Memory Verse: Study

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” -2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV).

Today is Father’s Day, a day when we honor fathers. My father encouraged me to study and do well. I remember his encouragement and admonitions with gratitude.

In the “memory verse” emphasis I am now writing about in these devotionals, I am selecting one by one (and day by day) those that I have memorized over the years. I am also using suggestions from the book by Robert J. Morgan entitled 100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart (Nashville: B&H Publishers, 2010). Today’s selected verse, 2 Timothy 2:15, is not one in Dr. Morgan’s list of 100. I was encouraged early in my life, when I was in first grade at Choestoe School, to memorize this verse. It was not “against the law” then for school children to memorize Bible verses, or for the class to have the Pledge of Allegiance, a Bible reading and the Lord’s Prayer to begin public school in those days. My first grade teacher was Mrs. Mert Shuler Collins. She was also my teacher at Sunday School. She encouraged us at both places—school and Sunday School—to memorize Bible verses. As incentive, she had a chart with her pupils’ names at both locations, and would place a shining star by each child’s name who could repeat the memorized verse to her correctly. Her method may not be recommended by modern-day educators for the feelings of lack of accomplishment it might engender in those who do not earn the stars. But for me, both what this verse from 2 Timothy 2:15 teaches, and the very fact that it was safely lodged in my memory to give me more incentive to study set me on a course to work hard in all my lessons and be on that special road we called “Achievement in Studies.” And my father and mother at home encouraged and helped me to do likewise.

Paul, Timothy’s teacher, and the one who called Timothy his “son in the gospel,” knew that Timothy needed to study well the law and the prophets, but also Paul’s own letters that gave much of the new Way of Jesus as Lord that Paul preached and that he commissioned Timothy to teach and to preach to the churches he sent the younger Timothy to encourage. This verse, although meant to encourage study of the scriptures, can also apply to whatever challenges we have to study that which is good and beneficial. We study in school at first to grow proficient in reading, writing and arithmetic. Then we add sciences and the social studies, more erudite studies in specific fields we want to pursue which will help us in our careers. But the same principle Paul gave to Timothy still prevails, regardless of what pursuit of knowledge we follow, so long as the study is honorable and beneficial. The Amplified Bible gives additional insight into 2 Timothy 2:15: “Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing—rightly handling and skillfully teaching—the Word of Truth.” I take the advice in this verse very literally when I teach a Sunday School class or lead a group in Bible Study. Being a teacher by profession, I sought to apply the principles of this verse in the classroom. The teacher must first study hard and diligently before teaching. A teacher should not be afraid to say: “I don’t know the answer to your question. But keep it in mind. Together we will seek to find the answer.” Eugene Peterson in his modern-language The Message Bible renders 2 Timothy 2:15 this way: “Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple.”’ His translation further admonishes: “Words are not mere words, you know. If they’re not backed by a godly life, they accumulate as poison in the soul” (v. 16). -Ethelene Dyer Jones 06.19.2016

The Influence of a Godly Example

“When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also, therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” -2 Timothy 2:5-7.  “But as for you, continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” 2 Timothy 3:14-15 (both references NKJV).

            Timothy’s mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois are mentioned by name only once in the Bible, in 2 Timothy 3:14.  Luke, in writing the Acts of the Apostles, records the story of Timothy’s call and going with Paul and Silas when they were in Lystra.  We read:  “And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek.  He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium.  Paul wanted to have him go with him.  And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek (Acts 16:1-3)  Timothy and his mother and grandmother were likely converted to Christianity (from Judaism) on Paul’s first missionary journey while he was in Lystra.  By the time Paul returned on his second missionary journey, Timothy was already an outstanding Christian there.  Lois and Eunice were Jews by birth, but Timothy’s father (unnamed) was Greek.  That is why Paul thought it best to circumcise Timothy so that no criticism would be forthcoming from Jewish Christians they might meet.  Eunice and Lois’s influence made such an impact that Paul felt it worthy of noting in his epistle to Timothy.

            Family influence is a strong factor in helping children to become Christians and to assist them to develop in Christ-like graces.  Paul commended Timothy that his faith had first lived in his mother Eunice and in his grandmother Lois.  They had prepared Timothy with a solid education in the Jewish Scriptures, taught him to be responsible, and trained him in strong character traits.  Paul called Timothy his “son in the gospel.”  He trusted Timothy to be sent on important missions for Christian teaching and training.  He assigned Timothy hard places to assist struggling congregations and to instruct in problems concerning doctrine and Christian discipline.

            Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:11-12:  “But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (NKJV).  What Paul was urging Timothy (and us) to flee was the love of money, which “is the root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10) and causes people to “wander away from the faith and pierce themselves through with many pangs” (v. 10).  Paul urged Timothy to embrace the fruits of the Spirit including godliness, faith, love, patience and gentleness.  These characteristics had been taught to Timothy from his youth up by his mother and grandmother.  “”I’d rather see a sermon anytime than hear one,” is a truth about the value of Christian example.  In the home, fortunate the children who see sermons (and godly qualities) practiced and lived out by Christian elders who provide genuine examples of Christ-likeness.

            Timothy had that example in Eunice and Lois, and in Paul after he met him and was mentored by the apostle.  Let us pray that we can be godly examples for others.  –Ethelene Dyer Jones 03.23.2014.