It can never mean what it never meant

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” 2 Timothy 2:15.

For ten months this past year, we learned about what to study and how we can know for certain that the 66 books of our Bible—and no others—are unique, inspired, and preserved by God throughout the centuries.

Last month we examined why we study and how true restorationists seek to follow Bible things in Bible ways to know how we might have the promise of eternal life found in the gospel through Jesus.

So, to round out our deep topical study of God’s Word, we’ll look at how we study. How do we rightly handle the word of truth?

Remembering that our goal of study is not what a passage or verse means to us but to discover what God intended to convey to us for eternal life, we must understand the historical and spiritual context of each word, verse, sentence, paragraph, passage, chapter, genre, and testament. Who is speaking and to whom it was spoken is important as well as knowing we must understand harder passages in the light of easier ones.

It can never mean what it never meant.

Do you cherish the Bible?