"hearing." The Bible says, "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." The impor tance of hearing is to understand what the Bible has to tell us. But this is really inferior to the second word which is "reading." Paul ex horted Timothy (4:13), "Till I come give attendance to reading." It is not just a case of reading through the Bible once a year; that is an excellent exercise. If you have nev er done it, you should try it. Better than this, however, is not to see how much of the Bible you can go through but rather how much of the Bible can go through you! The third word is the most prominent, "study." The verse is our text from II Timothy 2:15. This means dili gently apply yourself, bend every effort, show yourself approved un to God. Next, the thought is "mem orizing." Psalm 119:11 declares appropriately, "Thy Word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against Thee." The fifth word capsulizes something even greater. It is simply "meditating." Joshua 1:8 testifies, "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein." The Psalmist defines it, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night." People are looking for approval today. They want to know that they are appreciated for the work they have done. With such a "dog- eat-dog" philosophy abounding everywhere someone has sug gested that the only place a person can find approval these days is in the dictionary. So frequently we fail to thank people; to express a
note of appreciation for some de gree of achievement which they have rendered. Paul, in writing to the Corinthian believers, testified, "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I not as one who beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast away" (I Corinthians 9:26, 27). The graphic word "castaway" is the same root as we have in our text, except with the negative so that it means "disapproved." Can you im agine being so busy teaching others that your own spiritual welfare might be hindered and handi capped bringing final disapproval? One translation puts this, "Try hard and aim first to show yourself worthy of Cod's approbation." Men try hard to show off their abil ities before the world. Our pur pose in studying is not to gain the admiration of the crowd, but rath er it is to gain the approval of Cod's crown. There is probably nothing so important to our men tal makeup as the desire to be ap proved. One reason why basically we find so much frustration and discontentment is the fact that ap proval has not been gained from Cod, nor can it be, unless we are faithfully studying His Word. This verse teaches us that we study His Word in order to show ourselves approved unto God. I John 3:21 tells us, "For if our heart condemn us not, we then have confidence (or approval) toward God." Obedience to His Word and ap proval both go hand-in-hand. Our entire object is not to please men but to bring joy to the heart of Cod. Too many of us, I believe, are
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