07 - Consider 2 Timothy 3:14-15 & Titus 1:1

Jesus’ (2 Tim. 3:14-15).
Clearly, we are talking about saving faith: ‘salvation through faith’, to re-quote the apostle. Now this faith cannot be confined to the mind, confined to mere assent. True enough, in this passage there is much talk of ‘knowing’ and ‘learning’, and that is essential. But notice Paul’s closing words. Why did Paul say that the Scriptures, which Timothy had known, were able to make Timothy wise for salvation? Wise? Wisdom is far more than mere head-knowledge. Many men are knowledgeable, but far from wise. How much more so when talking of spiritual wisdom. ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom’ (Ps. 111:10). The fact is, Timothy had needed something more than scriptural knowledge, something more than head-knowledge of the facts of Scripture, if he was to be saved. He needed wisdom, heart-wisdom. Indeed, notice how the apostle put it in the first letter to Timothy: ‘God... desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’. The saved are ‘those who know and believe the truth’ (1 Tim. 2:3-4; 4:3). ‘Know and believe’, I stress; that is, ‘know kai believe’ – ‘know even believe’.