In this spiritual battle, our weapon is “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). Therefore, Paul prepares Timothy by pointing (as this course does) to the Scriptures.
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 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 3:14-17).
If, as 2 Timothy 2:15 says, there is a right way to handle God’s word, and there are also wrong ways.
But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word (2 Corinthians 4:2).
The ignorant and unstable twist [Paul’s writings] to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures (2 Peter 3:16 cf. Matthew 22:29; Jeremiah 23:36).
Such distortions often ignore a Scripture’s original intent and its setting or context. They also disregard related passages that balance the full truth. Jewish teachers knew their Bible well, yet they missed the very Messiah to whom the Bible pointed.
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. … How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? (John 5:39-42, 44)
Their blindness exemplifies how not to handle God’s word. Don’t interpret the Bible with a view to pleasing (seeking the glory of) friends and leaders. Don’t read into it what you would like it to say. Begin with genuine love for God. Honestly seek His meaning, His will, His glory. Love His truth, or else be destroyed by lies (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12; 2 Timothy 3:13). Work first on yourself, revering the word of God, studying it, handling it correctly. Then, pass the same values on to those you train.