1 Timothy 4:13

Till I come, give heed to reading, to exhortation, to teaching.

Till I come ... As previously pointed out, we do not know if Paul ever was permitted to go to Ephesus again, as he planned here to do.

Give heed to reading ... Despite the obvious application of this admonition to the simple necessity of study on the part of every minister, Lenski was sure that something else was meant. He wrote:

Timothy is directed to pay close attention to the reading of the churches, that is, to WHAT is being read, not that SOMETHING should be read, still less that Timothy do the reading but to what is being read."[28]

Full agreement is felt with this; and the point is one worthy of consideration by churches everywhere. Some of the "modern" translations being read publicly are near blasphemy in their contradiction of sacred truth; and one finds reason to rejoice that the Hillsboro church in Nashville, Tennessee, laid down the dictum that only certain versions of the Holy Bible were ever to be read publicly from their pulpit. It was a similar concern which Paul enjoined upon Timothy here.