S187P6 – A good start: the word we have learned
2 Tim. 3:12-15
Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
He had not grown up in the Church, and he could not recall ever opening a Bible before coming to Christ as an adult. At first, reading the scriptures was a very new experience for him. He had no idea where to start, and he felt as if he had no context or point of reference to help him along. When listening to a sermon, he would try to take in every word, but so much of it was just so new for him. Then, he came across the words of Christ in Luke 6 and realized that he was reading the golden rule. Later, he came across other scriptures instructing on how not to spoil children and advising us that everything has its time and season. It was then that he realized that he had experienced the word of God even if he did not know it, and that word had taken root in him already.
Sin has a very tricky way of sneaking into our lives through seemingly mundane channels as entertainment or casual conversation. Maybe we have not realized this previously, but the word of God also has sneaked into our vernacular. Many of us did not grow up with the scriptures, but that does not mean that we have not been exposed to them. The Lord has been working to spread his word in obvious ways as well as even more clandestine ones. One of the reasons we see certain scriptures used as regular expressions in our culture is because there is truth behind them. Those words are no less the wisdom of God than the entirety of the scriptures learned as such. We might have only scraps of the word in our minds when we first come to him, but He wants us to cling to those scraps for dear life.
Some of us grew up with the scriptures, and we have retained much of it even if it has taken us time to start to really soak in it. Whether we were raised immersed in scripture or we simply picked up little nuggets along the way without even knowing their source, God wants us to settle on those truths and build on them. Those truths learned early on were no accident or coincidence. He was sowing seeds in us with every word and growing in us a foundation of truth. Father, thank You for the early words planted in our hearts to begin the work You continue today.