p. 16 | TEACH THE WORD

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · May 3, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 18.

TEACH THE WORD.

"I CHARGE thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine." 2 Tim. 4: 1, 2.

This instruction from the Lord is not to preach something about the Word, or to tell what we think the Word means, nor anything of that kind. But it is simply and purely to "preach the Word." To preach the Word is to tell what it says. We should not tell our theory of the Word, but tell the Word itself. The Word of God is plain, but man has covered it up with so many theories and traditions that we are apt to think that we are studying the Word and preaching the Word when in reality we are studying some old superstition or tradition that has been handed down to us and that we have been made to believe is what the Bible "means." The Lord says, "Consider what I say," not consider what I mean.

Do you study the Word of God? Do you "preach the Word"? Or do you merely study something that some fallible man has written or spoken about the Word. There is a vast difference between the two. If you have never enjoyed Bible study, perhaps it is because you have spent your time trying to get interested in some of the dry things that have been said about the Bible, in place of coming to the living Word of God itself.