How to Study the Bible

Richard Mayhue

• Publisher: Christian Focus Publication
• Year: 2006
• eBook ISBN: 9781781913642

PART 1

MAKING STRAIGHT CUTS

One

Studying for God’s Approval

IN LIFE there are two kinds of certainties. If you are the breadwinner in your home you might appreciate the certainty that no matter how long or how hard you shop for an item, the day after you have bought it, the article will be on sale somewhere else cheaper.

Dad, you’ll remember you forgot to put the trash out front only when the garbage truck is two doors away, and you are in the shower.

For Mom there is the certainty of the chances that the bread falling with the peanut-butter-and-jelly side down are directly proportional to the cost of your carpet. Young people can identify with the certainty that it won’t be until you return home from the party that you realize that you have a string of spinach stuck between your front teeth.

Earthly certainties may be humorous, but they will pass away. In reality all those things pale into insignificance when compared to the eternal certainties of God’s precious Word. Our theme, cutting it straight, is found in 2 Timothy 2:15:

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 translates it this way:

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.

Now if we take time to read through 2 Timothy, we will discover that when Paul handed the baton of the ministry to Timothy, he was pre-eminently concerned with the Word of God. He said elsewhere, ‘Timothy, retain the standard of sound words that you have heard from me’ (2 Tim. 1:13). He also wrote, ‘These entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also’ (2 Tim. 2:2). In 2:14, he says in effect, ‘Don’t stumble over words and wind up on a doctrinally dead-end street.’ He in effect warns in verses 16 and 18 of the same chapter, ‘Don’t deviate doctrinally and upset the faith of some.’

2 Timothy 3:15 says that the Word of God is the source of the knowledge of our salvation. And in verses 16 and 17, Paul explains how that leads to growing in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ and being perfected by God’s Word. Then in 4:2 comes that great exhortation ‘Preach the word.’

All of these exhortations assume and are built upon the foundation of one particular verse – 2 Timothy 2:15. There Paul is specifically telling Timothy that in order to minister effectively, one must correctly interpret the Word of God. Paul is saying, ‘In order to understand what God means by what He says, you must divide the Word of God aright.’

2 Timothy 2:15 highlights three basic ideas:

1. the Scriptures are impeccable;
2. because of that, whoever interprets the Word of God is highly responsible; and
3. our responsibility will one day be tested when we are accountable before Almighty God for what we did with His Word while we were here on earth. Impeccability, respons-ibility, and accountability.

Impeccability

The impeccability of Scripture is found in the last four words in both the English and Greek texts, ‘The word of truth.’ Paul assumes the inerrancy of Scripture here. He outlines Timothy’s practical responsibilities as he comes to the Word of God in the light of the doctrine of inerrancy.

Paul asserts that Scripture is the written communication of God and that, because of that, it is consistent with the truth element of God’s character. The whole doctrine of inerrancy lies upon the foundation of the character of God. If God is true (and He is), then His Word is true, and it is without error. Paul assumes that and builds upon it.

Those who like to think are probably asking, ‘In what way do we equate the word of truth with the Word of God?’ Psalm 31:5 says, ‘O Lord God of truth.’ John 17:17 says, ‘Thy word is truth.’ I love Psalm 119:160: ‘The sum of Thy word is truth.’

So Paul reminds Timothy that his message is to be God’s message. It is the Word of truth. He in effect says, ‘Timothy, be careful that you don’t mess it up when you handle it.’ Who would change Rembrandt or Michaelangelo? If these are the lesser, then who would ever want to change the greater Word of God? We don’t need to alter Scripture to bring it into harmony with truth; rather we must understand that Scripture needs to change us and the way we live so that we are brought into conformity with the Word of God.

Spurgeon once wrote that the greatest compliment ever paid to him was by one of his most antagonistic opponents. His enemy said this: ‘Here is a man who has not moved an inch forward in his ministry. At the close of the nineteenth century, he’s teaching the theology of the first century and is proclaiming doctrine current in Nazareth and Jerusalem in the first century.’ May all of our critics be so compli-mentary by asserting that we have not changed the Word of God or the theology given in Scripture.

Paul in effect told Timothy, who would carry on for him, ‘Timothy, the Word that you’ll handle is impeccable. Just as the living Word of God was impeccable and without sin, so the written Word of God is impeccable and without error.’

Responsibility

Paul began with impeccability; he next told Timothy that impeccability leads to a responsibility on the part of the one who interprets and communicates the Word of God. I would suggest that the function of the one who interprets and communicates the Word of God is to deliver God’s message as it was originally given, without deviation, whether that one is a seminary professor or pastor or Sunday school teacher or parent in the home.

This is the point that Paul was making to Timothy: ‘You’re handling God’s Word, Timothy, not your own. Therefore be a messenger, not the originator of the message. A sower, not the source. A herald, not the authority. A steward, not the owner. A guide, not the author. A server of spiritual food, not the chef. As it was given to you straight out of the kitchen, put it on the table so people can eat it. You don’t need to add to it, you do not need to rearrange it, and you do not need to take away from it.’

Faithfulness

Paul told Timothy three ways that he could measure how well he was doing with his responsibilities. The first was the test of faithfulness. He told Timothy, ‘You’re to be a workman.’ Timothy would continually ask himself as he came to the Word of God, ‘Am I really a workman? Am I at my station? Am I doing the one thing that God wants me to do and not the thousand other things that I could possibly do, or feel good in doing, or those that would be nice to do, neglecting the higher priorities that God has given me? Am I faithful to the Word that God has assigned? Am I energetically toiling at it?’ That is the idea behind the Greek word for ‘workman’.

These thoughts have had a profound impact on my life. I’ll never come to the Word the same again. I’ll never preach and teach the way I used to preach and teach. The awe-someness and the preciousness and the purity of God’s Word burns deep into my heart. What an incredible responsibility it is to channel it through a human mind and out of a human mouth and then not to mess up the message.

‘Timothy,’ Paul said, ‘your first responsibility is to be faithful to the work.’ Wesley prayed for God to make him ‘a man of one book’. Isn’t that a great prayer? Lord, make me a man of one Book, faithful at the task of its interpretation.

Commitment

There’s a second element in responsibility. Not only was Timothy to be faithful at the work God assigned, but he was also to be committed. The first word in the Greek text is the verb spoudazw, which means to be diligent and make haste at the task. It talks about the level of commitment that Timothy should have to the Word of God.

The King James Version says, ‘Study.’ If you have a New American Standard Bible, you will notice it says, ‘Be diligent.’ I like the New International Version at this point, for it says, ‘Do your best.’ That means to operate, function, and be involved at the very highest level of commitment and excellence because the Word of truth demands nothing less than our very best. In God’s sight nothing else is acceptable.

Today there are at least four basic attacks on our commitment to the Scripture. Number one is the higher critical attack, which is the attack by which everything in the Bible is questioned. The Word of God is submitted to the mind of man rather than the other way around.

Then there is the cultic attack; men subtract or add to Scripture. There is also the cultural attack; Scripture is inter-preted through the grip of some modern academic discipline like science, psychology, history, or the current culture.

But I think the fourth attack on the Scripture is far worse than any of these three. Worse than the higher critical, worse than the cultic, and worse than the cultural is the hypocritical attack, where one believes and preaches and fights for inerrancy but then treats the Word of God in a shoddy, slipshod, inadequate, halfway manner.

God is looking for the kind of person about whom Isaiah 66:2 speaks: ‘But to this one I will look. To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.’ He is looking for someone who comes to the Word of God knowing that in fact he is standing before God Himself and trembling at the Word of God because it stands in judgement over him. God is looking for a man like Ezra, who said it was his goal to study the law and practise it and teach it (Ezra 7:10).

Let me add a practical note to all of this. There are two kinds of commitment required in order for us to do all that God wants. One is the commitment to study. But beyond that, those of you who perhaps have not been called to full-time ministry on a church staff have a greater commitment as a part of the flock fed by the pastor. That is the commitment to allow him to study, to encourage him to study, and in some cases even to insist that he study, that he get the Word of God right, and that he not feed you a ‘junk food’ meal (or, even worse, poison you by the things that he preaches and teaches).

Paul said Timothy was to be faithful. Second, he was to be committed, operating at his highest level of excellence.

Skill

Third, Timothy was to be skillful in carrying out his work at a higher and higher level as he grew in handling the Word of God. That might be hard to understand at first. Faithfulness and commitment seem to be enough, but I would suggest to you that one more step is necessary: to bring the skilled discipline of interpreting the Word of God to the text in order to do what Paul says – handle it accurately.

There must be no deviation or falsification. Strong warnings are given against changing or perverting or mutilating or distorting or adding to or to taking away.

The English phrase ‘handling accurately’ is actually one word in the Greek text – orthotomeõ. It is used in Greek literature when talking of a guide’s ‘cutting a straight path’; or when referring to a priest who was to slice the animal just right according to God’s instructions; or a farmer cutting a straight furrow; or of a builder cutting the rocks just right to place them in a decorative and pleasing arrangement in the building. It was used also of a tailor or tentmaker’s cutting cloth or of a husband who cut the bread right as he fed his family.

But here a pastor is to cut the Word of God straight, giving it out just as God gave it. What Paul is demanding of Timothy at this point is faultless workmanship. The prayer of anyone who undertakes to teach the Word of God ought to be, ‘Lord, help me to get it right.’

I want to keep our thoughts in the same vein that Paul intended for Timothy. Paul’s counsel was really a reminder and a warning to Timothy. I hope none of us have been Christians so long that we have grown so complacent or proud that we don’t realize we need to be reminded. The New Testament is full of reminders. Day by day we need to be warned so that we never slip away from that cutting edge of excellence.

Accountability

It is imperative to remember that one day all of us who have ever handled the Word of God will stand accountable to God Himself for our interpretation, our teaching, and our messages. The text says that there will be a test; the Greek word is dokizamw, which means testing with the desire to approve. The text also says that we will stand before God, not before church leaders, not before governments, and not before seminary professors.

Paul put it best in 1 Corinthians 4:4 when in response to the challenge of that church he says, ‘The one who examines me is the Lord.’ I like the way J.B. Phillips paraphrases 2 Timothy 2:15, ‘Concentrate on winning God’s approval.’ Not just upon getting a lesson, not just upon getting a sermon, not upon hearing people say, ‘Amen,’ not upon getting notes from your people saying, ‘Pastor, that was great,’ but ‘concentrate on winning God’s approval.’

If we really took this text to heart, along with James 3:1, not so many of us would want to be teachers. James put it this way: ‘Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgement.’ There is accountability. The thought is this: any time you ever teach or preach, there ought to be one primary thought in your mind, God is the ultimate audience. When preparing and writing and thinking, our souls ought to be stirred by the urgency for excellence because God is the one who will ultimately judge our message.

There will be a test; we are going to stand before God. Not only will there will be a test, but the Scripture indicates that there can be a ‘trauma.’ Why? Because we will stand there before God, and the only issue that is in question is whether we will ‘stand ashamed’ or whether we will ‘stand approved by Him’. The logical conclusion for those who have been unfaithful (not keeping at the work) and those who have been uncommitted (operating at less than their best) and those that have been operating unskilled (producing sloppy work) is shame before God. That is traumatic.

Wouldn’t it be horrible to one day stand in disgrace before God because we didn’t handle aright His Word? But Paul says if we get it right, if we don’t mess it up, and if we cut it straight, there will be God’s approval. Approved workmen are not ashamed. If we faithfully deliver the truth as He has given it to us in His Word, then we shall receive the word that all of us want to hear, ‘Well done, My good and faithful servant.’

So goes the message of 2 Timothy 2:15. It speaks of a Word that’s impeccable, faultless, without error, which demands a responsible interpretation for which God will one day hold us accountable.

The following chapters are designed to make us better workmen and to equip us to stand approved. Some deal with developing the necessary skills of Bible study and others focus on contemporary errors to avoid. The next chapter answers the strategically important question: ‘How did we get our Bible?’

Questions for Discussion

1. What does the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture mean?
2. In what three ways may we measure how well we handle our responsibility to accurately interpret Scripture?
3. Read 2 Timothy 2:15. What does commitment to Scripture mean? How do we know whether or not our commitment is high?
4. Describe the four basic attacks against our commitment to the Word of God. Why are they dangerous?
5. What does the phrase handling accurately describe?
6. In what way are we being held accountable for our interpretation of Scripture?

Two

How Did We Get Our Bible?

HAILED AS the twentieth century’s ‘prince of expositors’, G. Campbell Morgan was a messenger widely used by God. However, he wrestled with the integrity of Scripture early in his life. He concluded that if there were errors in the biblical message, it could not be honestly proclaimed in public as God’s holy, inerrant Word. Here is the account of how young Campbell Morgan finally concluded that the Bible was surely God’s Word.

At last the crisis came...

Table of contents

• Title
• Indicia
• Contents
• Dedication
• Foreword by Eric Alexander
• Introduction
• PART 1 - MAKING STRAIGHT CUTS
• PART 2 - AVOIDING CROOKED CUTS
• PART 3 - LIVING OUT YOUR CUTS
• References
• Other Titles
• Christian Focus