I’m finishing up a semester of teaching God’s word to some sharp young people in another part of the world. You can syllabize, student-learning-outcome-ate, give out grades and award college credit, but that isn’t really what it is about. The word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than the two-edged sword the Roman legions used to conquer the world. It gets down inside us. You can’t hide from it. (Hebrews 4:12) God’s word will not fail to accomplish what He desires. It will “succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah  55:11, ESV). Though I believe God wants my students to pass, that is not the bottom-line. God intends His word to change us. It is His desire for this word to penetrate the defenses that we put up. We ought to yield to it. God intends that His word change us. If I go to the Word of God and come away the same, God’s word has not failed; I have failed to yield, obey, or submit to the discipline of the word.
The Book of 1 Thessalonians is biographical sketch of a group of people changed by the truth of the Bible. They “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven” (1 Th 1:9–10). The Apostle Paul’s time in Thessalonica was brief, but he was convinced it wasn’t in vain (2:1). The Thessalonian believers received the word Paul and his companions shared as it truly was, the Word of God (2:13). The progress they had made gave the Apostle hope that they would continue to build upon what they had already begun (3:12, 4:2, 4:10, & 2 Thess 1:3). Paul’s series of one-liners with which he finished the book are clearly the words of a teacher who fully expected his students to apply what they were learning, resulting in changed lives.
As I finish this semester, I can identify with the Apostle Paul. Thanks students, for realizing this is more than a class about a 1900 year old book. We are studying the Word of God.
What about you? Have you allowed the Word of God to change you?
It’s STTA. |
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