Question
How is the Word of God to be read and heard?
Answer
With diligence, preparation, and prayer; so that we may accept it with faith, store it in our hearts, and practice it in our lives.
With diligence, preparation, and prayer; so that we may accept it with faith, store it in our hearts, and practice it in our lives.
With diligence, preparation, and prayer; so that we may accept it with faith and practice it in our lives.
Scripture
—2 Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV)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 Timothy 3:16–17 (NIV)All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
—2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NLT)All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
Song
Video
Prayer
Adult
“Almighty and everlasting God, we pray in the name of your dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. First, send a spiritual kingdom and a blessed gospel ministry. Give us devout and faithful preachers who communicate the wealth of your divine Word in truth and clarity. Graciously guard us against divisions and heresies. Do not focus on our ingratitude, by which we have long deserved that you take your word away from us. Do not punish us as severely as we deserve. Again we ask you to give us thankful hearts that we may love your holy Word, prize it highly, hear it reverently, and improve our lives accordingly. And so may we not only understand your Word rightly but also meet its demands by our deeds. May we live in accordance with it and day by day increase in good works. Thereby may your name be hallowed, your kingdom come, and your will be done. Amen.”
Footnote
Martin Luther (1483–1546). A German Protestant pastor and professor of theology, Luther was the son of a mining family, intended to become a lawyer, and at first took monastic orders. On 31 October 1517 Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg, sparking the Reformation. His refusal to retract his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X and Emperor Charles V resulted in his excommunication. Luther wrote many works, including his small and large catechisms, and preached hundreds of sermons in churches and universities.
Attribution
From Luther’s Prayers, edited by Herbert F. Brokering, from the translation by Charles E. Kistler (Minneapolis: Augsburg Books, 1967), 97–98.
Child
Almighty and everlasting God, we pray in the name of your dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Give us faithful preachers who speak your Word with truth. Teach us to love your Word, prize it, and practice it in our lives. And may your name be hallowed, your kingdom come, and your will be done. Amen.
Attribution
Derived and adapted from Martin Luther’s prayer in Luther’s Prayers, edited by Herbert F. Brokering, from the translation by Charles E. Kistler (Minneapolis: Augsburg Books, 1967), 97–98.
“Almighty and everlasting God, we pray in the name of your dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. First, send a spiritual kingdom and a blessed gospel ministry. Give us devout and faithful preachers who communicate the wealth of your divine Word in truth and clarity. Graciously guard us against divisions and heresies. Do not focus on our ingratitude, by which we have long deserved that you take your word away from us. Do not punish us as severely as we deserve. Again we ask you to give us thankful hearts that we may love your holy Word, prize it highly, hear it reverently, and improve our lives accordingly. And so may we not only understand your Word rightly but also meet its demands by our deeds. May we live in accordance with it and day by day increase in good works. Thereby may your name be hallowed, your kingdom come, and your will be done. Amen.”
Footnote
Martin Luther (1483–1546). A German Protestant pastor and professor of theology, Luther was the son of a mining family, intended to become a lawyer, and at first took monastic orders. On 31 October 1517 Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg, sparking the Reformation. His refusal to retract his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X and Emperor Charles V resulted in his excommunication. Luther wrote many works, including his small and large catechisms, and preached hundreds of sermons in churches and universities.
Attribution
From Luther’s Prayers, edited by Herbert F. Brokering, from the translation by Charles E. Kistler (Minneapolis: Augsburg Books, 1967), 97–98.
Almighty and everlasting God, we pray in the name of your dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Give us faithful preachers who speak your Word with truth. Teach us to love your Word, prize it, and practice it in our lives. And may your name be hallowed, your kingdom come, and your will be done. Amen.
Attribution
Derived and adapted from Martin Luther’s prayer in Luther’s Prayers, edited by Herbert F. Brokering, from the translation by Charles E. Kistler (Minneapolis: Augsburg Books, 1967), 97–98.
Commentary
“As you read your Bible day by day, do you apply the truth to yourself? What is your motive when you read the Bible? Is it just to have a knowledge of it so that you can show others how much you know, and argue with them, or are you applying the truth to yourselves?… As you read…say to yourself, ‘That is me! What is it saying about me?’ Allow the Scripture to search you, otherwise it can be very dangerous. There is a sense in which the more you know of it, the more dangerous it is to you if you do not apply it to yourself…. We must apply the truth to ourselves and be humbled by it. We must be very careful that we are not talking about things theoretically, without troubling about the application of them to our personal lives…. People…are judging Christ by you and by me. They say, ‘Look at those Christians!… They can talk marvelously when the sun is shining and when the business is going well, and when there is no trouble in the family, but the moment anything goes wrong they do not seem to have anything, they are even worse than many who are not Christians. Is that Christianity?’ —[they make a] perfectly logical, perfectly fair deduction.”
Footnote
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899–1981). A Welsh medical doctor and Protestant minister, Lloyd-Jones is best known for preaching and teaching at Westminster Chapel in London for thirty years. He would take many months, even years, to expound a chapter of the Bible verse by verse. Perhaps his most famous publication is a 14 volume series of commentaries on Romans (from which this quote is taken).
Attribution
From Romans Chapters 2:1–3:20 “The Righteous Judgment of God” (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989), 147–149.
Further Reading
“The Interpretation of Scripture” in A Faith to Live By, by Donald Macleod.
“Interpretation” in Concise Theology, by J. I. Packer.