Sound Teaching

"What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us." 2 Timothy 1:13-14

Yesterday I posted about how God is our teacher, and that we need to go to Him to learn His Will for our lives. Today, I read this verse and it kind of went a little deeper for me, and told me a little of what to expect from The Good Teacher.

Have you ever tried to teach a child something that was so totally frustrating? I have. My daughter has had a bicycle for five years now, and she still doesn't know how to ride it. Part of the blame there is that we don't have space to ride bikes in our yard. We don't have a sidewalk to ride up and down, so in order for her to ride a bicycle, we need to make an effort to do so. She just hasn't been getting it with the training wheels, and this summer we decided to take the training wheels off and see if she could just master the thing straight up. As I would hold onto her bike for her while she so slowly pedaled away, I would easily become frustrated. Very frustrated. Almost angry, because I know how to ride a bike. I know that if she just held her head up high and pedaled faster she'd get it. Before long, she gets mad at me because I'm getting frustrated and short with what I'm trying to tell her, and the bike goes back in the garage.

Andy, on the other hand, can teach our daughter things because when he puts on that teacher hat he instantly fills with patience and love for his daughter. He uses gentle words of encouragement, but stern reprimands when he needs to. He's also much more straightforward with what he is telling her, without providing commentary or telling what he used to do. He gives her straight up instructions, laced with encouragement. Even Abigail sees the difference, and after the last debacle with the bike, she told me that she would learn how to ride a bike only with her Daddy. Lol.

We should be the exact same way with our Bible.

How many times do we read a verse and then try and interpret it ourselves? I certainly know I have done it- and I have the archives to prove it! Or we take a verse completely out of context so that we can apply it to whatever situation we are in. Sometimes too, we water down what we read. We can read right in the Bible "do not commit adultery" but we water it down and say well, obviously, I shouldn't cheat on my spouse physically, but it would be okay if I just connected emotionally with someone of the opposite sex. It's just really easy, when you're reading your Bible, to put your own spin on things. We could each write a different translation and tailor it to what we want to read, but then it wouldn't be the Word of God now would it? It would be the word of Erika or the word of Mary, and that's not something that sound even worth reading!

Instead, we need to look at the teachings in the Bible as an example. When Jesus spoke to the disciples and the crowds and gave his sermons, every single one was full of love and faith. They were true and honest, often times convicting to the people who were listening. But behind that conviction, the compassion in Jesus came out with the conviction. Jesus shared God's Word with those around Him because He loved them. He loves us, and he wants us to make the right choices. Sure, there are times where we read something in the Bible and then feel utterly convicted right there on the spot. Any time I read a verse about being lazy or slothful I want to crawl under my desk and hide. But I need to read those verses, I need to be told them. How can I change my ways if I don't know that I'm doing wrong in the first place? When we rationalize sin to those around us, we're confusing them, telling them that they really don't need Jesus in their lives each and every day. When we fall short and then we pat ourselves on the back and say "that's okay, that's why God gave us mercy" we aren't doing anyone any favors. God did not give us mercy so that we could feel better about ourselves. He gave us mercy because we are undeserving in the first place. And when we stumble and fall, we should feel bad about what we did- we should feel convicted for our wrongdoing, because unless we do, we aren't going to be willing to change.

My desire, for each and every day, is to follow the sound teaching straight up in the Word of God. Every word. When I don't, when I have a day where I maybe did something I shouldn't have, then I need to fall to my knees in humility in front of my God and beg for His forgiveness, and seek the Holy Spirit and ask Him to help me to resist the next time. My heart has been filled with the love of Jesus, and I need the Holy Spirit's help to keep that love pure and untainted, because all it takes is once for the enemy to try and squeeze in and find a way to crack into my heart. I need to be on guard, and I need the Holy Spirit to help me with that task, because you know that it's the Holy Spirit who's sitting there on your shoulder telling you not to do something. And I need the Holy Spirit to keep me from watering down what I read in the Bible and to read it just as it is- as a Bible full of wisdom meant just for me. Each and every word applies to me and my life, and I need to cling to that.