2 Timothy 2:15 Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. I. Look, first, at the DESIGNATION the Christian minister must try to earn for himself, to be "a workman approved of God," one whose work will bear trying in the fire; having nothing counterfeit about it, but discovering the fine gold of an unadulterated service — truthful, hearty, honest towards God and man. 1. Such a man will strive to be approved of God for his diligence, his earnestness, the anxious concentration upon the duties of the ministry of all the powers which God has given him. 2. "Approved of God," again, a minister should strive to be for his faithfulness. Now, this faithfulness, in relation to the stewardship of souls, consists in a bold and unfaltering adherence to the terms of our gospel commission; in a jealousy, before all things, for the honour of the Lord we serve; in a deter mination that, neither in public nor in private, will we exercise any timid reservations whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. II. But the text invites us, in the next place, to consider the Christian minister in His OFFICE as a public teacher. 1. Where note, first, it is the "word of truth" he has to divide; an expression with which we may compare the language of the same apostle on another occasion, where he says, "When ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as is in truth the word of God." This mode of speaking of Holy Scripture seems well calculated to meet that irrepressible craving for certainty on moral subjects, which is the first need of the awakened mind. 2. But this word or truth, we are told, is to be "rightly divided"; that is, we may interpret the expression, to have all its parts distributed and disposed after some law of connection and coherence and scientific unity. The general spirit of this injunction goes to reprove all that mutilated or partial teaching in which, through an over-fondness for particular aspects of theological truth, a man is betrayed into negligence, if not into culpable reticence, about all the rest. III. But I proceed to the last point which calls for notice in our text, or that which leads us to contemplate the CHRISTIAN MINISTER IN HIS PERSONAL CHARACTER AND QUALIFICATIONS. 1. "Needeth not to be ashamed," in regard of his mental culture, and attainments,, and general fitness to cope with the demands of an intellectual age. 2. "Needeth not be ashamed," once more, in regard of his personal and experimental acquaintance with the truths he is ordained to teach. Every profession in life has its appropriate and distinctive excellence. We look for courage in the soldier; integrity in the merchant; wise consistency in the statesman; unswerving uprightness in the judge. What is that which, before all things, should distinguish the Christian minister, if it be not pre-eminent sanctity of deportment, and the spirit of piety and prayer? (D. Moore, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. |
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