Daily Bible Nugget #502, 2 Timothy 1:7

The Nugget:

2 Timothy 1:7  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

My Comment:

Thinking back about some of my recent posts, I would encourage everyone to remember these simple principles:

(1) For a genuine Christian, there are at least three important aspects of spiritual life that need to be practiced daily:  (a) Read and study the Bible to let God talk to you (Psalm 1:2); (b) Pray daily so you can talk to God (1 Thessalonians 5:17);  (c) Live for God daily so your life and speech speaks to others daily so they will come to know God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Mark 8:38). I compared these three practices to a three legged stool: all three legs are necessary for a three-legged stool to stand upright. All three of these practices are necessary for success in the Christian life.

(2) To really get the most out of reading your Bible, you need to learn how to study the Bible.

As a new Christian, I was blessed to be invited to attend a summer class at Highland Park Baptist Church in 1954 about how to study the Bible. We were taught how to study the short Bible book, 2 Timothy. We were introduced to and taught how to use several very important Bible study tools, including Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, and The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. It is the last-named Bible study tool that turned out to have the greatest impact on my life.

Later that summer I rode my bicycle four miles to the Grand Bible and Bookstore on Woodward in Highland Park, Michigan. The first time I went, none of the clerks knew about the Treasury when I described it, so I could not find it. I had even forgotten the exact name of the book. All I remembered was it was a book filled with Bible cross references for nearly every verse in the Bible.

About Christmas time in 1955 I rode my bicycle to the Grand Bible and Bookstore once again and this time the owner, Mr. Bob Humphries, was there. I asked him for help to find the book. He knew what book I was referring to immediately and went right to the shelf where he had several copies. I bought one with the five dollars my Aunt Ethel Sherwin had sent me for Christmas. When I got back home, my Dad asked disapprovingly, “Couldn’t you have spent that money for something better than that?” As it turned out, it is the best book for Bible study I have ever bought.

Last October 23, 2018, I posted an article here about the hidden features in my several Bible study books. The first kind of “hidden feature” that I listed is several verses in particular where the cross references provide a particularly helpful, encouraging, or instructive collection of Bible verses well worth considering in the light of each other.

To use the book, look up a favorite verse, or select a verse you want to understand better, and look up its references. Favorite verses of mine include 2 Timothy 1:7Colossians 1:102 Corinthians 6:2Hebrews 6:910Psalm 34:440:171 Peter 3:15Romans 15:7.

The first verse on that list, 2 Timothy 1:7, is the verse I studied that summer of 1954 in Miss Ellen Groh’s How to Study the Bible summer class when I was taught how to use the Treasury for Bible study. The verse was particularly meaningful to me because my parents were telling stories at our supper table about various people they had heard of who went off the “deep end” because they became too interested in the Bible. They turned into religious fanatics.

2 Timothy 1:7 and its cross references let me know that the Bible itself firmly teaches otherwise!

The cross references for the key words “and of a sound mind” are as follows from the original Treasury of Scripture Knowledge: 

a sound: Psa 119:80; Pro 2:7, Pro 8:14; Luk 8:35, Luk 15:17; Act 26:11, Act 26:25; 2Co 5:13, 14.

Check out these references for yourself by reading them from your Bible. You can, on this site, hover your mouse pointer over each reference to activate a  pop-up window to display each verse.

These are the first cross references I ever consulted using the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. I literally got “hooked on the book”! I hope you will be blessed as I was by carefully considering these verses for an example of cross reference Bible study.

This entry was posted in Bible Promises, Bible Study Tools, Daily Bible Nuggets, How to Study the Bible, Practical Application Bible Studies and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Daily Bible Nugget #502, 2 Timothy 1:7

  1. ken sagely says:

    hello jerry i wanted say thank you for sharing how you were inspired to study the bible

    using the tsk. in 1992 i purchased your volume ntsk and it was one of the best invest

    ments i have ever made for bible study tools. i had an adult sunday school class and i

    used it for the next 10years in my class. it was a spiritual turning point in my christian

    life. i know you put years of study and work in this volume i wanted you know how much i appreciate it. i hope many others will make use of this great tool for bible study

    thank you ken sagely

  2. Jerry says:

    Thank you, Ken, for reading and responding to my post! You have been a faithful supporter of my work for many years! May the Lord bless your continued study of the Bible.

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