Knowing The Scripture From Infancy Series

Message

2 Timothy 3:14-15

“Knowing The Scripture From Infancy”

Anyone who has had children, or who has been in a contact regularly with children, know how fast children grow and learn.

One day they are cute bundles of joy who can’t roll over.

The next they are rolling off the change table and you need to catch them.

And then …

When they start showing all this capacity as older people we start teaching them more.

We read them books and make all the animal noises.

We get them to push cars and throw balls.

When they can stand we hold their hands and walk behind them and encourage them to walk.

There is all this encouragement … from really young … to encourage them to grow and learn and mature.

Which is really great. And right to do.

And such being the case

… that we see that they can learn and grow and develop from a young age.

... that being the case we should also take this as an encouragement to deliberately develop the spiritual life of our young people … even the really young people … from an early age.

That is not just a good suggest from your pastor.

The call to develop the spiritual life of young people, even really young people, is a call clearly found in the Scripture.

It was a call that Eunice heard, and obeyed, with respect to her son Timothy.

Let’s read a few verses from 2 Timothy, which is written by the apostle Paul.

5 I am reminded (Timothy) of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

2 Timothy 1:5

14 But as for you (Timothy), continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:14-15

Let’s think about the home in which Timothy grew up.

The birth-town of Timothy is Lystra. You can see from the map there that Lystra is in modern day Turkey. So Lystra is a Greek-Roman town. The Gospel has only recently come there.

So how is it that Timothy, who is brought up in the Scripture, came to be living in a Greek town?

The answer is in Acts 16:1-3

1 Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. 2 The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

Just think about that for a moment.

Here is a family of mixed spiritual origin.

Timothy’s father is a Greek … the fact that Timothy is not circumcised tells us that Timothy’s father was not a convert to Judaism.

Like so many Greeks Timothy’s father would have worshipped multiple gods … including the living “god” Caesar.

How is it that a faithful Jewish woman

… we know she is faithful because her mother is also a devout Jew.

… how is it that this faithful woman is married to a Greek gentile?

Well we have no idea.

But life is complicated isn’t it.

So here is Eunice with her son Timothy …

In a Greek town which doesn’t even have a synagogue.

In a house where the patriarch doesn’t have a Jewish faith.

And from infancy Eunice teaches Timothy the Scriptures.

Picture that situation from about 2000 years ago.

… …

When you stop and think about the circumstances it is a powerful picture.

Eunice, with the help of her mother Lois, are going to make sure that the physical growth time and learning time of Timothy is also going to be a time of Spiritual growth.

Why does Eunice do this? Because of a Scripture truth.

God wants us to know him from infancy and he has a plan for us from infancy.

Here are some verses from Scripture which confirm this.

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.