Jared has a post about people who read too much into the Bible. He writes
You know, sometimes it just says what it says.
This reminded me of something from my “quiet time” yesterday.
In 2 Timothy 2:14-117, Paul warns Timothy “not to wrangle about words, which is useless” and “avoid worldly and empty chatter”. He does emphasize that it’s important to “accurately [handle] the word of truth.”
The context Paul puts this in is for Timothy to “remind them [his congregation] about these things”, which is the call to holiness, suffering, and hardship for the sake of the gospel (2:1-13).
I was thinking about this in the context of my theology class. It’s important to know and teach sound doctrine (2 Timothy 1:13, 2:2) but not to get into foolish arguments. As Jared wrote, “The Bible says plenty of hard things on the surface.” Between teaching good theology, evangelism, and teaching people to live lives worthy of our calling, we’ve hit pretty much everything that’s important.