Scripture Meditations for Theology Students

Posted On August 07, 2024

Our professor of Old Testament, Dr. Ben Shaw, offers four meditations for students pursuing theological education:

Meditation 1

What is the goal of studying theology? Is it to be able to understand and explain the intricacies of the Trinitarian debates of the fourth and fifth centuries? Is it the ability to articulate the differences between the theology of the first generation of Reformers and the Roman Catholic theology of the Council of Trent?

Those things are important, and it is good for the student of theology to understand them and be able to explain them to others. However, if knowledge alone is the goal of your study, you are no different than the specialist in Shakespeare or Jane Austen. The study of theology, in this case, becomes merely an intellectual pursuit designed to show your superiority to others in your knowledge and understanding.

Our primary goal as students of theology ought not to be the acquisition of great intellectual knowledge—after all, “knowledge puffs up.” The pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake is a prideful pursuit. We want to show how much more we know than others. Young preachers may damage their relationship with people in their congregations by using their sermons to parade their knowledge of Greek and Hebrew or to demonstrate the theological vocabulary they have acquired.

Instead, our goal in theological study ought to be to know our God better. As Voddie Baucham has said, “The modern church is producing passionate people with empty heads who love the Jesus they don’t know very well.” In our passion for Christ, we ought to seek to know Jesus better. We ought to want to be people not only with heads full of information about Jesus but with hearts full of a love for the Jesus we are getting to know better each day.

As we pursue the knowledge of Christ, a deep world of knowledge and understanding opens before us. Who is Christ? What has He done? What is our relationship to Him? How are we connected to the Father and the Holy Spirit? How are we as Christians connected to each other? What is our relationship to the world around us? What is God’s goal in creation and redemption?

The well of revelation is deep. May we desire to drink deeply of it, motivated fundamentally by a love for the God who has revealed Himself to us in Christ.

Meditation 2

“Oh that my ways might be steadfast in keeping your statutes! Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.” (Ps. 119:5–6)

As students of the Word of God, we should have three goals in mind.

The first goal is that we should know what the Word of God teaches. For some, this means memorizing a long list of isolated verses. But that approach, while well-intentioned, misses the point. God reveals Himself through many types of literature, which are not all to be read in the same way.

Parables are not poems. Poems are not miracle stories. Miracle stories are not laws. So, we begin our quest by learning the different types of literature in the Bible so that we can correctly interpret the passages that we read. In that way, we learn what God teaches.

The second goal is to put what we learn into practice. Some of what we learn will be easy to do. It will accord with our own preferences and desires. Others, however, will be much more difficult. What God requires will be contrary to our fleshly desires. Walking contrary to God’s requirements will often seem to be the easiest way.

Sometimes, walking contrary to God’s requirements will seem to be the more profitable route. However, the contrary way, the way that God calls us away from, is in reality the hardest and most painful way. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Prov. 14:12).

The third goal in our study of the Word of God is to bring glory to God. The psalmist desires not to be put to shame. It is not the shame of the world that he would avoid. Instead, he seeks to avoid the shame of standing before a holy God, trying to explain why he walked in a way contrary to the way of God that he had learned.

The shame of the world is a brief and passing shame. What the world considers shameful changes from one generation to the next. Things that used to be considered shameful are now boasted of. But the shame of transgressing the Word of God is an everlasting shame, for God does not change, and His word is steadfast.

Meditation 3

“. . . much study is a weariness of the flesh.” (Eccl. 12:12)

One thing that many people get wrong about the work of a student is how tiring it is. We readily think of physical labor as tiring—and it is. But somehow, the mental labor of study is discounted, as if it were not really labor. For the student who is returning to school after months—or perhaps years—of being out of the classroom, this can come as a surprise.

Hours spent in the classroom or in the library, hours spent thinking through and writing papers leave the student weary. That is true for students of every subject, of course, but it is particularly true for students of theology. Why is that the case? Again, we often don’t think about it, but the study of theology is as much a spiritual exercise as it is a mental exercise.

The student of theology enters a field that is fraught with deep spiritual implications. And we live in a world opposed to true theology. The world is happy with “I’m spiritual, but not religious.” But the world, the flesh, and the devil are actively opposed to the man or woman, the boy or girl, who would begin to study the Word of God deeply with the intent of learning God’s ways and seeking to live in obedience to Him.

Roadblocks and hurdles come up before the theology student: physical tiredness or distractions of one sort or another that draw our attention away from the things with which we must deal. The student must prepare for this spiritual battle. To enter the field of theological battle, the student must put on the armor of God. For in our study, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the cosmic powers of this present darkness.

Indeed, theological study is a weariness to the flesh. But it wears on the spirit as well. So, we must be prepared against the distractions that the forces of darkness will throw against us. Theological study must be bathed with prayer—the admission of our weakness before a holy God—so that He may supply the strength and protection necessary for our labor.

Meditation 4

“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 Tim. 2:15)

The verse begins with an imperative. The King James Version translated it as study. Other versions carry the ideas of diligence and hard work. But there is an additional overtone to the Greek word used here. And that is the idea of eagerness. Studying can often feel like drudgery.

Memorizing Greek vocabulary. Reading one more dense treatment of the subtleties of Trinitarian theology. We can easily lose that sense of eagerness as we approach the study of God’s Word. It is, therefore, something that the student of theology should cultivate.

We are also to remember that our work is an offering unto God. We do it not to show off our understanding before others. Even at our best, even at our most profound, we must remember that we are only scratching the surface of understanding and loving our God.

Let us not be puffed up but humbled. Let us seek to bring our study, however incomplete it may be, as an offering to Him, made acceptable and pleasing in Christ. Let us bring our study to God as the Israelite who brought the best of his flock. Let us not give to God our castoffs, the sour fruit of night-before-it-is-due compositions only half thought through.

Let us bring Him our best, unashamed of the work we have done, though recognizing its shortcomings. Let us devote ourselves to learning how to rightly handle the Word of truth. Let us learn to cut straight, setting it forth truthfully without distortion or perversion.

As the semester comes to a close and the demands of the classes seem to multiply, let us petition our God for that sense of eagerness, that sense of discovery, that sense of awe and wonder that drew us to our study in the first place.