Bible Study Includes Meditation

 

   

2 Tim. 2:14 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. 2 Tim. 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Put Them in Remembrance

2 Tim. 2 is a powerful chapter. Paul really challenges Timothy before he explains the perilous times of the last days of grace in the next chapter.

He tells Timothy in vs. 1 of this chapter to be strong in the grace that is in Christ, which is to be not only strong in who he is in Christ appropriating all the spiritual blessings he has but also strong in that attribute of God’s grace toward everyone.

He tells Timothy to commit to faithful men the sound doctrines of grace so they can teach others also. Even though Timothy was the last man standing in Asia who hadn't abandoned Paul (2 Tim. 1:15), he was to get new converts in grace, raise them up in the faith, and pass on to them the baton of teaching grace to everyone.

He gives illustrations of the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer. Then he really challenges Timothy’s thinking with those three faithful sayings. My favorite was always the first, which is all about identification. For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: If you’re identified with His death, then logically, you’ll also be identified with His life. If you’re saved, you’re sealed in Christ forevermore.

Then we get to vs. 14, which we read. Paul says, “Of these things put them in remembrance…” Put the saints in remembrance of what? The faithful sayings he just gave him. Put the saints in remembrance of those principles, of which the first principle is the doctrine of our identification with Christ. Pastors are to continually remind the believers of their death, burial, and resurrection with Christ. They are to also remind believers of their reward from God when it’s all over for the quality of our service, particularly when they suffer. Finally, he's to remind them of the doctrine of our eternal security because of the faithfulness of Christ. He abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself. Our security rests not in the consistency of our faithfulness but in His faithfulness, because He cannot betray His own holy character. Timothy is to remind the saints of these truths.

Timothy is to do something else, as well, in vs. 14. He is to charge them, to lay on them by instruction before God Himself, that they should strive not about words to no profit, because that leads to the subverting of the hearers. In Christian academia, people are changing definitions willy-nilly such that nobody knows what anything means anymore, and there is now striving about words.

That is by Satanic design.

Now it seems to have been the modus operandi of false teachers at the time to strive so much about words that minds are subverted, and now, 2,000 years later, we’re falling into this same trap about the meaning of words.

With respect to strife, Paul would write in 2 Ti 2:23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. 2 Ti 2:24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient… Strife isn’t just arguing. Strife is an all-out verbal war for total victory. Strife is you handing your foe a humiliating defeat in a contest of wills. Strife is you proving your superiority over your enemy, which goes against the very nature of God. We are called to share the truth in love in a spirit of humility, gentleness, and patience in order to persuade others to faithfully, intellectually, and emotionally accept the truth.

Study to Shew Thyself Approved

Then Paul says in 2 Tim. 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Let’s focus on the word "study." Some translations change "study" to “Be earnest” or “Be diligent,” and they’d argue that in the Greek this word means "be earnest," and what this verse is really saying is that you have to be really eager, really zealous to earn God’s approval every day. Except for the fact that in the Greek, that word also means study and the context is rightly dividing the word of truth. If the end of the verse is going to explain HOW you do something, don't you think that the beginning of the verse should say WHAT you are to do? The only logical word can be "study."

How do you define study?

Webster tells us that study is a setting of the mind or thoughts upon a subject. This is the application of the mind to books, or to any subject, for the purpose of learning what is not before known. Study is attention and meditation given to a subject. Study includes meditation.

The purpose of study is to learn things you did not know before.

Paul was very pro-knowledge. He often said, "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren." He talked about the excellency of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, which shines in our hearts. And he talked about the excellency of the knowledge of God the Father as well. You remember Paul’s prayer request in Eph 1:17, That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him… His prayer request was That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. It’s the Father who gives us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Increased knowledge of the Father and His will gives us all the characteristics of wisdom and revelation in our walks. This is about the revealing of God the Father to us, which produces wisdom in us. Paul wants everything he’s writing about God the Father to produce wisdom in all of us.

In Col 1:9, Paul writes, For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; Col 1:10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God… Again, we have Paul desiring here that we not only increase in the knowledge of God, but also in the knowledge of His will.

Paul says two things about how he wants you to be filled with the knowledge of His Will. He wants you filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and in all spiritual understanding. What’s the difference between the two? To understand God’s will in all spiritual understanding, is to have a correct and accurate view, a full sense of God’s will for you today, what you are taught by the Spirit through the study of His Word to know God’s will, which won’t be possible unless you rightly divide the Word of Truth, which is a spiritual understanding you’ve gained, because you’ve been convicted and guided by the Spirit to come into this understanding.

However, to understand God’s will in all wisdom is different. Wisdom is the application of knowledge. Wisdom is the application of these truths to the details of your lives.

Thus, Paul wants you to fully know God’s will and to be an expert at the application of His will to the details of your life. In Php 1:9, Paul also writes, And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. Notice how our love is able to abound. Our love abounds more and more in knowledge! The more you learn about God’s grace, the more you learn about all the ways you’re blessed and glorified in Christ, the more you learn those things, you just cannot help yourself but abound more in love. Knowledge of God’s Word enhances your emotional life. We cannot abound in love without growing in our knowledge of God and the will of God for us today. The renewal of your mind is what makes you able to abound in your love yet more and more!

What does this tell us about how we are to read the Bible?

I’m reminded of 1 Thess. 2:13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. We come to this book. We receive it as truth from God, and we accept at face value what God’s Word is telling us. Period. Years ago, when I first started speaking at our church (before we started our YouTube ministry), I did a series refuting the 95 Theses Against Dispensationalism. This had been put together by Calvinists, and I thought, “Oh, this will be fun! I’ll learn how to make solid Biblical arguments defending mid-Acts dispensationalism!” I had to stop. Little did I realize that these guys did nothing more than re-word the same complaint 95 times. They couldn’t actually produce any real doctrinal complaints backed-up with any Scriptures. The only thing these guys could do, hilariously, was to complain about literal hermeneutics 95 times. After having so thoroughly refuted these weak arguments about a dozen times, I stopped.

But I walked away with three quotes I treasure about literal hermeneutics. Check them out.

Meditation

Webster tells us that study is literally a setting of the mind or thoughts upon a subject. This is the application of the mind to books, or to any subject, for the purpose of learning what is not before known. Study is attention and meditation given to a subject.

Study includes meditation.

I’m reminded of 1 Tim. 4:15, Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Timothy was to meditate upon all that Paul had written to him. He was to give himself wholly to the writings of Paul. Why? So that his profiting may appear to all. He was to be in these thoughts, be absorbed in all the thoughts Paul had written to him. He was to occupy his mind wholly in those thoughts, make those thoughts his chief concern.

Timothy’s meditation on the writings of Paul would bring him personal profit, his inner man would be strengthened by the Word, his life would be enriched and enhanced by thinking about God’s Word, his own personal profit from the Scriptures would be apparent to everyone around him. God designed His Word for you to meditate upon it, which will be profitable to you.

What was true for Timothy is true for every one of us.

To meditate is to dwell on anything in your mind, to contemplate, to think, to turn over, or to revolve concepts in your mind. You’re thinking about verses in the Bible.

What you profited from your study and all your meditation about His Word, the result is that your thinking has changed. Your emotional life has matured. You’re more spiritually strengthened and confident in your walk as an ambassador. Your spiritual profit from those studies has become apparent to all as a testimony to Christ’s life inside of you.

God designed you to read His Word. God designed you to study His Word, to meditate on His Word, and to respond to Him in prayer. God designed His Word to work in you, to build you up, to allow His Word to take root in your soul and fortify you from within. The focus of meditation is on God, His glory, His ways, and works in the world. Its intended effect is to shape your inner life and outward behavior. Your constant meditation on God’s Word in every free moment you have in your mind, that process develops wisdom in you, which is the application of divine truths to the details of your life.

David had a lot to say in Psalms about his own meditations. He offered the portrait of a saint who is devoted to God, who delights in saturating the mind with God’s Word and applying His Word to his life and the result is a life of fruitfulness in which you can prosper in whatever God instructs you to do. David had a determination to always speak wisdom, and through meditation, he would have a thorough understanding of all of life.

Meditation had a purpose, and that purpose was to gain wisdom, to gain understanding, and to know God better. We also learned from David that he never limited himself in terms of what he would meditate upon. He explored everything in his mind. Meditation had a purpose, and that purpose was to gain wisdom, to gain understanding, and to know God better.

Meditation can enhance your sense of awe about God and His Word in your life. There is joy in meditation. It’s not simply a joy in the act of meditation, it’s the joy that comes from the object about whom one meditates - God.

Finally, continual meditation upon God’s Word is a necessity to maintain inner peace, to guard your heart and your mind. If you meditate on every conceivably positive aspect of God and His Word, the inevitable result is that the God of peace shall be with you. His peace will become so greatly manifest inside of you and living out of you, it’ll be as if God Himself were standing right there with you.

Pre-Understanding

There was a lot of discussion in all the books I read on hermeneutics about what they called "pre-understanding." In which a person who sits down and reads a Bible will bring their own thoughts and feelings and life experiences into what they’re reading, which they feared could taint the way they interpret a verse.

Again, I think of 1 Thess. 2:13 “...when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”

It doesn’t matter what your past experiences are. God’s Word is perfectly capable on its own of effectually working in you no matter who you are or where you’re coming from. The only thing you have to do is to receive His Word as it is in truth, the word of God, and the result is that His Word will work effectually in you. The Holy Spirit will energize those truths in you. He builds up that edifice of grace doctrines in your soul. He writes Christ onto your hearts. He produces life inside of you, a never-ending newness of life, the life of Christ built-up in your soul. He produces a sound mind. He produces peace in your heart and holiness in your walk. The Holy Spirit sustains and fortifies the inner man.

When you take the time to study His Word, God’s grace will also work in you. His grace and love will take root in you, build you up in Him, establish you in the faith, and transform you into the image of Christ to will and do of His good pleasure.

Heb 4:12 tells us that the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. What does it mean that the word of God is quick? Is it quick to convict you? Or change you? Think "quickened." Eph. 2:5 “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”. What does that word "quickened" mean? It means “made alive.” So when the writer of Hebrews says that the Bible is “quick,” he’s saying that His Word is “alive”. His Word is living.

This is not the word of some dead philosopher. This is not the word of some dead saint. This is not the doctrine of some dead religion. This is the Word of the eternal, immutable, righteous, holy, living God, which means His Word is alive, because His Word has His life in it. His Word is power to us, because it’s capable of transforming our lives, bringing us eternal life, making us alive unto God, renewing our minds, maturing our hearts, and turning each of us into the very image of Christ who is the image of God’s glory.

By Joel Hayes on 1 Oct 2024