Training in the Word of God

Imagine you were a soldier ordered into battle by your commanding officer.  However, amidst the orders being given and the tussle to grab supplies, your base is fired upon and attacked.  During the scuffle, you realize that your weapon has gone missing and, apart from terrifying you due to your apparent impotence, you find your self defense-less and without any weapon to handle the oncoming attacks.

Or imagine that you were a doctor entering the emergency room to perform surgery.  Yet after you wash your hands, put on your cap, and pull the rubber gloves over your wrists you find that not only are their no scalpels to be found but you do not even remember how to do the surgery either.

Needless to say, both of these scenarios would be terrifying and are to be avoided at all cost.  But for some Christians, this is exactly how they live their lives.  Scripture states explicitly that the Word of God is the a two-edged sword, the offensive weapon of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12).  Therefore, when Christians neglect reading and studying the Holy Scriptures, they are like a soldier going into war without a gun or a doctor trying to perform surgery without a scalpel.

It might be most accurate to say that the Christian who does not study the Word of God is like a headlining professional musician who has never learned how to play a single note: an utterly preposterous proposition.  Instead, Christians should fulfill the exhortations of the apostle Paul, who writes, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly...(Col. 3:16)."  To conclude, let us look to the word of Paul again in his first letter to his friend Timothy:

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17)."

Let us then treat the Word with all the respect and reverence that it deserves, acknowledging that it is the very power and truth of God Himself, and the authority for our very lives.