David wrote in Psalm 138:2 "I will worship toward Your holy temple and praise Your name for Your loving-kindness and for Your truth and faithfulness; for You have exalted above all else Your name and Your word and You have magnified Your word above all Your name!"
God honors His word above His name. This is because the credibility of His name is dependent on the credibility of His word. If His word doesn't demonstrate itself to be trustworthy then God Himself cannot be trusted.
In contrast, a man's ego will cause him to want to you honor his own name above his word. That is why so many politicians want you to remember their names when it is time to vote but then want you to forget their words once they have been elected.
If God values His word so highly, shouldn't we? Honoring or even simply believing in God without also honoring and believing in His word is to live a life that is out of balance. If you haven't come to trust His word can you honestly say that you trust God. I think not.
Paul warns us of the alternative to properly honoring the word of God in II Timothy 4:3-4
"For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold, and will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions."
If we don't have the right perspective and understanding of God's word, we are ultimately vulnerable to individuals who make a distortion of the truth sound good to us. According to Paul, many will even seek out teachers to tell them what they want to hear. One translation speaks of those who, "...in their itching for novelty, procure themselves a crowd of teachers." If we don't develope an appetite for balanced truth, we will most certainly seek something that is a novelty.
If we want to properly honor God and His word, we must embrace the its purpose. The purpose of scripture as it applies to everyday life is found in chapter 3.
II Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
It has long been a popular pastime to search for an individual verse or even a fragment of a verse to support an opinion or justify an action or lack of action. Over the years some have advanced to knitting together otherwise unrelated verses to concoct or give credence to concepts that, when taken in light of the whole of scripture, are readily shown to be errant.
The phrase “all scripture” is intended to convey a picture of the entirety of scripture having been inspired as a collective work rather than saying that each isolated and/or dissected verse on its own is individually inspired. The power and authority of the individual verse are found in its context and connection with the balance of scripture.
Because it is inspired by God, scripture, when taken in its totality, is useful and beneficial for several specific things. It is important to remember that these do not necessarily apply to isolated verses taken out of context. These benefits include;
1) Doctrine - that which is taught
2) Reproof - a proof, that by which a thing is proved or tested, conviction, evidence
3) Correction - a restoration to an upright or right state, "correction" is referring to improvement of life and character
4) Instruction in Righteousness
a) Instruction - training, denotes “the training of a child, including instruction”; discipline, suggesting the Christian discipline that regulates character
b) Righteousness - the character or quality of being right or just, integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting
That the man of God may be
5) Perfect - complete, fit, fitted, like a limb or joint that is strong and prepared for any task
6) Throughly Furnished - to fit out, to prepare perfectly, to completely prepared for a special purpose (adding this phrase after the word perfect implies a level of preparedness that seperates the Olympic athlete from a high school athlete.)
7) Unto all Good Works
a) Unto - direction, motion towards
b) Good - describes that which being “good” in its character or constitution is beneficial in its effect
c) Works - denotes every activity undertaken for Christ’s sake
Paul warns us of the alternative to properly honoring the word of God in II Timothy 4:3-4
"For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold, and will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions."
God honors His word above His name. This is because the credibility of His name is dependent on the credibility of His word. If His word doesn't demonstrate itself to be trustworthy then God Himself cannot be trusted.
In contrast, a man's ego will cause him to want to you honor his own name above his word. That is why so many politicians want you to remember their names when it is time to vote but then want you to forget their words once they have been elected.
If God values His word so highly, shouldn't we? Honoring or even simply believing in God without also honoring and believing in His word is to live a life that is out of balance. If you haven't come to trust His word can you honestly say that you trust God. I think not.
Paul warns us of the alternative to properly honoring the word of God in II Timothy 4:3-4
"For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold, and will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions."
If we don't have the right perspective and understanding of God's word, we are ultimately vulnerable to individuals who make a distortion of the truth sound good to us. According to Paul, many will even seek out teachers to tell them what they want to hear. One translation speaks of those who, "...in their itching for novelty, procure themselves a crowd of teachers." If we don't develope an appetite for balanced truth, we will most certainly seek something that is a novelty.
If we want to properly honor God and His word, we must embrace the its purpose. The purpose of scripture as it applies to everyday life is found in chapter 3.
II Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
It has long been a popular pastime to search for an individual verse or even a fragment of a verse to support an opinion or justify an action or lack of action. Over the years some have advanced to knitting together otherwise unrelated verses to concoct or give credence to concepts that, when taken in light of the whole of scripture, are readily shown to be errant.
The phrase “all scripture” is intended to convey a picture of the entirety of scripture having been inspired as a collective work rather than saying that each isolated and/or dissected verse on its own is individually inspired. The power and authority of the individual verse are found in its context and connection with the balance of scripture.
Because it is inspired by God, scripture, when taken in its totality, is useful and beneficial for several specific things. It is important to remember that these do not necessarily apply to isolated verses taken out of context. These benefits include;
1) Doctrine - that which is taught
2) Reproof - a proof, that by which a thing is proved or tested, conviction, evidence
3) Correction - a restoration to an upright or right state, "correction" is referring to improvement of life and character
4) Instruction in Righteousness
a) Instruction - training, denotes “the training of a child, including instruction”; discipline, suggesting the Christian discipline that regulates character
b) Righteousness - the character or quality of being right or just, integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting
That the man of God may be
5) Perfect - complete, fit, fitted, like a limb or joint that is strong and prepared for any task
6) Throughly Furnished - to fit out, to prepare perfectly, to completely prepared for a special purpose (adding this phrase after the word perfect implies a level of preparedness that seperates the Olympic athlete from a high school athlete.)
7) Unto all Good Works
a) Unto - direction, motion towards
b) Good - describes that which being “good” in its character or constitution is beneficial in its effect
c) Works - denotes every activity undertaken for Christ’s sake
Paul warns us of the alternative to properly honoring the word of God in II Timothy 4:3-4
"For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold, and will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions."
Keep living the New Life!
Pastor Mark
