Paul's Charge to Timothy

2 Timothy 3:10-17
10You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The reason why I didn't post yesterday was because I was struggling. I was struggling to find something to blog about that came from reading John. It would have been easy for me to put my own thoughts as to what the scriptures were saying but that would have been solely to fulfill this blog requirement. I will endure the punishment knowing full-well that in the process, I honored the Lord by keeping it real.

Today, I struggled again to find truth. Struggling is good but at the same time, I'm hungry to be fed. I opened up my now seldom used devotional book and the passage was on 2 Timothy 3:10-17.

To note
+ Paul endured many hardships. God delivered Paul in every situation. When we are stressed, we must remember that God promises never to leave us or forsake us. There is light at the end of the tunnel. It may not be close. It may not be an easy path to that point, but know that it is there.

+Paul notes that anyone who follows Christ will be persecuted. Definitely heard this one before but in the context of Paul, he wasn't kidding about the persecution part as he referenced the suffering and persecution that he received in three different cities while pushing the gospel forward. Anyone who follows Christ will be in conflict with the world based upon the lifestyle that we are called to live. We are in the world but ought not to be of the world.

+The last part that stuck out to me was Paul's list of the purposes of scripture: teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. A few things regarding this: what's the difference between rebuking and correcting? In my head, they're similar if not the same but if they were the same, they wouldn't both be listed. I regularly use scripture to teach, rebuke, and correct but seldom do I use it to train myself in righteousness. Through scripture, I learn of God's will for me and I try to apply it to my life. I wouldn't say that I train, however. As an athlete, training usually entails the following: hard work, sacrifice, commitment, pain, goals, consistency, and results. I cannot say that studying scripture entails all of these things. How exactly do I use scripture to train myself in righteousness?