I would like to preface that this verse was written for an intent that is not directly aimed towards us, however, it can easily be applied to us. To be more direct, Paul wrote this letter to Timothy who was the church leader in Ephesus. Paul clearly had a purpose for writing Timothy, and he spent time encouraging him and guiding him along his path as a young man who had the daunting task of maintaining and advancing the Church of Ephesus. Without any further ado, please read chapter 4.
Read 1 Timothy 4
Now that we have finished that, could you please pick out a few major themes that are apparent in the verse? Hopefully a few stood out to you. The themes that stood out to me are…
Being careful of false teaching (1-5)
Self Discipline and accountability (6-8)
Confidence in Yourself and stewardship towards your gifting (11-14)
Living out your faith rather than it being talk (15-16)
Does anyone know the history of Ephesus? Ephesus was one of Paul’s early missionary projects which was a major port city for the Roman Empire. It was the Capital of Asia, which is modern Turkey. Aside from being a major commercial port, it was also known for it’s heavy involvement in the religious realm. There was a temple to Artemis, occult practices and imperial cults dominating the religious landscape. Meanwhile, our more common religions such as Christianity and Judiasm were present, but not as powerful. In fact, many of the religions started to bleed together and we run into the issues found in verses 1-5.
In verses 1-5, Paul is addressing the cults that are drawing Christians away from sound doctrine. This specific group was called the Gnostics, they were teaching that the body is inherently evil and that we must do what we can to divorce the body from the spirit. Anything that is of the body, is evil and must be avoided. There were other ideas that they had, but I do not want to be caught on this idea. I want to draw attention to the fact that we are being reminded that through the end times (which is what we have lived in for two thousand years), we as Christians will be faced with false teachers. The religious climate was such that there was a lot of homogenization of religion, and that was considered acceptable. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Then Paul goes on to exhort Timothy to remain disciplined. He tells Timothy to remain vigilant and to avoid gossip, and to stay rooted in the truth. I can speak personally on the idea of trying to stay rooted in the word and with healthy Christians. I find that when I am around people who are straying from the truth, they start to question some of our actions. I am going to avoid a conversation on legalism, and remind you to be careful! Just like an athlete who is training for their sport, we must continue to be disciplined about learning the truth from the source. We will never become proficient if we just sit on the sidelines.
After this, Paul talks with Timothy about a few subjects. One of which I will get to next, but what stands out to me is verse 12. Timothy was a young man and was one of Paul’s protégé’s. Timothy had the daunting task of being the head of the church, and you can tell that his confidence was fading and so was the confidence of his congregation. Personally, this was an important verse for me because it was prophesied over me before I left for the Navy. It was the first prophetic message I received. As a 23 year old who recently figured out his calling to the Ministry, many people did not respect my interest. I had been denied ministry positions, and the knowledge and enthusiasm I carried were ignored. Instead, I was treated like a new Christian who knew nothing about the word of God. I felt I had so much to offer, and it hurt. However, I looked to the next phase of life as a new start and I wanted to make an impact. When I moved to Norfolk, I eventually gained enough ground to be in ministry. One of the reasons was my appearance, and I could tell by the way my peers spoke to me like I was some young sheltered kid who did not know a thing about the Bible. But through perseverance and demonstrating my gifts, I eventually was given an opportunity to serve.
So back to Timothy. What does Paul do to the young Timothy? He reminds Timothy of his call to ministry and that Timothy was appointed because Paul and the Ephesians had faith in him to carry out the task. So by encouraging Timothy, he reminded him to be confident because others were confident in him. Personally, I did not have much of that when I decided to follow my call to ministry. Along the way, people came along side me, but it took a while. But again, this is something in the culture that I hope to change. I believe that if we can instill confidence in one another instead of tearing one another down, that we can accomplish great things.
The final section directly correlates with what I have experienced because I try to watch my life and doctrine closely like Paul commands Timothy. I have seen that in life, many people are watching us whether they want to see us succeed or fail. My family will tell me stories about how they bump into people that I knew years ago, and they tell them things that they remembered about me. At the time, I never thought of what I was doing as important, but they obviously took it to heart. I say that to you because I want you to know what you do is important, always remember that!
To go back to verse 12 quickly, Paul says to set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love in faith and in purity. I might not always live up to that standard, but I try my hardest to do that and I think anyone that knows me well knows that I do. What I found is that as we persevere, others will be drawn to us because we bear fruit that is beneficial for everyone.
So now I have to ask, how does this all tie together? The first theme is the reason I feel motivated to lead a group such as this. Even though Paul wrote this roughly 2,000 years ago, we are still faced with the same problems. We have people that are going around spreading a Christianity that Christ would not approve of. Whether it is through actions or false teaching, it misleads people into a false understanding. Unfortunately, many of our peers are falling into that. I have fallen prey to that, but I survived and want to make sure that the truth is shown.
As young leaders, we are forced with the challenge to help change that image. Christianity has a negative connotation, one that I hope to change. So instead of sitting around and letting that reputation solidify in people’s minds, I hope that you will join me as I try to show people the side of Christianity that should have been there since day one. So you are probably asking me “how do we do that?” Paul claims that through self-discipline, confidence and living out your faith, we can make an impact in society, which is demonstrated through 1 Timothy 4.
