Do Your Best…..

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15.

'When we read the word of God ... we do it not to any other end and purpose, but to be instructed in good doctrine, that is to say in doctrine as is profitable to our salvation' (John Calvin, Sermon on Titus I:I-4).

“John Calvin was the greatest exegete of the Reformation age: he was the Reformation's greatest theologian. And he was the practical genius of the Reformation. We do not say he was the practical genius of the Reformation in spite of his learned commentaries and his profound and profoundly reasoned theology. We would better say it was in large part because of them. Calvin probably never did a more practical thing than expound the Scriptures day by day with the penetrating insight and the clear, searching honesty of comment in which he is unsurpassed. And he certainly never did a more practical thing than write the Institutes of the Christian Religion (Selected Shorter Writings of Benjamin B. Warfield, 1:403).

The verse from 2 Timothy 2:15 calls believers—especially teachers and pastors—to study and expound Scripture with accuracy and integrity, avoiding distortion or frivolous disputes.

John Calvin embodied this ideal. As he preached on Titus, the ultimate purpose of engaging God’s Word is not mere knowledge or debate, but instruction in doctrine that profits our salvation—drawing us closer to Christ and conforming us to His truth.

Benjamin B. Warfield’s tribute (from his essay on Calvin and the Reformation) rightly highlights this.

These quotes together remind us that true biblical handling isn’t merely academic exercise (although it should involve it) —it’s faithful labour that glorifies God, equips the saints, and advances the gospel.

May we all strive to be such workmen, approved and unashamed.

We don’t need less study, we need more of the right kind.