Watch, Read, Know

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
ROMANS 15:4
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Watch, Read, Know
This is the advice: Keep watch! Study! Attende lectioni! ("Attend to reading!" 1 Timothy 4:13). Truly, you  cannot read in Scripture too much, and what you do read you cannot read too well, and what you read well you cannot understand too well, and what you understand well you cannot teach too well, and what you teach well you cannot live too well. . . . It is the devil, the world, and the flesh that are ranting and raging against us. Therefore, beloved lords and brothers, pastors and preachers, pray, read, study, and keep busy. Truly, at this evil, shameful time, it is no time for loafing, snoring, or sleeping. Use your gift, which has been entrusted to you (see 1 Timothy 4:14), and reveal the mystery of Christ (see Colossians 1:26). As St. Paul says, "If anyone refuses to know it, let him be unknowing" (1 Corinthians 14:38). Since Baptism and the Sacrament are present, we must not keep silent about the Word of the mystery.

From Luther's preface to Johann Spangenberg, German Postil (Luther's Works 60:285)
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