St. Timothy was the spiritual son of St. Paul, the Apostle. By God's grace, the Church has preserved for us some of the timeless and challenging wisdom St. Paul gave his spiritual son.

In St. Paul's second letter to Timothy, while Timothy was the young priest of his first parish, Paul challenged him: "Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15. The clarity of Paul's injunction to Timothy applies to us today.

A wise man once reminded me that ignorance is not a virtue, and that no one ever grew either emotionally, spiritually, or socially by championing ignorance. What we don't know can sometimes hurt us, and hurt us very badly. This is especially true of spiritual things.

True spiritual harm can occur when we remain ignorant of our faith, of the Holy Scriptures, of the wisdom preserved for us by the Holy Spirit in the Church. This ignorance leads to superstition, to thinking of the faith as a talisman, or worse yet, reducing the faith and the liturgy to "magic" sayings that "make God do what we want."

In our hearts, we all know this is wrong. Yet sometimes we and our children think and behave as though the faith is simply received by osmosis and not by active, diligent study and discipleship. We thereby allow the Evil One to caricature the faith as a sideline in our lives rather than the vital center of our lives.

How can we "study to show ourselves approved?"

First, we can attend the weekly and feast-day Liturgies of the Church. A divine once said that the future population of Heaven can be discerned by the numbers attending the week-day festal Liturgies. The Liturgy is a veritable wealth of "Bible Studies" and expositions of the teachings of the Church, to help us grasp our faith with our minds as well as our hearts.

Second, we can become serious students of the Holy Scriptures. St. John Chrysostom said that one cannot be a good Christian and be ignorant of Holy Scriptures. There are some who may think that the Orthodox aren't very interested in studying the Bible, that Bible study is "too Protestant," but they'd be wrong. We Orthodox should be the ones at the forefront of knowledge about the Holy Scriptures. Attend the Bible studies at your church. Your priest will be glad (and, maybe even surprised) to see you! And if there isn't one, work with your priest to form one.

Third, we should read the many books published by our churches that explain just what the Liturgy and Scripture are trying to teach us. We are blessed with an abundance of resources, in our own language, for our growth and encouragement.

Finally, we can share our faith with others. There is nothing that will call us to more diligence in knowing our faith than sharing that faith with our friends, family, and neighbors. They will ask questions, and we are going to be drawn into the study of our faith by those questions. This is a good thing. There is no shame in saying, "I don't know, but I'll find out for you." As you share the beauties of Orthodoxy with others you will learn more about your faith as well.

We can no longer depend on the boats coming from the "old countries" to fill our churches. We are here in America, and America needs us to be intelligent believers who are able to "give an account for the hope that is within us."

Fr. Christopher Metropulos is founder, host, and executive director of the Orthodox Christian Network (OCN) and the Come Receive The Light national Orthodox Christian radio program (www.receive.org). He is pastor of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he and his wife Georgia are raising their six children.