Study

 Study

The apostle Paul writes,

"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.” 2Timothy 2:15.

If you are a Christian, a believer in Christ Jesus do you do what the apostle Paul is saying here? Do you do your best to correctly at all times present the word of God in as pure a form as is humanly possible?

Do the ministers, evangelist and other teachers you listen to do the same thing? When was the last time you checked the scriptures quoted by someone you listen to, to see that they were not taken out of context?

As believers in Christ Jesus we need to be on guard against those who would misuse the scriptures.

There are a lot of high profile men and women out there in the media and in the pulpit who are not handling the word of God correctly. Thus the need to check what they are saying against the Bible.

Here in North America we have amazing freedoms which is a good thing. That being said it gives those who would misuse the word of God more latitude to misinterpret scripture and mislead people.

The key however for the individual believer is to study the scriptures for yourself and pray asking God to show you what is right.

One way I have found that is good for individuals is to study the word of God is to use a study bible that has foot notes and explanations. These types of bibles tend to have study notes by various individuals.

Using a Bible with study notes by one particular evangelist or pastor as good as they may be is usually bias toward what he or she believes be that intentionally or unintentionally.

Thus I would reiterate pray and study the bible for yourself and with others. All the time asking God to show you the truth within the scriptures.

Please think about it. 

Study

Study
The apostle Paul writes,
“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. 2Timothy 2:15
I firmly believe we need to study the Bible for ourselves. We need to study it not just for a few minutes or even a few hours each day, but as often as we can.
We need to be praying and asking God to show us the truths that are in the scriptures.
At the same time we need to be cautious. Believers in Christ Jesus of all strips, be they evangelicals, Catholics, Baptist, Pentecostals, Anglicans or whatever denomination they may be. Tend to have a bad habit of listening only to those who think and act like they do. They live if you will, in an echo chamber.
St. Augustine warned,
“If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.” St Augustine
We as believers in Christ need to study the word of God and listen to those with different views than our own. We need to be questioning why others don’t believe as we do to see if what they believe is true or untrue.
We need to from time to time question what we believe and why we believe it.
I know of several denominations for example that would not ordain women ministers. It still happens in some Christian groups. They even quote scripture to back themselves up.
Over the centuries the Bible has been used to support slavery and segregation for example. That same Bible has been used to condemn slavery and segregation.
Many Christians simply follow what a specific preacher, church or denomination teaches without looking at the scriptures for themselves and deciding what is right or wrong.
This should not be.
It in my opinion is the duty of every person who believes in Christ Jesus to pray, ask God to guide them then study the Bible for themselves.
When we have questions we need to be going to our pastors and Christian educators and ask them to answer them. At the same time when we have questions we can go to several commentaries and see what they have to say. By reading different commentaries we get an over all view of what the correct interpretation should be. After reading several interpretations we can make an informed decision for our self about what the scripture portion means.
Remember, God wants us to live by faith but not necessarily blind faith. God wants believers in Christ Jesus to be informed. That is why the Bible was written.
As believers in Christ we must remember the warning from the Apostle Paul who said,
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  
They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 2Timothy 4:3,4.
We can only know if someone is not following the word of God if we are well enough informed about what the word of God states.
Thus the question becomes. If you claim to be a believer in Christ Jesus do you study the Bible enough to know what is right and what is wrong when it comes to teachings from it?
Please think about it.