Who is Our Teacher?

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing (correctly understanding and explaining) the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15 NKJV)

Study

The KJV says to study to show yourself approved unto God.  We should be rightly dividing the Word of Truth which means that there are those who do not diligently understand and explain the Bible to others.  In the primitive New Testament church there were those who wanted Christianity to be a sect of Judaism.  Paul says it is not.  There were also those who thought that they were more spiritual than the apostles and had obtained knowledge that the apostles did not have.  They were called gnostics, but probably should have been called “know it alls”. 

When a person is newly saved, how are they to make progress in spiritual things?  We tell them to attend Bible Studies but in my experience they attend books written by authors that supposedly know what they are talking about.  Now one can find a favorite author for every “ism” in the world today.  Obviously, not everyone is rightly dividing the Word of Truth.  There is a principle that I got hold of a long time ago.  When interpreting the Bible we can all be wrong, but we can not all be right.  We can even all be in agreement and still be wrong.  Error is more easily dispensed than truth.  I fear that our current emphasis on expository preaching is indoctrinating Christians rather than giving them the tools that they need to rightly divide the word of Truth themselves.  I know that the epistles and the book of Revelation were read publicly in assemblies.  But I wonder who it was that had to tell the new testament believers what the author “really” meant.  

Nehemiah

During the revival under Ezra and Nehemiah, they had an open air conference where the Old Testament, probably from Genesis to Deuteronomy, was read publicly and explained.  I wish there had been recordings made of those explanations as it is obvious that people needed clarification.  We read, ” So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading. (Nehemiah 8:8 NKJV).”  And yet when Josiah read the scroll that had been lost in the temple (kind of like losing the Bible in our churches), he seemed to understand it without needing explanation. We read, “Go, inquire of the LORD for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the LORD that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us (2 Kings 22:13 NKJV).”  In Nehemiah’s day, likely not everyone knew how to read (I can’t prove that but I suspect it to be true).  Many of those taken into captivity had been born after the miracles recorded in the first five books of the Bible had taken place and needed historical perspective.  Historical perspective still helps today, however, most of us can read.  I believe we, like Josiah, can understand the Bible if we would just read it.  

The Holy Spirit

If we are saved then we are sealed with the Holy Spirit and He should be our teacher.  We read, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. (John 14:26 NKJV).  Now I suppose this could be a promise to the Apostles, but since this is part of the upper room ministry that culminates with the Lord praying not only for his Apostles but also for those who will believe through them, I believe the Holy Spirit will use the Word of God to illuminate believers today.  They do not have to look for answers in the back of the book like we did when solving math problems in high school.  What a joy it is when we realize that the Holy Spirit has spoken to us through the written word of God.

We Do Need Help

When we read the Bible we need help with language and customs and with the historical background of the passage.  But we don’t need to be told what to believe about the  basic doctrines of the Gospel and the basic doctrines of the church.  I find that using several versions of the Bible often helps in my understanding of passages that are difficult.  I realize that the Lord spoke in parables which are really earthly stories used as allegories.  So we need to understand that there is symbolic teaching in the Bible.  But we also need to understand that the new testament was written in the common man’s Greek, not in the formal classical Greek used by scholars.  So I assume that God intended for common people to understand it.  

It is imperative that we understand that the real reason for understanding the Bible is so that we can confidently say, “I know I am saved!”  I think we can all be like Josiah, who believed what he read.  When we read about sin and righteousness and judgment, we need to just accept what the Bible says and believe it.  

Bruce Collins

Meditation for the week of June 29, 2025

If you would like further conversation about the issues in these meditations, contact me at collinsbd@yahoo.com and I will try to accommodate you with a virtual Bible Study.