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Biblical ways to accurately know God from Scripture without requiring all of the pieces from Him

Biblical Way #1: God tells us that we are to study His Word diligently (2 Tim 2:15).
It is easy to read the Carson quotes or Deut 29:29 and take the way out that says, “A clumsy handler of the Word will miss-understand Scripture and there are going to be holes in our complete understanding of God, so I am just going to know what I have to know for Salvation and leave it at that.” 2 Tim 2:15 tells us that this is not the response we should take. Let’s look at that verse a little closer.

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 ESV)

1. Our work in Scripture is for God.
   
   We are to present ourselves “to God” as a workman. This whole section of Scripture is talking about people within Timothy’s care that are causing quarrels. Most of them are about miss-interpretations of Scripture. However, Paul tells Timothy to present himself to God in his study. So not only do we need to study diligently, we need to study diligently and present our study to God showing Him that we are not ashamed with what we have put into our understanding of Him.

2. Clumsy work in Scripture is shameful.
   
   Paul tells Timothy that a workman has no need to be ashamed, so contrarily someone who studies clumsily must be ashamed to God of his study. Not to man, but to God. Let’s read on to verse 16.

   But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, (2 Tim 2:16 ESV)

   Paul talks here about unstudied babble. Most versions call it vain or irreverent babble. This is typically interpreted as talk without a Biblical foundation. So in verse 16 Paul says that discussions without a Biblical (or studied) foundation, discussions that are not rooted in the command of verse 15, will lead people into ungodliness. Wow! OK, so if we’re studying Scripture, which we are commanded to do (I’ll get into a layperson’s requirements for study later) the result of our study will lead people somewhere. If we do it rightly, then we are unashamed before God. However, if we do it poorly we will lead people into ungodliness. He then describes those “leaders” in verse 17.

   and their talk will spread like gangrene. (2 Tim 2:17a ESV)

   Gangrene is defined as a disease by which any part of the body suffering from inflammation becomes so corrupted that, unless a remedy be seasonably applied, the evil continually spreads, attacks other parts, and at last eats away the bones. What a picture of a poor approach to Scripture! What a picture of someone who takes a poor approach to Scripture! What a warning against a lackadaisical approach to Scripture!

The “why do we study Scripture diligently” question can easily be answered with the statement, “because God tells us to.” and that should be enough. But by God’s grace, He tells that if we do we can present ourselves to him without shame and if we don’t we will lead others in a way that will spread evil continually and eat away at them.

A proper understanding of the Carson’s quotes or Deut 29:29, require us to take 2 Tim 2:15 to heart even more.

We are told that there are secret things of God and that we will never fully understand Him. Then we are told that to present ourselves to God approved, we need to be workman with the Word. With those two statements we need to take every free moment to make sure we understand Scripture. To make sure that we know which parts have been revealed to us. Our approach to Scripture becomes a completely different thing. It becomes something that takes most importance in our lives. What a great honor we have in being able to study Scripture and what a great responsibility we have in rightly dividing it.