If I told you, “The Bible says, ‘Don’t let anyone look down upon you because you are young,’” you might say, “Yeah, I love that verse!” or maybe even, “Yeah, Paul wrote that to Timothy. Isn’t that so cool that he was a church leader even though he is young!” And I bet there are even a few of you who have memorized the verse, because it is so exciting for you. The rest of the verse says, “but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”
This verse from 1 Timothy 4:12 is an encouragement to Timothy, and it is an encouragement to us, but when we read the whole chapter, or take a step back and glance at the whole book, we see an even more important encouragement to Timothy and us standing out as a central theme.
I might summarize God’s message to Timothy like this:
My son Timothy, people in my own church have been and will continue to change my words around. They try to add rules that I haven’t made, and they want to use the power of my church to try to give themselves an important place. So gather together and pray for everyone and each other, and make sure we have godly leaders in our church.
1 Timothy 4:
I need you to speak out against those who have abandoned the truth of my Word, and started relying on their own false wisdom instead. Also, you might be young, but you can fight their faithlessness with faithfulness. Set such a good example that they can’t say anything bad about you without saying something bad about me. It will be hard work, but I have put people in your life that you can speak my truth to. Some of them will believe and be saved because of my words through you.
There is a central theme of standing firm in the truth:
Rely on God’s Word. Keep his teachings pure. Live those teachings out and speak them to all who can hear. Some around you will have faith and agree with the Word, and some have abandoned and shipwrecked their faith. But don’t let them stop you from being a faithful servant.
If you read that last paragraph as one to Timothy, now I want you to read it as one written to you.
This is so important for us to remember. We need to be standing on Scripture in order to be sure that we have solid footing. There are so many times when we find ourselves in places or with people when it seems like Scripture is not an accepted source of truth. But as Christians, we are standing on that foundation every step. How do you handle that?
1 Timothy 4 makes it clear that it is important, and that it is difficult. God compares it to physical training. If that is hard, but we are willing to do it to be in shape, won’t we also be willing to work hard to stay on the sure footing and exercise godliness?
Reflection:
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What makes that environment that way? Is it something spoken or unspoken?
Does knowing that Timothy had a similar experience almost two thousand years ago encourage you? God was with him, and used him, and helped him to be bold. He will help you.
I went to public school for 7th and 8th grade, two years that were extremely fun but taught me so many life lessons. Before leaving the WELS schooling for those years I always thought that society was accepting of all thoughts. We all need to be open-minded and give everyone a chance. I discovered later that though the world says that, it does not actually mean it.
ReplyDeleteWhen asked about my views on homosexuality I of course said I disagreed with the practice, I am a Christian and I believe that that is a sin. I quickly learned that people will twist your words in terrible ways. I started to be called "gay-hater" and "homophobe" but that was not true at all. I was not scared of homosexuals nor did I hate them, one of my close friends was bisexual and he knew how I thought about that. The world outside our synod can be a scary place where it tells you "freedom of religion" but really means "freedom from religion". Those two years of school made it hard for me to stand up for my faith and in all honesty I sometimes felt like Peter in the courtyard, denying my Savior so that I would not be harassed.
But here I am, still here and alive, doing well. The public school environment made it hard for me to stand up for my faith, but God is with me, like He was with Timothy. That does bring me comfort.