Reading - Tuesday with Timothy #57

1 Timothy 4:13-16  Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.


Until the apostle Paul came back, Timothy had a charge to stay steadfast in the faith and apply himself to certain duties and spiritual disciplines. The first duty mentioned, is that he was to give attendance to, or apply himself and give heed to reading. Reading and preaching go hand in hand. The pastor has to apply himself to the study of God's Word. You cannot expound and explain that which you don't know. You cannot tell others what God has said if you don't know yourself what God has said. Some say that this refers to the public reading of Scripture, but there is not really any reason that it is limited to public reading. Certainly it isn't excluded, but the focus, I believe, is on Timothy's soul and his ministry at this time. Read the Bible over and over. Read in studying to preach. Read for the good of your own soul. Read from the pulpit. Read in the study, read at home. what Not just speed reading, but to read and the pause and mediate on the Scripture. Consider what has been read and compare with other passages of Scripture. Read the passage in context to the immediate verses, and then in context to the whole book, then in context to the whole Bible. To do this, you need to be familiar with the Bible. True Christianity does not keep people from learning and from knowledge. True Christianity promotes learning, promotes knowledge.

Timothy needs to apply himself to exhortation and to doctrine. Don't separate the two. You are not a seminary professor. Good doctrinal preaching will lead to worship. Good doctrinal preaching will have application. Doctrine. Devotion. Doxology. Too many preachers will tell you what you have to do without telling you why. Too many sermons are all exhortation without any doctrinal foundation to rest it upon. Follow Paul's example in most of the epistles. There is a foundation of doctrine, and then a "therefore". Because this doctrine is true, this is how you apply it. The popular model of preaching today is that you tell the truth and let the Holy Spirit apply it. I think this is a result of mega-churches and online ministries where the pastor doesn't want to apply to an assembly because the hope is the sermon will get downloaded a million times. Don't apply a sermon to what is going on today because when someone listens to the radio or MP3 in six moths, that will be out of date. That wasn't how Jesus preached (Luke 13:4). Or the church is so big, the pastor doesn't know how to apply it because he doesn't know the people. Yes, the Holy Spirit knows the issues of the church and He can and does apply the truth to the heart. But the Holy Spirit has called the pastor to exhort. That is the pastors job.

In reading and the personal study of God's Word, preach to yourself first. Apply the truth to your own heart. Repent of your sins. Then present what you have first received. Listen to your own preaching in the study and apply the truths you are going to proclaim to your own heart first, and then proclaim those blessed truths to others.