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Study to Show Yourself Approved: A Mandate for Ministers and Ministry |
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By Frank Ramey, Pastor St. Andrew Church of God, Camden, SC
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“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness” (2 Tim. 2:15-16).
This is a mandate from God for the pastor who has been assigned the position of spiritual overseer of a local congregation. It equally applies to other spiritual leadership positions. This is not a suggestion to be taken into consideration as a court of last resort. Instead, it is a foundational criterion for being a minister and doing ministry.
If a person has an aversion to study, he or she will have difficulty being an effective pastor, evangelist, missionary, or even a spiritual leader in the local congregation. The mandate to study is foundational to understanding the call of God for ministry. Of necessity there must be a persistent study ethic for all who want to have a hearing as the ministers of the Word of God. Without a good study ethic, there is no integrity in the ministry.
Having said this, the statement must be broadened to include all Christians. With the wide availability of the Bible and the promise that the Holy Spirit will “lead us and guide us into all truth,” there is no excuse for any Christian not to have a reasonable understanding of the Word of God. There is nothing any more debilitating for a generation, culture, nation, or local congregation than a person who is uncommitted to keep himself/herself through fresh encounters with God and His Word through the illumination of the Holy Spirit in the study. Embodied in the call of God to be a preacher, pastor, missionary, or teacher for Him is the expectation that the person will enter into a lifelong student covenant.
There is no excuse for willful Biblical ignorance. The problems of false doctrine, error, and heresy are the direct result of a lack of intentional time spent in study of the Word of God. The lamentation of God recorded in Hosea 4:6 is, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of God, I will also forget thy children.”
Paul has addressed the same mandate in 1 Tim. 4:13, 16: “Til I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.”
Four concepts in the context of this mandate passage place eternal weight upon the shoulders of all who would be ministers/leaders and do ministry. It has been said, “He who leads, READS (i.e., studies).”
In the first concept, study is the path to divine approval for minister and ministry.
We must minister with God as our primary audience. If we as spiritual leaders do not have divine approval, anything else and everything else is useless. The acceptance of the culture at large, the applause of those who are our audience, the ability to “trip the light fantastic” of verbal fanfare are never guarantees of divine approval. For those who would minister and have ministry, there is no approval from God aside from being faithful students of the Word. The person who is called of God and sensitive to the Holy Spirit will be driven to please God as his/her purpose for living.
Second, intentional commitment to study will keep us from shame and from shaming God. Paul’s admonition is couched in the understood caution that the absence of study produces shame, shame for ourselves because the absence of study allows for the incidental influence of popular concepts, nominal ideas, and even outright error to creep in.
Finally, workmen of God will be rewarded when they give account of their lives to God. For those of you in ministry, I want to encourage you—stay faithful and do ministry God’s way, regardless of the trouble you face.
Make sure you are in God’s will and press on. Do not bother with all the criticisms and slights from those who oppose you. If the criticism is valid, take it, learn from it, and seek to improve for God. Yet, much criticism is not of God. Keep your focus upon Christ and love people. Keep a humble spirit and do what God has called you to do. God will reward you, faithful servant.
I pray that the truth will continue to be preached and proclaimed throughout every church of God congregation in the Movement and priority is again put upon His Word and His Spirit. Remember, the trowel builds, the sword defends, and the bread feeds.
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