#48. Churches Are to Give Attention to the Reading and Teaching of Scripture

1 Timothy 4:13 — Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.

Paul is teaching the young pastor in Ephesus, Timothy, about the things he wanted to see happening in the church while he was away.  Top of his list is the reading and teaching of Scripture.  Why would the Apostle focus on these things when there were many other things he might have mentioned?  Why is his language so emphatic (it literally means he is to be devoted in thought and effort to these things)?  Surely it is because Paul knew it was essential to the church to be immersed in the Scriptures, to hear them read, to hear them taught and explained.  In the light of what God does through His Word in the lives of His children, this should not surprise us.

The challenge for us this week is whether (in the life and ministry of the church) we would place the same priority on the Word as God's Apostle to the Gentiles.  How many churches in the 21st century are devoted in thought and effort to the Word of God and to its reading and teaching?  How many congregations are hungry for teaching from the Bible?  How many cannot get enough of it? How many believers will make the effort to attend church whenever Scripture is being read and taught, and how many (perhaps secretly) regard this as an unwarranted intrusion on their leisure time?

These are searching questions, but intentionally so.  It is not clear from God's Word that we who name the Name of Christ are entitled to take a more relaxed attitude to these things than our forefathers did in the early days of the church.  Having seen in this series all that the Word of God is and all that it does in the church and in the believer, we certainly have not arrived at a place where we no longer stand in need of these things in the same way the saints did in the New Testament!

So let's examine our hearts in the light of this text and (by God's grace) let's all resolve in the coming days to devote ourselves to be present for the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.