Category Archives: TIMOTHY, SECOND

CHRISTIAN LIVING, TIMOTHY, SECOND

“AS A GOOD SOLDIER” — BOB PRICHARD

What is it like to be deployed to the field to fight to defend our country? USAA Magazine suggested the following to see what it is like:

1. Use 18 scoops of coffee per pot and allow it to sit for five or six hours before drinking.

2. Replace your garage door with a curtain.

3. Sleep on a cot in the garage.

4. Two hours after you’ve fallen asleep, have someone rip open the curtain, shine a flashlight in your eyes, and mumble, “Sorry, wrong cot.”

5. Spread gravel throughout your house and yard.

6. Don’t watch TV except for movies in the middle of the night. Have your family vote on which movie to watch and then show a different one.

7. When you take a shower, wear flip-flops and keep the lights off.

8. Sandbag the floor of your car to protect from mine blasts and fragmentation.

9. Have the paperboy give you a haircut.

10. Set your alarm clock to go off at random times during the night.

And of course, they daily risk their lives.

Paul told Timothy, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier” (2 Timothy 2:3-4). Timothy was in the Lord’s army. You and I are also in the Lord’s army.

Why is it that we seem so unwilling to “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”? Are we too soft to serve? Are we willing to go and do what the Lord requires of us? Or could it be that we are too entangled in the affairs of this life?

How long has it been since you really sacrificed (time, money, energy, resources) for the Lord? Does the Lord consider you a “good soldier”?

BIBLE QUESTIONS, NEW TESTAMENT, TIMOTHY, SECOND

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO “STUDY TO SHOW THYSELF APPROVED UNTO GOD”? – BOB PRICHARD

The apostle Paul wrote to the evangelist Timothy, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). This verse well-illustrates the need for understanding that word meanings may change, and we must be ever on guard against misapplying or twisting scripture, even when we try to teach the truth. The rendering, “study to show thyself approved unto God” is found only in the King James Version, translated in the year 1611. In 1611 the word “study” meant “strive”, or “be diligent”. Thus the New American Standard Bible renders the verse, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth”. The New International Version renders the verse, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth”.

Bible study is very important, but 2 Timothy 2:15 is not just a command to study the Bible. Being an approved workman involves much more. Paul wanted Timothy to understand that to be a workman that God could approve, he would have to be diligent in his service to God. God is not the kind of Master that accepts shoddy work! By earnestly applying himself in service, Timothy would not need to be ashamed as he stood before God in the day of judgment. To be that diligent, approved workman, he would have to correctly handle the word of truth, what the King James Version renders, “rightly dividing the word of truth”. Of necessity, correctly handling the Bible, the word of truth will involve much study, contemplation, and prayer. It will involve bringing an open mind, an open heart, and a faithful life to the word of truth. Implied in the correct handling is the proper understanding of the divisions between the Old and the New Covenants, understanding that the New Testament is the rule of faith and practice for Christians today.

The goal of being an approved workman should be the goal of all of God’s children. In the verses immediately before 2 Timothy 2:15, Paul stressed the importance of living faithfully before God, even to the point of suffering. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us (2 Timothy 2:12). He then told Timothy, “Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers” (2 Timothy 2:14).

The evangelist Timothy was to remind his hearers of the sacrifice of Christ, the need for serving Him, and the need to work diligently to be approved workmen before God. The diligent application of all our energy to the service of God will allow us to join Timothy standing before God without shame. Nothing will help us more to please God than to handle carefully and correctly God’s written word. We should look to the written word of God with the same reverence as the psalmist who wrote, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).