2 Timothy 2:14-15: Study to Shew Thyself Approved unto God
2022-01-29
2 Timothy 2:14
What do you think about all day? The Christian life is much about keeping the mind centered on the things of God. The previous section was a poetic creed to keep in mind; here Paul draws our attention to it and tells Timothy to remind the people of these things. Here, we see that we should keep our mind on the coming of the Lord:
- We’re dead with Him, but we shall live with Him
- If we do not deny Him, we will be rewarded with ruling with Him
- Even when we do fail, He will not fail us
Keep this in the forefront of your mind. However, there are peripherals that can distract us from the coming of the Lord. There are things that can derail the simplicity of the Gospel. These things not only waste our time, but ruin other people’s faith. Hymenaeus and Philetus were such men who did this. We will discuss them shortly, in a future section. Properly studying the Word is the way to keep us on track.
2 Timothy 2:15
The word for “study” is also translated diligence elsewhere, though from the latter part of the verse we can tell it means what it ordinarily means in our vernacular. When you think of studying, you think of the university with books, exams, and essays. Even the easier universities are not without difficulty. It takes a lot of time and concentration to complete a course of study.
For the Bible (“word of truth”), it takes a lot of effort as well. You do not need a university degree, but the studying of the Bible is just as arduous. This kind of studying is also more important because there is a lot of room for error—error that is life-threatening.
The university degree candidate studies to please the professor; the student of the Bible studies “to shew thyself approved unto God.” If one studies the word of God, one can be “a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.” By implication, if one does not study the word, or does not properly study the word, you will be ashamed. If you teach or share a wrong interpretation of the Word, you can ruin someone’s spiritual life, as we will see some examples of such in 2 Timothy 2:17. “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation” (James 3:1). We will be ashamed when He comes with power if we misused and abused the study of the Word of God.
Proper studying is “rightly dividing the word of truth.” There is a proper way to study the Bible. The proper interpretation techniques are called “hermeneutics.” Here are some principles to consider:
Context is king. You often cannot normally just read isolated verses without context, though sometimes you can. The Bible is not a list of isolated mantras; there is a surrounding context that should be considered. An example of a verse often taken out of context: “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew 7:1). If you read the entire context, the verse means that you should not judge in hypocrisy, putting somebody down when you secretly do the same sin. The proper way to “judge” someone when you have dealt with that sin in your life, and then help someone else out of it.
Allegorical interpretation is generally bad. “When you spiritualize, you tell spiritual lies.” The most spiritualized portion of Scripture may be the Song of Solomon. Even in my own Bible, the captions at the top of the Bible talk about Christ and the church. In this case, it may be a good application, but it is not the primary message of Song of Solomon.
The more difficult portions of Scripture should be interpreted by the easier portion of Scripture. If the overwhelming evidence from the Scriptures is that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ, when we come to James 2, it is not going to mean something different.
When studying the usage of a word, you can look to see where the word is used elsewhere. For example, when I looked up the word for “study” in 2 Timothy 2:15, I found that it was translated diligence, endeavor, forward, and labor. To “study” must also have the connotation of hard work. However, the context of the verse clearly says that the word also means “study” in our vernacular, even though it is not used that way elsewhere. This is an example where we balance the word study with the rule of context. “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13).
You normally do this method to see where the Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic word is used, not the English word. However, you can see where else the English word is used as well, as it may expand the meaning for you. This is helpful when you come across a hapax legomenon, or a word that is used only once in Scripture. You do not need to know these other languages (few do); you use what is called Strong’s numbers, where each word is assigned a number. I use electronic software called e-sword (e-sword.net) where you can search for the Strong’s number or the English word. You can download it for free.
Parallel passages often help with interpretation. Here are some examples. First there are the four gospels. Some of the same narratives are told from different perspectives to help. The first three gospels are called the Synoptic Gospels, as they are more like each other than John. Consider these: “I came not to send peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34) versus “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division” (Luke 12:51). You may get confused when you see Jesus talk about bringing a “sword.” If you just read the one passage, you might interpret it that way. However, when you read the Luke account, you see He is talking about division. Believers will often have to choose between their relatives and Christ. Other parallel passages include 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings, and 1-2 Chronicles; Revelation 4-11 and 12-19; 2 Peter 2 and Jude; and even Ephesians and Colossians to a degree.
Parallelism is another example. Usually used in poetic passages, you will see two statements, side by side, that mean either identical things, related things, or opposite things. This helps with interpretation and can explain idiomatic expressions. “And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD” (Amos 4:6). Amos is not talking about good dental care; he is talking about famine.
To see a case of an opposite use of parallelism, the book of Proverbs is replete with them. “A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother” (Proverbs 10:1). Clearly with the conjunction “but,” we can see there is a juxtaposition between the wise and foolish son.
Reiteration is another example. There are often cases where the author just says something, and then He immediately defines it or elaborates. There may be phrase like “even,” “to wit,” or “namely” between them, which is either a part of the original text or inserted by the translator. Whether there is or not, it is clear that there is a restatement present. “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). What is the adoption? The redemption of our body, or the resurrection.
Parallel passages, parallelism, and reiteration were placed there by God so that we would not need to wonder about meanings of things or learn foreign languages. God knew His word would be translated into foreign languages, and these things were added so that things would not get lost in translation.
There are also historical and cultural considerations. Just as the Scriptures were written down in other languages, they also speak of cultures separated from us by thousands of miles and thousands of years. God knew this. He goes out of His way to explain things that people would not understand. “Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans” (John 4:9). The Spirit tells us that in those days, the Samaritans and the Jews were enemies. It puts a different light on the passage knowing this information. You don’t need history books; He tells you right there. We get into trouble when we try to explain away passages like the camel through the eye of the needle passage (Matthew 19:24). We should not say this means something other than an illustration to show the impossibility of salvation apart from Christ.
One last thing is having breadth and depth of Biblical knowledge. Part of being able to do deep dives into the Scriptures is having breadth of knowledge, which comes from reading through the entire Bible repeatedly. Many read through the Bible in a year, and this is a good practice. This allows us to not only read the parts we like the best, but we get exposed to everything. “For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Knowledge of systematic theology is also a part of this breadth of knowledge. What are the attributes of God? What are justification and sanctification? This includes all the “-ologies”: Bibliology, theology proper, Biblical anthropology, etc. If you have breadth of knowledge, that will help a lot when you go into single passages deeply.
Much more could be said about the subject, but this is a good start.