2 Timothy 3:14-15 But continue you in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them;… The capital word in this injunction is doubtless "continue." Timothy's teachers had been his grandmother Lois, his mother Eunice, and the apostle Paul himself. From his childhood he had been taught in the Scriptures, and now the apostle urges him to remain steadfast in his early teaching. But was such an exhortation consistent with the greater light that would come to the young learner as he grew older and increased in knowledge? Might he not have occasion to change his beliefs, to revise his creed, as he made intellectual advancement? Let us see if he was right. What relation should subsist between "the things learned" and the increasing light of greater knowledge? It should be kept in mind that, notwithstanding much shifting of positions in human thought, the essence of religion remains unchanged; it is fundamentally the same. There are those who seem to think that greater light will revolutionise all our beliefs, and that therefore it is folly to cling so tenaciously to the old orthodox positions in religion or anything else. Suppose for a moment that this were true. Then there could be no certainty, no assurance. We should not dare to pin our faith to anything in religion or science or common sense. Even those mathematical truths that have been so confidently held as axioms would stand on an insecure foundation, for who knows that further research might not shatter them, and raze to the ground the proud superstructure? Besides, these progressive thinkers themselves, who advocate certain theories with so much gusto, are guilty of folly; for, according to their own hypothesis, new light may change their beliefs, and prove them but the phantoms of a day. Do you see where this theory, that all our knowledge is in a fluctuating state, subject to constant change, will land us? In the harbour of nowhere? Let those who will sail tor that port. Many of us prefer a definite destination after the voyage of life is over, and a more reliable guiding star while it lasts. But let us look around us for analogies. Are there not many things that abide amid all changes? The zephyrs still blow softly on the blushing cheek, the storm still howls, the stars still twinkle, the waves still roll and dash upon the shore, men still breathe and eat and sleep and love, as they did in the olden times; that is, the fundamental things continue. And the like is true of the principles of Christianity; amid all fluctuations "the foundation of God standeth sure," and we still have "hope as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast." (Christian Globe.) Parallel Verses KJV: But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; |
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