Instead

              You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance,  persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.  But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,  and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (II Timothy 3:10-17)

Having warned Timothy what to avoid, Paul turns his attention to what Timothy should do instead. It’s not hero worship. It’s not about what Paul did or endured. It’s about what God did. Paul tells Timothy to hold on to what he learned, and to pay attention to those from which he learned it. This is a reason we should be concerned when, as seems to happen every decade or so, some group starts into a song and dance routine about how the church has got it all wrong, and if we only follow their lead, we will discover what the church should be – whether that’s seeker-friendly, or emergent, or missional, or whatever. We need to be even more careful when we hear that the Church should be more like the world, approving what the world tells it to approve: the “Woke Church” by any other name.

Paul goes on to remind Timothy and us that the teachings of Scripture are the foundation for our lives as Christians. He says that it is “God-breathed,” which we call “inspired,” and it tells us what we need to know to prepare ourselves for a good life, not in terms of a life that gives us everything we want, but in terms of a life that accomplishes good.

To give an example, since Scripture tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us – if you’re calling someone names, you’re disobeying the teachings of Jesus. If you're wishing someone would die, or celebrating harm coming to them, you're rejecting the teachings of the Bible.