“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,
a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”
(2 Timothy 2:15)
Many Christians consider this verse in 2 Timothy in conjunction with pastors. That is the case specifically, in fact, because here Paul is instructing young Timothy in certain non-negotiable qualifications and exercises in godliness for a young pastor charged with leading God’s flock.
However, as much as certain of these qualifications apply to pastors, there are other truths evident here that are equally applicable to believers in general. If the Lord Himself established certain unalterable truths relative to growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, then every Christian has a hefty task before them to do just that. And we do that by rightly handling the Word of truth.
Two things are to be noted here. First, the Word of God is to be heard and read by believers and pastors. If Paul is instructing Pastor Timothy to study the Word in a certain way, it is equally important that the hearers of the Word be instructed in how to faithfully study and use it as well.
His Word is to be read publicly before the congregation.[1] Those who hear the Word of God are to respond by saying, “Amen.”[2] It is to be expounded by preachers so that it is understood.[3] Christians are to study and search the Bible to mine out its truth.[4] It is to be their delight.[5] It is to be all consuming to them.[6] It is to be memorized.[7] Is this what you do with God’s Word?
Second, God commands believers to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18), for eternal life is predicated on knowing Jesus Christ intimately. “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent,” (John 17:3).
As a result, God provides His people with certain means by which they can obey these commands. The Sum of Saving Knowledge, a sister document under the 1647 Westminster Confession, says in Head III, that the means of grace are, “1. The Word of God. 2. The Sacraments. 3. Church-government. 4. Prayer.”
Further, this explanation is given, “In the Word of God preached by sent messengers, the Lord makes an offer of grace to all sinners, upon condition of faith in Jesus Christ; and whosoever confesses their sin, accepts Christ offered, and submits themselves to His ordinances, He will have both them and their children received into the honor and privileges of the covenant of grace.”[8]
In other words, through private, personal reading and studying of God’s Word, and through hearing the Word delivered by God’s messengers, Christians are able to grow in grace and the knowledge of God. This is accomplished through continual effort to rightly handle the Word of God as they encounter it.
Rightly handling God’s truth is essential, for it concerns God’s revelation of Jesus Christ as the only Savior through the Covenant of Redemption and Covenant of Grace. It is the self-revelation of God’s person and work centered on Jesus Christ from eternity past and how He applies that in the here and now to individual believers.
Scripture is, in truth, the infinite Word of God, and comes from the infinite God of the universe, who has infinite knowledge, and an infinite Savior about which knowledge is applied by an infinite Spirit to finite human beings by faith. Its depth, height, length, breadth, etc., is infinite, and it reaches infinitely to every aspect of man’s existence. In this way, Christians must always be sure to handle it rightly, for God never gives us the right to be wrong about His Word.
- Lord, You feed Your sheep with the suitable food of Your Word. In thinking about this, I see the worth You place on me, and all Your people, for You feed them with Your precious Word. “You prepare a table before me…” (Ps. 23:5) with “food that endures to everlasting life,” (John 6:27).
- Lord, I should be able to draw out of the Bible the truths that are therein. And I should never read into Scripture what is not there. I must be a serious student of God’s Word, knowing that it is in fact Your Word, and it reveals Christ to me… and I don’t want to get that wrong. I should allow the Bible to both inform me and reform me, knowing that the inerrant truths of the Bible do not come from my mind but directly from You.
Further References for 2 Tim. 2:15
Eph. 1:13; Col. 1:5; Phil. 2:16; Col. 3:16; James 1:21 1 Peter 2:2
Extra Notes:
[1] Deut. 31:11–13; Josh. 8:33–35; 2 Kin. 23:2; 2 Chr. 17:7–9; Neh. 8:1–8, 13, 18; Jer. 36:6; Acts 13:15, 27; Col. 4:16; 1 Thess. 5:27.
[2] Neh. 8:5-6; Ex. 24:7; Deut. 27:12–26.
[3] Neh. 8:8; Luke 4:16–27; 24:27, 45.
[4] Acts 17:11; John 5:39, 7:52.
[5] Psalm 112:1; 119:116, 147; Jer. 15:16; Rom. 7:22.
[6] Job 23:12; Psalm 63:6; 110:15; 119:97.
[7] Deut. 6:6; Psalm 40:8; 119:11; Luke 2:19, 51; Col. 3:16.
[8] It continues with, “By the Sacraments, God will have the covenant sealed for confirming the bargain on the foresaid condition. By church-government, he will have them hedged in, and helped forward unto the keeping of the covenant. And by Prayer, he will have his own glorious grace, promised in the covenant, to be daily drawn forth, acknowledged, and imployed. All which means are followed either really, or in profession only, according to the quality of the covenanters, as they are true or counterfeit believers.”
