Bible Verses You Never Studied #1

Sixth Saturday of Easter

In 2007 or 2008 at the church I was pastoring, First UMC, N. Wilkesboro, we hired a new choir director. David was Baptist. He did become a Methodist. I remember early on once hearing him say, "John  3:16 is the most important verse in the Bible." I thought about it later. Who decided that John  3:16 was the most important verse in the Bible? Where in the Bible does it say that John 3:16 is the most important verse in the Bible. The Bible wasn't even divided into verses until 1554, when a French printer, Robert Estienne, divided the whole thing into verses. We still use his same versification.

So, I'm here to say that John 3:16 is not the most important verse in the Bible. There is no one verse that I would so acclaim, and if there were, it would not be John  3:16. There are so many great verses and passages in the Bible that folks don't study. So from now on, at least for a while, Saturday will be Bible Study day on this blog. It will be dedicated to texts and verses that will be unfamiliar to most of you but are, at least to my thinking, important. 

Today's verse is 2 Timothy 1:5. The author writes to Timothy, "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you." For me this is one of the very most important verses in the Bible. Let me explain why.

Once many years ago I was at a church camp. At vespers one evening the leaders led us in a song. I don't remember exactly how it went, but it was something to the effect of, "It was on a [Monday, a Monday, a Monday] he touched me, and i've never been the same. The song was repeated with Tuesday for the next verse, then Wednesday, and so on through Sunday. We were told that each person, whatever day he or she got saved on,  should stand up for that day's verse. Some stood on Monday; others on Tuesday, etc. 

It occurred to me that I didn't have the faintest idea of what day to stand up on. I could not point to any one day that I "got saved" on. I remained seated throughout the song. Fortunately there were 40-50 kids there, so nobody noticed my not standing. 

This leads me to one other privileged verse of the Bible. My conservative evangelical friends might call it the second most important verse of the Bible, John 3:3. It's the "Born again" verse (although the NRSV more accurately translates it "born from above"). We now commonly hear the phrase "born again Christian," which assumes that the person referred to has had a "got saved" experience or an experience of spiritual birth or rebirth. It was at that point that the person became a Christian.

I have had many spiritual experiences, but I had no one experience that would likely qualify as my being "born again." I'm not a "born again Christian." I'm just a plain Christian. I was baptized as an infant and brought up Christian. I have never been anything else. My understanding of my faith is that it was passed down to me through my parents and through the church. 

This is why 2 Timothy 1:5 is so important to me. Timothy received the faith as passed down to him through his mother and his grandmother, just like I did. Timothy is frequently referred to in Acts and the letters of Paul. He has two letters in the New Testament written to him. Nowhere is there any reference to his having had a conversion or salvation experience. He, like I, was brought up Christian--and that's just fine with me and fine with God.

Faithfully, 

Christian