Hi Y'all! Well, we are already at part ten!!! My, has this week flown by! Last week, for some reason, I thought I missed Tuesday! My Dad said he thought so too, and that we all probably just slept right through it! LOL. Thursday, I thought it was Wednesday, and so I thought yesterday was Thursday! Oh, well. The weekend is very welcome though. :) Remember to pray!
14. Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.
15. Study to shew (show) thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Verse fourteen starts out with, "of these things put them in remembrance." What things? Well, Paul isn't very clear. In the other version it says, "Remind your people of these things." What things?! He says it next... "...charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers." So, Paul is telling Timothy to remind the people to speak words that are worth speaking. Words that build people up, not tear them down. Words for the edification of others, not worthless words. Paul clearly tells Timothy, and us, that we should not just babble about random stuff that doesn't matter, it can tear down people, and those kinds of words are definitely not worthwhile.
So, now that Paul tells Timothy, and us, what kinds of words to speak, does that thought make you want to change the kinds of conversations you and your friends have? That would be hard to do, wouldn't it? Especially with teens, me being one; it is hard to talk about Christ together. I have always been shy, and it has been a long time since I really got into a conversation with kids my own age, because, they don't talk about stuff that I am interested in. They talk about cell-phones, clothes, facebook, etc. And I am not interested in those things like they are. I really want to be able to talk with my friends freely about God, and I try really hard, but I'm alone. At least, I feel that way. They are all in Christian families, but it feels like they ignore God when they are together. I don't like that.
And, going back to the verse, we are not supposed to waste our time saying words "to no profit," but to say things that matter! Has someone ever told you, "don't waste your breath?" Why would they say that? Because you are talking too much or about some thing that you shouldn't waste your breath on! God gave us our mouths to do good with, but people do much evil with their mouths.
Verse fifteen is a little happier verse. :) It says, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." This has always been one of my very favorite verses! In it, Paul tells us to study to show ourselves approved unto God. What does that mean? Well, in the other version it is said, "Put out every effort to present yourself to God as one who has stood the test." So, we must work hard/study/put out every effort, to present ourselves unto God.
What must we work hard at/study/put out our every effort towards? At first glance, you might think that Paul is promoting salvation by works, but that is not what he is doing because he knew that was wrong. Paul knew that Christ Jesus came down to earth to die for sinners to save them, so obviously he would not promote something he knew to be false.
Paul was talking about standing "the test." What is "the test?" Well, I think, that when Paul speaks of standing "the test, " he is talking about earth. Huh? Earth? Yes! A Christian does not think much of life here on earth, they are always looking upward towards their goal. Being on earth is kinda like an entrance exam into college, in the way that if you pass the test you get to go to college, if you pass the test here on earth, then you get to go to heaven and "receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him." James 1:12.
I think, that Paul himself was a good example of this. Because he was faithful and true to God even in the face of persecution and prison and death. He passed his test here on earth. He did not deny Jesus Christ, so He will not deny him in front of God the Father. It is the same with us, if we are faithful unto death then God will reward us with eternal life!
The next part of the verse says, "a workman that needeth not to be ashamed." We do not need to be ashamed of Christ, the gospel, other Christians, or ourselves. Just what Paul tells Timothy in this book, in chapter one!
The last part is very confusing, it says, "rightly dividing the word of truth." I have never dug into this verse even though I have liked it for as long as I can remember, but what I have always thought that this part meant, is that the workman/Christian should be able to understand, and apply what the Bible says. Doesn't that make sense? Well, today I read about this verse in the commentary by Barclay, and what he says about it is quite interesting, I have to share it with y'all!
"Further, Timothy is urged in a famous phrase rightly to divide the word of truth. The Greek word translated to divide rightly is interesting. It is orthotomein, which literally means to cut rightly. It has many pictures in it. Calvin connected it with a father dividing out the food at a meal and cutting it up so that each member of the family received the right portion. Beza connected it with the cutting up of sacrificial victims so that each part was correctly apportioned to the altar or to the priest. The Greeks themselves used the word in three different connections. They used it for driving a straight road across country, for ploughing a straight furrow across a field, and for the work of a mason in cutting and squaring a stone so that it fitted into its correct place in the structure of the building. So the man who rightly divides the word of truth, drives a straight road through the truth and refuses to be lured down pleasant but irrelevant bypaths; he takes each section of the truth, and fits it into its correct position, as a mason does a stone, allowing no part to usurp an undue place and so knock the whole structure out of balance."
Sorry I quoted so much. :P Well, that's all for now. Have a great weekend! God bless! ~Buttercup~
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