DEFENDING A LION?
Opening Prayer
Lord, Your Word is a continual wonder to me.
Read 2 TIMOTHY 3:10–17
A Final Charge to Timothy
10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Footnotes:
a 2 Timothy 3:17 Or that you, a man of God,
New International Version (NIV)
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Meditate
Lord, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” (Psa. 119:105).
Think Further
Today we look further at Paul’s instructions concerning false teaching and its antidote, “sound doctrine.” Here is the touchstone to which all Christian teaching must be brought—“the Holy Scriptures” (15). In Paul’s day, “Scripture” referred to our Old Testament and probably to some of the apostolic writings now found in our New Testament, including some by Paul himself. In verse 16, the authority of Scripture is shown to issue from its divine origin. “God-breathed,” a literal translation of the Greek word theopneustos, is better than “inspired by God,” since “inspired” is frequently used today to denote something less than divine, such as a performance by an actor, a musician or a goalkeeper.
However, to consider only the origin of Scripture is to sell this passage short. What it also does is important: note from verses 15–17 the effects which Scripture is intended to have on us. Arguing for the authority of the Bible will be fruitless, perhaps even hypocritical, unless we are continually being changed and molded by its teaching. A good test of whether this is the case is to ask, “Does my Bible reading challenge my beliefs and behavior from time to time, or does it always simply confirm what I already think and do?” If the latter, then I should be concerned that, however much I declare my belief in the authority of Scripture, I am in fact not open to God’s act of speaking to me through his Word.
C. H. Spurgeon, the great Victorian Baptist preacher, is said to have remarked, “Defend the Bible? I would as soon defend a lion!” The Bible contains a power which is its own authentication. In C. S. Lewis’s Narnia stories, Aslan is not a tame lion. May we not domesticate the Scriptures, but allow them to speak to us, challenge us and change us.
Apply
Am I open to being attacked by the truths of Scripture?
Closing prayer
Lord, we thank You for inspiring the Bible and for preserving it for all believers throughout the centuries.
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