when the Bible tells you to change your beliefs, your attitudes or your behaviour, obey it. A young man once asked a church leader how he could become a church leader too. He replied, "Find a quiet place to study, and read the Bible for twenty years". That's extremely good advice.
You may want to tell your friends or neighbours about Jesus. You may want to teach, or lead worship. You may simply want to help build your church into a genuinely Christian community. If you read the Bible, believe it and obey it, then it will shape you into the sort of person who can make a real difference.
There are so very many sad cases of Christians who obey most of the Bible, but refuse to apply some particular verses to themselves. They grow up spiritually deformed. The one or two areas where they refuse to submit themselves to the Bible prevent them growing up straight. And when they serve God, the people around them often see the deformity so much larger than the good stuff.
We shouldn't do this. We should always try to see the good in each other. But the fact remains that the areas in which we refuse to conform to the Bible prevent us achieving much of what we could otherwise have achieved for God.
How do we learn how a Christian should treat other people? By studying the Bible. How do we learn how to pray? By studying the Bible. How do we know we’re forgiven? By studying the Bible. How do we learn what is good and what is bad, what is holy and what is sin, how to speak to non-Christians about Jesus, what is a healthy attitude to money, or ambition, or politics, or anything? By studying the Bible.
Here are some scriptures:
John 8:31-32
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really
my disciples.
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
John 15:7-8
"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given
you.
This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my
disciples."
Love for the Bible is proclaimed in much all of Psalm 119, which includes such thoughts as:
Psalm 199:97-100
Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.
Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me.
I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.
I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.
Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.
Psalm 119:129-130
Your statutes are wonderful; therefore I obey them.
The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.
God shapes our characters in many ways. When we meet together, when we worship, when we pray, when we’re baptised, when we break bread together, when we talk with other Christians, God shapes us. But mostly, God shapes us when we stop, open our Bible, read it, study it, believe it and put it into practice. I would estimate that 95% of the things we know about God, about people, about ethics, about salvation and about the future, we know because we read the Bible.
The biggest moments in the process we call "sanctification" can also be described as "repentance". To repent is to change how we think. Real repentance is to change how we think so radically that we behave differently as a result. And real repentance is usually the result of reading the Bible. As an old pastor of mine used to say, "If the Bible doesn't burn you, you're not reading it properly".
Do you want 2021 to make you a better person, a better Christian, a better brother or sister in Christ, a better witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ? Do you want to walk closer with God? Then spend more time reading the Bible, believe what it says - even when you're not really sure you want to – and put it into practice. Let it change who you are, for good.