Between Two Worlds: The Purpose of the Bible
For Meditation
This Sunday we are starting a 3-week mini-series on the Bible called Between Two Worlds. Every time you pick up your Bible to read it, you are entering into two different worlds. On the one hand, you are reading the Bible with your own contemporary world in view, with all of your present questions, concerns, and context. On the other hand, you are entering into the world of the Bible, an ancient text written in a very different time and place. One of the most challenging things about reading the Bible (and one of the reasons why we often don’t!) is that it is often very difficult to bridge the gap between these two worlds. How is the Bible relevant and applicable to our world today? We want to spend a little time this August learning about the Bible and how we can become more faithful learners and doers of the Word in the complex age in which we live.
This Sunday we will begin with the basics, looking at the origin, the message and the purpose of the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:14-17 is one of the most famous New Testament passages that addresses these topics. In this short passage, Paul teaches that the Bible’s origin is God himself, that the whole message of the Bible is about salvation through faith in Christ, and that the purpose of the Bible is to help us grow up to become the people God wants us to be. It’s a lot packed into a few verses, and we’ll try to address each of them this Sunday.
In preparation, I would encourage you to do a little reflection on your own relationship with the Bible.
How often do you read it?
Do you find reading or studying the Bible exciting, confusing, boring, or all of the above?
Can you think of a time when God really used the Scriptures in your life to bring encouragement, conviction or change?
What are some of your hopes and desires when it comes to the Bible?
Finally, take some time to pray that the Lord would use these few weeks to re-ignite a desire among us to know, study, read and meditate on the Scriptures.
Our weekly worship guide can be found here once finalized.
2 Timothy 3:14-17
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.