Study to show yourself approved of God
2 Tim. 2:15

Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, shows us a man diligently seeking to free himself from a fate universally accepted as immoral yet prescribed and predetermined by the gods, but he is without the ability to change the predetermination of the gods. This man runs from a lion, so to speak, into the arms of a bear and performs the prophesied fate. Yet in his actions, we see the behavior of a man who would be moral, but the gods were sovereign in what he would and would not do. The gods had determined that he would be immoral and fulfill the fate they had determined for him. Many may argue that Oedipus Rex is just a story that a Greek writer has hatched. Such a notion is simplistic and is the flaw and failure of some who are unlearned. Solomon warned us, in saying, the ignorant love simplicity and fools hate knowledge. His father, King David, gives us insight into seeing that God is throughout all His creation--man is but a part of God's creation. David said there is no speech nor language where His voice is not heard. [Psa. 19:3] And in Oedipus Rex, God's voice is heard as much as Paul's reference to other Greek poets and declared that God's voice was in their words. [Acts 17:28] The great learned Apostle stated, God has made of one blood all nations of men to dwell upon the face of the earth and has determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation.

The case of Oedipus is such a situation. The gods had set the bounds and reigns of his habitation, and regardless of what he did, he had to fulfill them. This archetype--pattern throughout humanity--is also seen in Moses and many others in scripture. It is fate--the unavoidable end--that one is predetermined to inhabit. The Greeks understood this pattern in life because God had placed it in them as in all human beings. Paul's writings and words indicate that Paul had read Sophocles's Oedipus Rex and the writings of other Greek poets and scholars and saw God's voice in them. What Paul says in Acts 17 and in Romans 9 is exactly what transpired in Oedipus's life.

Paul stated that all men, whether wittingly or unwittingly, seek after God in some way--their writings and thoughts happen to be one of those ways. God is not, Paul said on Mars Hill, far from each of us. "In Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring." [Acts 17:28] And since he is not far from us, King David wrote that there is no speech or language where God's voice is not heard. Throughout God's creation, God is seen, heard and felt over and over again. But to hear His voice or to see it, we must look carefully and not without thought dismiss what others are saying.

Since we are the offspring of God, we should not think that God's voice is only in those who are saved through Christ. We are all God's creation, and as a father has sons and daughters, some whom he approves of and some whom he disapproves of, and all are his children with the resemblances that say to any viewing world they are his children, so are we, ALL of mankind, God's creation. And God is throughout His creation; His fingerprints are all over this universe from the microscopic to the macrocosmic. In all His creation, including man, is the DNA, as it were, of God the creator.

Looking at it differently, let's use the automobile as an example. Americans love their cars, and the car is a marvelous invention for locomotion. But when one examines the structure and logic of construction of the automobile, an objective and intelligent person can see the hand prints of man. It is a human invention, and humans cannot make a creation without leaving deposits of themselves. The conveniences of the car lights for aiding human weaken night vision speak to man; mirrors to allow humans to see round about themselves speak to the limitation of our sight, hence to man. And as you study the automobile or any other human invention, the same principles are true. These human touches are a form of human DNA deposits occurring in all human inventions.

If one from another world who knew of the behavior, characteristics, and attributes of human beings as well as other creatures different from us, would examine a creation or an invention by human beings, that creature could easily identify the entities made by human beings. Our fingerprints are there; our creations or inventions behave in a way that corresponds to human beings. So it is with man and God: human beings, in their ignorance, may rebel against God, but in their very DNA are the deposits of God--we are His creation and His fingerprints are all over us, whether we know it or not. And those fingerprints say that we are His creation and His possessions. Paul argued on Mars Hill, in Athens, God has made the world and all things in it--man is a thing made by God, I repeat for emphasis. [Acts 17: 24] Mankind, therefore, is the offspring of God, a concept not lost on the Greek philosophers, and a concept Paul was keen to observe and point out to them using their own writers. Paul saw that such a statement was Greek but godly. [Acts 17:28]

We are His offspring; God's attributes and patterns of thought and His behavior are within and throughout our being, in varying levels. And since this is true, we can decipher God's voice in all of creation and in the works and the thoughts of others, whether saved through Christ or not. So powerful is this notion that Paul actually took Greek poets and placed their concepts into the New Testament as holy writ. In Acts 17: 28, where Paul said, "For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring,'" Dr. Scofield noted that the Apostle quoted from two Greek poets--Epimenides and Aratus. (For the record, I have not looked up and proved Dr. Scofield's note.)

We who have read others Greek philosophers can also see that Paul was read in Sophocles's Oedipus Rex, as he says that God has set the bounds of habitation of all men and Paul's treatment of fate and other concepts, especially in Romans 9, Ephesians 1, and many other passages he writes. The Acts 17 passage shows Paul was versed in Greek literature and he understood that God spoke through it as well. To further see that Paul was a scholar and student of such writings as an aide in his ministry, note in 2Tim. 4:13; Paul told Timothy to bring the books and especially the parchments to him. These parchments could have been skins he wanted to write on, a cover for a written document, or a document that he or someone else had already written. What we know explicitly about parchments is that he wanted Timothy to bring them to him. It probably does not mean another book because he expressly said, bring the books [observe the plural of books means more than one book].

As Paul studied and read many books in order to feed God's people, both sheep and the lambs, ministers must similarly study, as seen and commanded in Acts 6: 4 and 2 Tim. 2:15. The reason many Christians are going away from Christ, back to the beggarly elements of this world and their own vomit, so to speak, is because the leadership (whom God said has caused his people to err) will not study with any degree of scholarship to prepare a correct meal for God's people. [Isa. 9:16-20; 2 Pet. 2:22] Resultantly, what many saints receive in many churches is mush and outright dog food, while many ministers serve tables, an act expressly not reasonable or fitting for a minister to do. [Acts 6: 2] That diet has made many of God's people sick and many die from their sickness. But those who are still alive, but sick, are blinded into thinking they are being fed properly and do not know the diet they are on is killing them.

Knowing that God speaks to his people in various ways--remember Moses learned from his father-in-law, Jethro, a Midianite priest, how to administer a certain portion of God's law [Ex.18:17]--we can use Sophocles's Oedipus Rex, and many other works to help us see and understand God's creation, and therefore God.

With that concept in mind, we can better see and understand why God has admonished his people to seek wisdom as the principal thing, and in all our getting, get an understanding. Throughout God's dealing with man, God has always told his people to seek knowledge. It is of late that some have glorified ignorance as if it were somehow what God prescribes for his people. [Prov. 4]

God has actually said that His people are destroyed because of their ignorance. [Hos. 4:6] To hold to ignorance instead of knowledge is to reject God. But it is understandable why human beings hold to ignorance rather than knowledge: Ignorance does not cost anything; we come into the world in ignorance and that state will not change unless affirmative actions are engaged in to change it; anyone, therefore, can be ignorant-it's a birth state. But to acquire knowledge one must pay a price; a price many do not want to pay. It is a price of self-discipline, a price needed to force the mind to realign its way of thinking; a price needed to fill the mindless void with knowledge that can be used in thinking. That is hard: Solomon said, much learning is a weariness to human flesh. Those who are living in the flesh do not want to weary it. Instead, they cater to its desires. One who caters to the flesh is an undisciplined child, even as our psychologists have coined the Child Ego state, the Adult Ego state, and the Parental Ego state, the flesh is the Child Ego state-it wants to take the easy way out, to do that which is not hard; it wants what it wants and will throw temper tantrums to get it.

But God says to those who would be His disciples, they should know the truth and the truth will MAKE them free. [John 8:32] This statement is more profound than most realize, and many have no idea what it means and are not on a road that will ever lead them to the truth. Even the passages, although written everywhere and quoted by many is without the needful distinction of being set free and made free. That is a distinction of significance. But to acquire truth means that one must go beyond his birth state of ignorance; it requires wearing down the flesh and living another life-the life of the mind. Our acquisition of knowledge requires study, and ever more study. That does not feel good to the flesh, consequently many ministers, as well as saints generally, will not do as the disciples said, give themselves to prayer and a ministry of the word-to minister the word, one must study it, as Paul admonishes every minister of the word. [2Tim. 4:13]

We should search out the Book of the Lord and read it until we get the word in us. Initially, it will be bitter as that word gets inside us and cleans us up. Once we are cleaned by the word, then it becomes like honey in our mouths. But we have to first eat it up! [Ezek. 3:1-5; Rev. 10:9-11] This is not easy, and that is why so few ministers know enough of the Word of God to feed God's people the meat of the word. [Heb. 4]

Many have made themselves fat but not off the Word of God; they are portly because they live in the flesh and cater to it. God's ministers are told to study His word and not to go anywhere until they have the word in them. That is because the beam must be taken out of their eyes before they can remove the mote out of someone else's eye. [Matt. 7:3] Ezekiel and John were told to first eat God's Word, then go and prophesy. If one has not eaten God's Word, he/she should go nowhere but to the word and eat it so it can work on that individual first. Once that individual has been worked on and cleansed, then that word will be as honey in his mouth and only then is he ready to help someone else understand the truth of God's Word.

A teacher is as good of a teacher as he is a student. If one does not study, he should not try to teach because a teacher must study continually to have food for those whom he teaches. The English writer and scholar Samuel Johnson had written weekly columns for his magazine, but after a while he stopped writing. His argument was this: "I have given you all I have; now I must go and get more." He went back to study. As a principle of my academic and spiritual life, because I know they are connected, I study continually during the year, but when summer comes, and my work schedule is freed, I give myself to reading several books I am unable to read comfortably during the year. I must study because I am a teacher, and I cannot give/teach what I do not have.

Paul said study to show yourself approved of God, a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. This is the road of a God-sent preacher. Many may be called, but few are chosen. Paul said study to demonstrate that you are an approved minister of God. It is implied in this scripture that studying is work, or why would one be a workman. Study is a weariness to the flesh, and he that suffers in the flesh has ceased from sin. Study! Once one has worked as he should-studied until the flesh is properly wearied-then such a one need not be ashamed and won't be made as shamed or make the ministry of Christ ashamed by him.

Furthermore, this scripture implies that it takes work to rightly divide the word of truth-God's Word. Anyone who can read can read it; dividing it rightly is another matter completely. And if it is not rightly divided, it is not God's Word-it's man's wrongly divided word that he wants God to say. But God is saying what he is saying when the word is rightly divided. This takes much wearying of the flesh, not living in the flesh, through study as we have been admonished to do. After we have studied the Word of God, we must also read, as Paul did, other texts and literature to see God in others.

A teacher by profession, I see many students at a college level would come to class and college unprepared for the rigors of serious study. They have the idea that a one or two hours study is study sufficient, but it is not enough time to understand the difficult concept of human discourse. If this is true about the things of man, it is doubly so about the things of God. Anyone who thinks he/she can study for an hour or two and feed God's people, needs to rethink that issue. Yet I have seen ministers who give that little and even less time to their ministry. Those are ministers who should not stand before God's people-they are unqualified to administer the things of God to God's people; they are ministers who are not approved of God; they are ministers who should be ashamed because they shame the ministry; these are ministers not able to give a answer of the reason of the hope within them. These are ministers who don't even know the hope of the believer. [1 Pet. 3: 15]

The things of God are precious and difficult to understand, as Peter has said. [2Pet.3:16] They require one to give himself to them, somewhat like academic matters but more extensively. Jesus said that spiritual things require violence to acquire them-spiritual violence is comparable to, but much more strenuous and radical, than academic violence. [Matt. 11:12] All serious students of academia understand this intensity of purpose.

You see, if a minister does not study God's word extensively and continuously, that minister will have no vision and no approval of God. The people whom that minister attempts to lead will fall into a ditch because he and they are blind. And when they are blind, they have no vision and where there is no vision the people perish. This is why we must study God's Word thoroughly and give ourselves to prayer in that study, instead of what has become a pastime for many mister-serving tables!

Finally, the scriptures say, "Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures." Notice that the passage reads, "…that they might understand the scriptures." Might is a word of condition; although the condition is not stated here, it is stated in other scriptures, and those other scriptures come to bear on this one. God may open one's understanding, but that person may still not understand certain and many scriptures because the conditions are not met. The conditions range from giving oneself to prayer and ministering of the word instead of serving tables (Taking offerings), one has not studied God's Word as he should, one has not searched out the book of the Lord and read it, one has not followed the word to know the word, one is living in the flesh, etc.

Brothers and sisters, I thank God that He has opened my understanding to His word, as in Luke 24:45, but I do not take that blessing for granted. I study His word many long hours before I attempt to present a message to God's people. Even though I have also been blessed to have achieved as high in academia as is possible--I hold BA, MA, PhD degrees from three accredited universities of no small reputation--I do not assume that learning entitles me to stand before God's people, which is to stand before Him, unlearned and unstudied in His Word and attempt to declare all the council of God.

We must all study to show ourselves approved of God so we can lead the people of God correctly and not into a ditch. []

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