As I plug away at my proposed dissertation (still awaiting approval), I thought it might be a good exercise to document what I’m doing, how I’m thinking, what progress seems to be happening, etc. I hope that this discipline will enable me to clear my head when I get stuck on things and also to recall why I am researching and writing.

The why is easy to forget. In fact, it is possible to read and study God’s Word all day long without having a second thought about God, about what he demands of me, about what he provides for me in Christ, about the help of the Holy Spirit guiding the church into all truth. But I remember the why now: I’m doing this project, I’m following this course of education and training, in order to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3.18), to “guard the deposit” with the help of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Tim 6.20; 2 Tim 1.14), to speak “things that fit with healthy teaching” (Titus 2.1; cf. 2 Tim 2.2; 4.2), and to be prepared for “destroying rationalizations and every kind of exaltation raised against the knowledge of God and taking captive every thought for obedience to Christ” (2 Cor 10.4–5).

Those are some mighty goals for my modest project. My dissertation will examine how various people have interpreted and used a small phrase in Matt 23.2. It’s a tiny thing; and if I am successful, it will amount to a very small increase in our knowledge of that text. But as I write, I am engaging with bigger ideas about how to read Scripture, how to understand tradition and interpretation, how to think theologically when virtually all the academy’s methods are developed in an anti-God context. The hope is that I will come through this experience with refined tools for learning from and teaching God’s Word. I’m just reminding myself. The why is easy to forget.