Dying for the Word

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” ^ESV 2 Timothy 3:16-17

This week a friend of mine asked about my recent trip to Peru. He was most fascinated with my account of their hunger for bible study and worship. As we continued to talk, we compared their hunger for God’s word with the general complacency I see here at home. Maybe complacent isn’t the correct term. But we at least suffer from information overload. Because of this overload I fear that we become numb to the word or at least sometimes take the bible for granted.

Compare the information overload of our culture to what I witnessed in the high jungle of Peru. No internet. No television. No plumbing. No electricity. Now, before you start pitying the folks, let me say that they were some of the happiest people I’ve ever met. Now, let me recount some of the things I observed about their hunger for God’s word.

Our services began at 7:00 AM and ended (with intermittent breaks) sometimes as late as 10:30 PM. There were many nights that we stayed up past midnight fielding questions. One morning I arose before dawn to see the compound sprinkled with flashlights as people sat on the ground in front of the church reading their bibles. I witnessed the same phenomenon at night way past the last sermon. When the church filled up, people gathered at the front door or climbed the outer walls to look in the windows. Sometimes we had as many people listening in the courtyard as we did in the building. One man I met had traveled many miles in a taxi to the nearest town and then walked the final two and one half hours to the church. Had I not been there myself, this sort of story would be hard to believe; as it was for my friend.

As I recounted these things to my friend, I was reminded too of the steep price that men have paid in order to deliver the Bible to us in the format we have today. Most of the Apostles (all except John as I recall) met untimely deaths because of their faith yet their martyrdom only served to further the good news of Christianity.

In more recent times, John Wycliff did pioneering work in translating our bible into English and he was persecuted dearly for it. William Tyndale is another pioneer. He was convinced that the common man should have a printed copy of scripture in his own language for study. So, Tyndale labored under constant persecution and in hiding to bring us a printed copy of an English New Testament. Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake for his actions yet his famous last words were: “Lord! Open the king of England’s eyes.”

Now I ask, how do you regard the Bible? Do you study it like I witnessed the people doing in Peru? Do you appreciate the fact that men throughout the ages have been killed because of their zeal for the truth it contains? And from our verse today, do you take advantage of its availability by studying it in such a way that you are equipped for every good work?

Ken Askew