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The Bible – God’s Living Word
This past Sunday, I asked my students in “Sunday School” if they have heard the analogy that the Bible is like an onion. A few of them raised their hands while one of them blurted out, “Like it has different layers.”
“Exactly,” I said. I went on to explain how each time you read the Word it can say different things to you. Later that day, I was thinking of an example I could give them of this. My mind went back to a time when the Lord took me deeper into His Word. During one of my Quiet Times, the Lord took me to John 4. God used this passage to teach me several things. I thought it was a good illustration of how one can dig deep (and even deeper) into God’s Word.
John 4 recounts Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at a well. In this passage Jesus sends the Disciples into town to buy food while He spent some time alone with the woman (a social taboo in many ways). A look at this passage will show three different levels of digging into God’s Word.
Level one, which I call “the surface,” is what one can glean simply from reading the passage. On the surface, the passage is simply a conversion story. It recounts how Jesus meets a woman and through conversation leads her into the realization that He was the promised Messiah she’d been looking for. He does this by overcoming her objections and revealing Himself to her by recounting for her his life story—something only God can do.
Level two goes a little deeper. A level two reading reveals this telling to be more than just a conversion story but a lesson on how Christians are to treat non-believers if they intend to win them to Christ. First, Jesus went to where she was. If the saints are to win the lost, they have to go where the lost are. They can’t just sit in a holy huddle waiting for the lost to come to them. That just is not going to happen. Second, Jesus knew of her past and he let her know that he knew of her past, but He did not demean her for it. Jesus understood that sinners will act like sinners. It stuns me when saints are shocked when sinners act like they do. It’s their nature. It’s all they know. How ironic that saints expect sinners to act like saints while saints think it ok to act like sinners.
A level three study of the text reveals to us the heart of God. Jesus, being God, had to go through Samaria the Bible tells us. The Jews normally would go out of their way to avoid this area but Jesus made a beeline through it to meet a woman at a well during the hottest part of the day. This woman would go to that well during this time because no one else was there. At that time, there would be no leering eyes and muttered talk. This woman was looked down on even by the Samaritans. She was, in effect, the lowest of women among the lowest of society among the lowest of people groups, at least according to Jewish thinking. But God went directly to her and met her personally. Likewise, God calls us to go to the unlovely and the unlovable to demonstrate His love and concern. Who around us is considered the unlovely? Who is considered the unlovable? Who would we consider to be not worth our time or not worthy of heaven? What person or people group has God placed on our heart? Jesus went to this woman and this woman, the least of her people, became His first evangelist, introducing her people to Him while the Disciples stood idly by. God said He would take the foolishness of this world to confound the wise and the weakness to confound the strong. He did that with this woman. Like Moses, Gideon, Jeremiah, the Disciples, Paul—just to name a few—He used this woman to lead an entire city to the Lord. What Billy Graham or Mother Teresa is in our midst waiting to know of the love of God and of the salvation available through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?
These are by far not the only applications of this passage. I’m certain that as I study it again, God will lead me to other truths. He may have led you to other trusts while you were reading this post. If so, please share so we can all grow from your insights.
Why does the reading of the Word of God produce so many applications? It does so because it is God’s Word. God is living and dynamic and so is anything He creates, including His Word, which, according to Hebrews 4:12, “is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart, NASB.”
My Commentary on First Timothy 1:12-20
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Paul closed out his previous instruction by saying that the Gospel was entrusted to him [among others]. He then proceeds to recount his own shameful past and how he was a recipient of the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first thing he does is give thanks to Jesus who gave him strength and appointed him to the gospel ministry. Why did Jesus save and call Paul. In Paul’s own words: He considered me faithful. Jesus knew that Paul was zealous for God just on the wrong side of the Cross. He knew that once Paul was saved, that same zeal would be used to promote the Gospel was than persecute it. Was He not right? Paul started numerous churches and is credited with writing nearly half of the New Testament. Talk about faithful.
1 Timothy 1:18-20
In this passage, Paul encouraged Timothy to be faithful. He said the purpose he gave this instructions was in keeping with the prophecies that were made about Timothy. The Bible does not say when these prophecies were made but they apparently spoke about how God would use Timothy to strengthen the believers and refute the false teachers.
His instruction to Timothy was to engage in battle and not just sit on the sidelines. Those who teach false doctrine needs to be rebuked. Those who attempt to divide the church need to be confronted. The Word of God needs to go forth. The command of Jesus was to make disciples and that means teaching the Word to the hearers giving them a foundation upon which to stand against false teaching.
Timothy’s motivation was to teach from faith and a good conscience. Paul said there were some who rejected their faith in the oracles and providence of God and the desire good conscience and, as a result, their faith (walk with God) was destroyed. He then goes on to list two such people, Hymenaeus and Alexander, who were known for their blasphemies. Paul said he had delivered them to Satan, or rather he has asked God to show them the error of their ways.
My Commentary on First Timothy 1
The epistles to Timothy are among my favorite books in the Bible. In fact, I do not believe enough teaching is done on them in churches perhaps due to the fact that most see them as being written to a pastor who how to conduct his ministry. However, there is a lot of doctrine in these letters. Not to mention, these instructions can be useful to all of us—after all we have a ministry whether paid or not, big or small. We are all charged with the responsibility of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So since I do not hear a lot of teaching on these epistles, I thought I’d do my own.
Timothy 1:1-2
Verses 1 and 2 give us both the author, Paul, and the addressee of the letter, Timothy. Paul, again reaffirming his apostleship and stating he is an apostle “by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope.” Paul called Timothy his true son in the faith. Apparently, Timothy was led to Christ by Paul and has been a faithful disciple of Paul ever since.
To his son, Paul, opened his letter with a benediction (or blessing). He pronounced “grace, mercy, and peace” to him which only comes from God our Father and Jesus Christ, our Lord. In this benediction, he reminded Timothy that his real Father was God (who would supply all he needed) and that Jesus Christ was Lord.
1 Timothy 1:3-11
Apparently while Paul was in Ephesus there were those who were preaching other doctrine, doctrine that was contrary to the doctrine Paul had taught them. As a result, when he was called away, he urged Timothy to remain and confront them and give instruction to the congregants not to receive such teaching. These false doctrines included “fables” (untrue accounts) and “endless genealogies” (disputes on lineages of people and possibly of Christ himself). This doctrines lead to disputes that are profitless. They are designed to tear down the body and not build it up. What builds up the body—trusting in God and living in that trust—just as Abraham did.
True doctrine is to unify not divide. Division comes when people attempt to put their own spin on what God has said. But when we listen to the Spirit to understand the true meaning of the word, we will be unified. Just as it is written in Ephesians: “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:4-6, ESV).”
So what is the purpose of the law and doctrine: love. Many don’t believe that but love is the essence of the Christian faith. Mainly because we do no demonstrate it but Jesus said that the demonstration of our love for one another will be the way we show that we are His disciples. We are to manifest love that comes from a “pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.” When we abide in Christ, His love is manifested in and through us. Unfortunately, many church members do not demonstrate love but selfishness, self-righteousness, and jealousy. Those who manifest these behaviors are like those Paul talks about who have strayed from the faith and turned aside to things that do not edify the Body or glory Christ.
Paul said they want to be teachers of the law but they don’t understand what they teach or affirm. When I think about the churches in America, I am reminded of this statement. Many of the largest churches in America are led by people who do not teach God’s Word of repentance and salvation but a social gospel (I’m Ok, you’re OK) or a prosperity gospel (where God’s favor equals material blessings). These take scriptures out of context and do not hold the Law of God in any esteem. Instead they esteem the goodness of man and the value of worthless, earthly things. However, the Law of God was not done away with just because Christ came.
Christ came to fulfill the Law but those who are apart from Christ are still under the Law. Only those who have accepted Christ as Savior have been forgiven and are not under the Law (John 3:16-17, Romans 3:19, Galatians 4:4-5). And those who are under the Law, whether they recognize the Law or not, will be judged by the Law (Romans 2:12).
So what does Paul say about the Law and doctrine? It is good if it is properly applied. The Law is our schoolmaster. It sets the boundaries of how far we can go. To those who keep the Law, the Law means nothing. Think of a person who never drives. Does a speed limit sign mean anything to him or her? The Law is only a bully to those who refuse to keep it—the rebel, the sinner, whom Paul name: “those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral and homosexuals, for kidnappers, liars, perjurers and for whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching”.
Cyber-Discipleship 