Question 7: What do the Scriptures mainly teach?

The Scriptures mainly teach what man is to believe about God and what duty God requires of man.

DAY 1:

DAY 2: John 20:31

The context for the Scripture is the appearance of the resurrected Christ in the midst of the disciples. Thomas had missed out of Jesus’ first appearance and now is being confronted by the other disciples and he is being told that they have seen Jesus alive. However, Thomas is sceptical and says that he will not believe it just because they say so, but will only believe if he sees Jesus for himself. Now, eight days later Jesus appears again to the disciple and Thomas and Thomas needs no further proof and falls at His feet declaring that He is his Lord and His God.

The verse prior to our verse of focus helps us understand what verse 31 communicates. Our question this week tells us what the Scriptures mainly teach about God. Well, in their experience, the disciples saw many signs and proofs of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the evidence of His deity. John says in verse 30 that Jesus was there with the disciples and did many signs in the presence of his disciples which he did not record.

However, even though they are not recorded, the Holy Spirit did feel it necessary for us to know the other things that John recorded, all 21 chapters. Jesus’ life was incredibly wonderful and He did amazing things. He did so many things in just the 3 ½ years of his earthly ministry that John believes that if they all could be written down, that the world itself could not contain the books that should be written (21:25). On top of this, verse 24 tells us that Jesus was not a mythological creature, nor was he a fairy tale. John testifies to the truth about Christ and the documentation that he wrote about Him.

John uses the word, “But” to let us know that the others signs Jesus gave the disciples were not written down, but the things that he did document, were documented for a reason. What is that reason? That we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. What kind of belief is he referring to? Is he referring to accepting the facts that Jesus is the Christ and that He is the Son of God? Didn’t the demons also believe such things about Jesus? (cf. Mark 5:7; James 2:19)

The word christos in the Greek means “anointed” or Messiah. It comes from the root word chrio which we talked about in the previous catechism question, from the verse in 1 John 2:20-27, speaking of the anointing that we have that was given to us by the Holy Spirit. So the writings of John were specifically given as evidence that Jesus is the Messiah of God. But also the evidence is given by John to indicate that Jesus is the Son of God. He is indeed the second person of the Trinity. He is deity. We are to believe that Jesus is God and we are to believe in Him as Messiah. Jesus is the God-man who was prophesied about for hundreds of years before he came and was foreordained to be the Savior of the world from before it’s foundation. That’s what Scripture teaches about the person of Christ.

Ask members of your family if they really believe that. If they have questions help them understand why it is important that we think precisely what the Scriptures teach about Jesus Christ.

DAY 3: Acts 24:14

The context of this verse is that Paul was going to prove to the Jews that he was not against the law or Moses or against their customs as he had been accused of (21:21). As a result, the Jews find him a mob ensues. Paul is rescued by the Romans and taken into custody. Because he is found to be a Roman citizen, the chief captain, who was in charge of Paul, decides to let him go back to the counsel of the Jews who had accused him. When he was returned there and his testimony divided the Pharisees and Sadducees, they became so enraged that the Roman chief captain again took Paul into custody for his own protection. Now, Paul’s sister’s son found out about a plot by the Jews to kill Paul and relayed the message to Claudius Lysias, the chief captain and he took Paul to Caesarea to stand before Felix the governor and face his accusers.

Paul states that the Jews called his worship of God heresy. The word hairesis means, “act of taking, choosing, choice, dissensions arising from diversity of opinions and aims”. The Jews were accusing Paul of choosing his own way of worship and dissenting from that which the Old Testament had taught. The real problem was that they had deviated from what the Scriptures had actually said.

Paul, however, says that he was worshiping the God of his fathers. The word for worship, latreuo, means “to serve, for hire, to perform sacred services, to offer gifts, to worship God in the observance of the rites instituted for his worship”. Paul is simply stating that he is worshipping God in the manner in which God stated to worship. What did God say to Paul’s fathers (the term references generations of fathers before him)? He says, “believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets”.

So, our question asks us what the Scriptures mainly teach and the answer is that they tell us what to believe about God and what God requires of man. With that in mind Paul tells us that true worship of God, which is right thinking and right doing, is believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets.

Share with your family how you are leading them to know what the law and the prophets say so that they may believe and truly worship God.

DAY 4: 1 Corinthians 10:11

Paul speak to the Corinthians of the things which the Israelites went through in the Old Testament. He gives numerous examples of things they did. They:

Were under the cloud, passed through the sea, were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, ate the same spiritual meat, drank the same spiritual drink, were idolaters, committed fornication, tempted Christ and were destroyed of serpents, murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer.

What does Paul state is the application to us? Verse 6 says that the right things that happened to them (ie. Being under the cloud, passed through the sea, were baptized unto Moses, ate spiritual meat and drank spiritual drink) were for an example for us and the intent of these examples is so that we should not lust (have cravings for) evil things.

Now the evil things they craved after did not bring spiritual life, but brought them spiritual death. Those are the remaining things in verses 7-10. Their sin brought devastating consequences. Discuss the consequences of the Israelites sins and see if your family thinks it’s a good deal for them to sin against God. Then warn them about sin and exhort them with verse 11.

The word admonition, nouthesia in the Greek, means exhortation. So that’s what we use these things for. They are examples by which we can learn from, if we will take them seriously. Maybe you want to share an example where someone, maybe a Mom or Dad instructed you in a certain way and you didn’t listen, but thought you had it under control and learned how serious the consequences were and that you wished you would have listened and spared yourself. If only our children will listen to what we tell them, they would spare themselves many consequences and heartache in the future. Impeach clinton

Paul again, says, “these things were written”. By him saying this, he is referencing these accounts as Scripture. These records from the Old Testament, being drawn upon in the New Testatment again tell us what duty God requires of man.

Lastly, he makes use of the phrase, “upon whom the ends of the ages have come”.

DAY 5: Ecclesiastes 12:13

Solomon is concluding his book of wisdom and focuses in on the responsibility of the reader. Solomon warns his son and the readers of his book about many things. He sums it up in verse 8 of this chapter, that “all is vanity”. Everything that the world has to offer is vain. It accomplishes nothing and in fact makes man weary (verse 12).

The phrase, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter”, is a summing up of all that the preacher has said. He takes 13 chapters to give wisdom about many things, of which their ends are vanity and he comes down to one verse to drive his point home.

If we jump to the end of the verse, we find the phrase, “For this is man’s all”. The King James Version renders the phrase, “for this is the whole duty of man”. While the word duty is included and not in the original. It seems fitting that a literal interpretation would be that it is the whole requirement of man.

We must ask ourselves, “What is the whole requirement, or duty of man?” The passage tells us, “Fear God and keep His commandments”. The word fear, yare’, means, “to fear, revere, be afraid, to be in awe, to terify”. I do believe in godly reverence, but much is to be understood from true fear. We must be in awe of the majesty of God and the power He wields, but that same majesty and power is also cause for great fear. The Greek equivalent is phobos, which is a word from where we get our word for phobia. When someone has a phobia, they don’t just have a reverence for something, they do have a fear. Yare’ is used as a command. We are commanded to fear God.

We are also commanded to keep His commandments. This was written in the time before Christ came to set us free from the law. Therefore this includes so much more than the 10 commandments. However, what is applicable to us today? Jesus said that we are to make disciples and teach them to observe (obey) all that He commanded us. So we are to teach others to be obedient to the commands that we are to be obedient to because Jesus commanded us to keep them. Boy! That’s a lot of commands. We do not keep them to merit some kind of favor with God for salvation, we keep them because the God of salvation has so graciously given that gift to us.

Solomon sums up the reason for his admonishment in this verse. He says, “For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.” We must read, hear and understand, … and I might add obey the Scriptures, because God will judge all our works, whether in public or in secret, whether good or bad. Therefore, we must keep ourselves from vanity and engage ourselves in the Word of God.

Dads, you might want to cross reference this with the story of Mary and Martha from Luke 10:38-42. Show how Mary was one who made time to listen and learn from the Lord and it was considered best verses even the service that Martha was offering to the Lord in showing Him hospitality.

Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16,17; John 20:31; Acts 24:14; 1 Corinthians 10:11; Ecclesiastes 12:13.