Please Help Us Keep These Thousands of Blog Posts Growing and Free for All
$5.00
EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored ninety-two books. Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).
2 Timothy 2:2 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
2 and the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be adequately qualified to teach others also.
The Greek adjective ἱκανός (hikanos) adequately trained and qualified to a satisfactory or acceptable extent to teach others the Word of God. The verb “to teach” means to give biblical instruction, to impart accurate knowledge of the Bible to others.
2 Timothy 2:15 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly handling[14]the word of truth.
If we are teaching ourselves, regular and diligent personal study of the Bible is vital, no matter how long we have been serving God.
We are in spiritual warfare within Satan’s world. But for a moment think of a soldier in a physical world when swords were common. If the soldier was not proficient with his sword, his life would be lost quite quickly. It is only by practice and learned to use his sword well. The same holds true for us and our spiritual warfare, our spiritual sword, the Bible.
What can help us to “rightly handling the word of truth,” as we share the Word of God with others? It is impossible to impart truths from Scripture if we seldom study the Bible if we seldom prepare for the Christian meetings if we never dig beneath the surface into the deeper things of God’s Word. This means too, as we study we must pay attention to the context of what we study. Context is the parts of God’s Word that immediately precede and follow a word or passage and clarify its meaning.
2 Timothy 2:24 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
24 For a slave of the Lord does not need to fight, but needs to be kind to all, skillful in teaching, showing restraint when wronged,
The Greek adjective διδακτικός (didaktikos) is used only here in reference to all Christians and 2 Timothy 3:2, which relates to the elders or overseers (pastors). Yes, pastors need to have greater skill in their teaching of God’s Word. Nevertheless, all Christians need to be trained or train themselves and possess good teaching methods, so they can help unbelievers progress to the point of committing their lives to Christ and baptism and these new ones will then grow in their skill in teaching. The preaching and teaching of God’s Word is the Christian’s primary duty (Matthew 24:14; 28:19-20; Ac 1:8).
If we are to become a well-grounded Christian, we must,
we must obtain a good, deep knowledge of Bible truth (1 Tim. 2:3-4),
put faith in the things you have learned (Heb. 11:6),
repent of your sins (Acts 17:30-31), and
turn around in your course of life. (Acts 3:19);
Then your love for God should move you to dedicate yourself to him. (Matt. 16:24; 22:37; Heb. 10:7)
Finally, baptism (Matt. 28:19-20; Mark 1:9-10; Acts 8:36); which does not give us salvation but rather is a public display, a celebration of our dedication or commitment to Christ
The Following three are needed, and none of the three can be missing.
(1) Knowledge
(2) Belief
(3) Obedience
If one is missing an accurate knowledge of biblical truths, he or she cannot believe in something he has no real in-depth knowledge of.
2 Timothy 3:16 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness
2 Timothy 4:2 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
To understand why Paul exhorted Timothy to preach with such urgency, to “be ready in season and out of season [i.e., ready anytime,” consider some of the context of 2 Timothy 4:2. We read the context: “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For there will be a time when they will not put up with sound teaching, but in accordance with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled,[23]4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober-minded[24] in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Tim. 4:2-5) Jesus had foretold that a great apostasy would develop in the early church. (Matt. 13:24-25, 38) As that grew in the first-century, it was urgent for Timothy to “preach the word” even inside the Christian congregation so that Christians would not be stumbled or misled by the deceptive attractiveness of false teachings. Hundreds of thousands of Christian lives were at stake. What about today? Today, true, genuine Christians are under assault both inside and outside of Christianity. The vast majority of so-called Christianity is liberal to moderate, and they are doggedly twisting the Scriptures and assaulting true Christianity as being out of touch with the times. Outside of Christianity, we find the Agnostic, atheism, and other religions like Islam vigorously campaigning against the trustworthiness of the Bible, and the legitimacy of creation and the Creator.
The Greatest Teacher of All
One Spring day in 31 C.E., Jesus gave an open-air talk to a relatively large, mixed crowd that had assembled to hear him teach. were was no modern-day microphones in those days; therefore, he had to use natural acoustics on a mountainside so that he could be heard. And what he had to say was amazing. When he had completed his talk, those who were listening to him agreed that they had never heard anything like it before. The record tells us: “And it happened when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astounded at his teaching; for he was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” (Matthew 7:28-29) Astounded: (Gr. ekplēssō) This is one who is extremely astounded or amazed, so much so that they lose their mental self-control, as they are overwhelmed emotionally. (Matt. 7:28; Mark 1:22; 7:37; Lu 2:48; 4:32; 9:43; Ac 13:12) On this and many other occasions, Jesus showed that he was truly a master teacher.
Furthermore, he told his followers that they, too, would be teachers. He said: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and look, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”” (Matt. 28:19-20) The apostle Paul also stressed that Christians had a responsibility to teach. “For in view of the time you ought to be teachers,” he told the Hebrew Christians. (Hebrews 5:12) He also told Timothy: “For a slave of the Lord does not need to fight, but needs to be kind to all, skillful in teaching, showing restraint when wronged.” (2 Tim. 2:24) The apostle Peter tells us: “just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his [Paul’s] letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” (2 Peter 3:15-16) This means that we must buy out extra time from unimportant things for a deeper Bible study program, as we certainly do not want to unknowingly twist the Scriptures.
Why such an emphasis on teaching? Well, Christians must know how to teach when they are sharing the Word of God with others, even if it is online, in the streets, by the phone, or house to house, or incidental, really, by whatever means. You never know when or where an opportunity will present itself for you to share the word of God. (See John 4:7-15) In addition, there are opportunities for some who would like to teach in the church. Moreover, Christian parents, too, strive to bring their children “up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord,” which demands much skillful teaching ability. (Ephesians 6:4; Deuteronomy 6:6-8) No wonder the apostle Paul said that a Christian has to be “qualified to teach”!
As we saw from the words of the apostle Paul, teaching is not easy when much of the Bible is difficult to understand and can lead to our twisting the Scriptures if we do not have an accurate knowledge ourselves. Teaching is both a science and art. It is a science because there are some basic rules and principles when teaching others. It is an art because styles of teaching can differ based on one’s personality. How can many Christian brothers and sister develop their teaching abilities? It can be done with the help of God. The Father gives wisdom to those who ask for it. (James 1:5) The holy spirit supports those who seek and make an effort to do the will of the Father (Matthew 7:21-23), and he has given us the Bible, which is “profitable for teaching,” and able to help us to be “fully competent, equipped for every good work,” including teaching.—2 Timothy 3:16-17.
The Bible itself helps us in becoming better teachers. It does this particularly by faithfully reporting on the ministry of Jesus Christ, whose teaching abilities caused such astonishment among the listeners of his day, which included his critics as well. (Mark 1:22) If we learn what made him such a good teacher, we can try to imitate him. The apostle Paul was a great teacher as well. Christian Publishing House has two fantastic books underway, see the cover examples below. In the meantime, Christian Publishing House has several Christian Apologetics and Christian Evangelism books above that you can order, so as to support our ministry, which will help you develop your teaching abilities immensely. For those with little financial means, the CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING HOUSE BLOG Biblical Training Academy has hundreds of free articles on Christian Apologetics and Christian Evangelism.
