Tag: change

One more thought on this passage.

Luke writes of the people in Athens,

Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new. (Acts 17:21)

It reminded me of what Paul would write to Timothy years later.

(They are) always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy 3:7)

Some people just learn for the sake of learning. Or for the sake of being titillated with new ideas.

But it’s not enough to hear and learn new things. If what you learn never changes your life, it means nothing. Particularly when it comes to God and his Word.

The scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day were like that. They knew the Bible backwards and forwards. And yet time and again, Jesus asked them, “haven’t you read (in the Scriptures)?” (Matthew 12:3, 12:5, 19:4, 22:31).

That question must have been highly offensive to these religious leaders.

“Of course we’ve read these passages.”

But they never truly understood them. They never came to a knowledge of the truth. It never changed them.

How about you, when you read the Scriptures, do you come away changed by its truth? Or do you simply walk away proud of what you know (or think you know)?