Vital Sincerity
From 1 Timothy 1 – 1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is faith.
5 now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith…
Cultural commentator and New York Times columnist David Brooks cautioned, "People in what feels like a hostile environment often reduce their many affiliations down to just one simple one, which they weaponize and defend to the hilt."
The Ephesus in which Paul is bolstering Timothy to minister in the opening of 1 Timothy 1 certainly qualifies as an hostile environment. Someone as intrepid as Paul himself recounts in 1 Corinthians 15:32 pastoring in that city as fighting with beasts. Paul hasn't held back from teaching Timothy to keep his guard up against the idolatrous mindsets of the place, and those who live them out. One might expect, then, Timothy to adopt the same simplified, hard-edged persona to which David Brooks alludes, perform a kind of corporate turnaround in that church, and then move on to a more promising assignment.
We are given pause, then, when his girding up for the battles ahead, as Paul prepares him, includes such armor as a pure heart resulting in a good conscience and sincere faith. Sincerity is not the stuff of agents of quick change whose priority is to prove their efficacy or that of their methods. The world says of sincerity, fake that, and you've got it made. Paul says sincerity will be the overflow of the new heart God has given Timothy, the proof that a skewed conscience run amok is being subdued, and, as it plays out, evidence of his motivation toward people in Ephesus. Because Timothy's Christ is great, as Paul's Christ is great, Timothy can be honest about his own struggles and the reality that life in Christ is not a quick or one-dimensional change for anyone. His ministry in hostile territory, as a contemporary described Dietrich Bonhoeffer's intentional discipleship in Nazi Germany, can show that real faith and love are identical.
Brooks gets there too, more or less. Compared to the impression management one might uphold if the aim was to make a quick impression toward a specific and temporary end, he tells the sincere leader, "The more vibrant attachments a person has, the more likely she will find some commonality with every other person on earth. " He describes a maturation to which Timothy might aspire in which, the more he relates honestly, "The more interesting (his) own constellational self becomes." "The world isn’t only a battlefield of groups," discerns Brooks, "it’s also a World Wide Web of overlapping allegiances."
So long as, then, we are rooted with 1 Timothy 1:1 in God our Savior, in Christ our hope, in both unified according to verse two as the source of grace, mercy, and peace, we can relate and influence genuinely. We can be constantly healed from disappointed hopes and relational bruises as we are quickened by the circulation that comes from the new heart, invigorated by the classes and even affirmation from the conscience as we see new angles on Christ's righteousness. Because our sincere faith is in Father, Son, and Spirit and in their unstoppable work, we can minister to build up, then build up again when life in a fallen world knocks down.
2 Timothy, a true son in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is faith.
5 now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith…
Cultural commentator and New York Times columnist David Brooks cautioned, "People in what feels like a hostile environment often reduce their many affiliations down to just one simple one, which they weaponize and defend to the hilt."
The Ephesus in which Paul is bolstering Timothy to minister in the opening of 1 Timothy 1 certainly qualifies as an hostile environment. Someone as intrepid as Paul himself recounts in 1 Corinthians 15:32 pastoring in that city as fighting with beasts. Paul hasn't held back from teaching Timothy to keep his guard up against the idolatrous mindsets of the place, and those who live them out. One might expect, then, Timothy to adopt the same simplified, hard-edged persona to which David Brooks alludes, perform a kind of corporate turnaround in that church, and then move on to a more promising assignment.
We are given pause, then, when his girding up for the battles ahead, as Paul prepares him, includes such armor as a pure heart resulting in a good conscience and sincere faith. Sincerity is not the stuff of agents of quick change whose priority is to prove their efficacy or that of their methods. The world says of sincerity, fake that, and you've got it made. Paul says sincerity will be the overflow of the new heart God has given Timothy, the proof that a skewed conscience run amok is being subdued, and, as it plays out, evidence of his motivation toward people in Ephesus. Because Timothy's Christ is great, as Paul's Christ is great, Timothy can be honest about his own struggles and the reality that life in Christ is not a quick or one-dimensional change for anyone. His ministry in hostile territory, as a contemporary described Dietrich Bonhoeffer's intentional discipleship in Nazi Germany, can show that real faith and love are identical.
Brooks gets there too, more or less. Compared to the impression management one might uphold if the aim was to make a quick impression toward a specific and temporary end, he tells the sincere leader, "The more vibrant attachments a person has, the more likely she will find some commonality with every other person on earth. " He describes a maturation to which Timothy might aspire in which, the more he relates honestly, "The more interesting (his) own constellational self becomes." "The world isn’t only a battlefield of groups," discerns Brooks, "it’s also a World Wide Web of overlapping allegiances."
So long as, then, we are rooted with 1 Timothy 1:1 in God our Savior, in Christ our hope, in both unified according to verse two as the source of grace, mercy, and peace, we can relate and influence genuinely. We can be constantly healed from disappointed hopes and relational bruises as we are quickened by the circulation that comes from the new heart, invigorated by the classes and even affirmation from the conscience as we see new angles on Christ's righteousness. Because our sincere faith is in Father, Son, and Spirit and in their unstoppable work, we can minister to build up, then build up again when life in a fallen world knocks down.
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