Shew Thyself Approved?
2 Timothy 2:15 Study – why? – to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. What does that mean to shew thyself approved unto God? Study Webster would tell us that study is a setting of the mind or thoughts upon a subject. This is the application of the mind to any subject for the purpose of learning what is not before known. By using the word study we already have a sense of intent. We study for the purpose of learning things we didn’t know before. Additionally, study includes meditation. 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. Shew Thyself Approved Then Paul tells us WHY we should study. He says Study – why? – to shew thyself approved unto God. What does that mean exactly? How do you shew yourself approved unto God? Does God approve of you studying His Word? Of course, He does. Would God disapprove of you never studying His Word? Of course. Does this mean God would disapprove of you personally? Of course not. He sees you as one with His Son, as righteous as His Son. But He has a will for how you live your life, and we all want to please God with a worthy walk. Paul wrote in 1 Thess. 2:4, But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. Paul would also write in 1 Cor. 7:32, He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord. Plus, he’d write in Col. 3:20, Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. We have to make an effort to please God with a worthy walk, and we’ll find out how pleased He is when we He rewards us at the Bema Seat. Let me ask another question. Is 2 Tim. 2:15 some kind of Calvinist verse in the sense that you’re studying to prove that you’re hopefully one of the elect already approved by God to be saved? If this truly was a Calvinist verse, wouldn’t Paul say “pre-approved?” Study to shew thyself pre-approved by God before the creation of the universe? Here’s another question. When Paul writes, Study to shew thyself approved unto God is he talking about some kind of works-based acceptance system? In other words, you have to study in order to earn God’s approval of your life? If that’s the case, how much study do I have to do before God finally approves of me? I can imagine God saying, “Joel, I almost approved of your life. You did some good studying, but I needed you to study at least one more hour.” Does that idea even line up with Scripture when Paul already tells us in Eph. 1:6 that we are already “accepted in the beloved”? When you accepted the gospel by faith, God accepted you. You were graced into the beloved. You are now and forever one of the accepted beloved. You are now approved. You are now accepted. And acceptance isn’t just, “God accepts you.” When Paul says you are accepted in the beloved, he’s talking about you receiving the fulness of God’s love. God makes you the object of all His grace according to all the love that’s in Him, all “to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Eph. 1:6). He shows you as much love as He shows His only begotten Son. He has risen up to the fullest character of His love by blessing you in all this grace where He regards you as dear to Him as His only Son. You were approved. You were accepted into the beloved of God. Period. So what does it mean to shew thyself approved unto God? Some modern translations, change 2 Tim. 2:15 into a total works-based acceptance system. Like the New American Standard Bible (NASB). That Bible wannabe says, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” Can you believe that? What does that even mean to Be diligent to present yourself approved to God? I’m sure the Calvinists would argue that the word for study in the Greek means be diligent. Except for the fact that in the Greek, that word study 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 than it would make sense that the beginning of the verse should say WHAT you are to do. The only logical word is study. One commentary of this NASB version said that Timothy was to view himself as a worker seeking to please God. He needed to go out and do good works every single day to earn God’s approval of him. Not only that, in the NASB, it’s a works-based double-whammy. You’re not just doing good works every day to earn God’s approval, but you’re also doing good works to avoid being shamed by God because of His disapproval of you. Does that even remotely sound like grace to you from the God of all grace? Let’s look at this expression word-by-word. Study to shew thyself approved unto God. Study – The application of the mind to any subject for the purpose of learning what is not before known. To – Study to – study for the purpose of, to arrive at a fixed destination, to bring about the result of, in order to achieve – what? Shew – To show. Study to shew. Now, shew is the same thing as show. Webster says show is sometimes written as shew. They’re the same words. Updated spelling. That’s it. They mean the same thing. Which is to exhibit. To reveal. To bring about into a visible form. To make known. To cause people to see. To prove or to manifest. To prove by evidence. To disclose or to make known. You get the idea. And what is it exactly that we’re to cause people to see? Thyself – Yourself, singular you. You are to show yourself. You. This is personal. This is about your life. This is about the real you. This is about showing who you are now in Christ. This is about your walk. So, then, HOW are we to present ourselves? Approved – I’d argue that this word, “approved,” is the most important word in this whole expression. Webster’s 1828 didn’t have a lot to say about “approved.” Just one short paragraph. Approved: “Liked, commended, shown or proved to be worthy of approbation (or commendation, acceptance, or approval).” In other words, you’ve been approved. You are approved. And you had at one time shown that you met the requirements worthy of approval. You qualified to be approved. You earned the right to be approved. Approved of what? Some kind of approbation, which is an acceptance, commendation. Webster continues. He also says, “having the approbation and support of...” someone or something. In the second definition, it’s not so much the fact that you’ve EARNED that approval, but you simply ARE approved. You ARE in that approved status by someone. Who is that someone in this case? God the Father through the intercession of Christ. Let’s go over this. We have two basic thoughts by Webster about “approved” that are slightly nuanced in their differences. In both thoughts you are already approved. You’re already in that approved status for… whatever. An approbation of some kind. A commendation. Acceptance. You’re approved. Webster also implied in that first definition the idea that 1) you are approved and 2) you had also proven your worthiness to be approved. So approved means that you’ve achieved a status of commendation or acceptance. And approved also can infer that you have already shown your worthiness to receive that commendation or acceptance. Got that? You’re approved. You’re in that status of receiving the approbation, that commendation, that acceptance. But then in that first definition is the inference that you have already proven yourself to be qualified to receive that approbation. Make sense? Good. How did we get God’s approval to receive eternal life? By faith, right? We accepted the gospel by faith. Because of the sacrifice of His Son and God’s overwhelming grace, He was willing to give all of us the free gift of eternal life if we simply believed and trusted in the gospel. When God called us through the gospel, He was explaining to us how to receive His free gift of eternal life. He was telling you that He wants you to accept and trust in the worthiness of His Son’s payment for your sins. It’s like the scenario with the application. We’re filling our names out on an application to get eternal life and we read that there’s only one way to qualify – faith in the gospel of grace. Do you believe? Check. Great! Automatic approval! God has approved of you receiving eternal life. Instant download of eternal life. You met God’s requirements for approval to receive eternal life and that requirement was faith in His Son and His work at Calvary. But then after you get saved how do you show that you have been approved? It’s simple. You merely live your life in a manner consistent with how you got saved. You live by faith, which is what got you approved to begin with. By living a life of faith, you’re showing yourself approved unto God. Plus, you also do something else. You study. You study the Word rightly divided. By studying, you can also show yourself approved because you can show everyone the verses in Paul’s epistles explaining how you were justified by faith in Christ’s finished work. You see? By living the life of faith, you’re showing yourself approved. By studying, you can also show yourself approved because you can show from Scripture that you are saved, sealed, and sanctified forever. You can point to those verses in the Bible. You can show them from Scripture you’re approved. And whether you’re showing that you’re approved through your life of faith or whether you’re showing people verses in the Bible about how you’re justified, you can’t show people either way unless you’re studying the Word rightly divided. I’d suggest that fulfilling Paul’s instruction to study to shew thyself approved unto God really has two components to it:
Your life of faith and your studies of the Scripture rightly divided make you able to show others through the testimony of your walk and through your knowledge of Scriptures that you are approved of God. Your life of faith and your studies of the Scripture make you able to explain to everyone that you’ve been reconciled to Him, makes you able to answer every man and tell them how you’ve become justified in His sight. You’re able to show yourself approved. Your life of faith is a testimony to God’s approval. Plus, your studies have made you informed well enough to point out verses and say this is why I have eternal life! All of this fulfills how Webster defined “approved.” Are we showing that we’re already approved by God or are we showing how we got approved? YES. In both senses of the word “approved.” You are showing that you’re approved, because of your faith. You’ve shown that you were worthy of that approval because you met God’s requirements: you accepted His gospel of grace by faith. You earned that approval because of your faith. You believed and trusted in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as a payment for all your sins. You’re continuing to show your approved status because of your life of faith. Plus, your consistent study of His Word rightly divided makes you knowledgeable of God’s will for today. You have a thorough grasp of the gospel. You have a thorough grasp of who you are in Christ. You know how to live and how to have victory in your walk. And your study of His Word helps you to live with joy and hope. And you are now equipped to answer every man and show them those verses. 2 Tim. 2:15 is as much about identification as it is about hermeneutics. You’re now living in light of who you are, which is how you show yourself approved unto to God. You are showing yourself approved because you’re living that life of faith. You’re walking the walk with love and hope. Because you studied enough to know who you are, you’re actively trying to live in light of who you are. And in all of that, you are showing yourself approved. You’re showing yourself already accepted by God because you’re living in light of who you are. You are studying to show through your life and your knowledge of the Word that you ARE approved because of your faith, that you WERE approved because of your faith in the gospel, and because you ARE also living a life of faith. |