Buoyant, and Battle-Ready
But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. 1 Timothy 6:11
In what has become my annual ritual, I'm restarting the Ken Burns Baseball documentary series in methodical, relishing preparation for the new season still almost four months off. Baseball's spread at the earliest stages, the show points out, is being assisted by the intermingling and scattering of the Civil War. One contemporary letter writer marvels that men are gathered for a game who 15 minutes later will join a game of a very different kind in battle. It is astonishing, says this erstwhile civilian, the indifference we can develop to danger.
The apostle Paul would not have us indifferent to danger with even more long-lasting consequences than physical battles, no matter how willingly benumbed the culture around us. So it is that he stirs Timothy to alertness in 1 Timothy 6:11. From the opening of that letter, he has been distinguishing between the character of Timothy and the character of others in Ephesus who would teach with very different motives. As the letter nears its close, he is hammering on those distinctions. Whereas Timothy is to teach with a genuine desire to see others built up in Christ-likeness, many of those around him in Ephesus are teaching in order to build up a following and to gather resulting riches.
By now, our love of comparing and classifying expects Paul to declare Timothy a different species, impervious to such base motives. If so, we are surprised by the sobriety of the warning in 1 Timothy 6:11. Timothy is the beneficiary of a godly heritage from his mother and grandmother. He is the recipient of a specific calling of God, not to mention by this point almost an entire letter of inspired Scripture. Yet Paul would have Timothy, and us, more alert to danger, not less, because of the blessings of our position. We are wired, he knows, to pursue our desires. The Holy Spirit through Paul would have us constantly examine these desires that they line up with the workings of the Spirit rather than the distracting norms of the culture around us.
Noticeably, this wariness does not cast Paul as a perpetual scold or skeptic. Almost as soon he tells Timothy that dangers lurk about, he confirms God's work in Timothy's life. Paul has seen Timothy, he reports in the very next verse, confess the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Good counsel, Paul shows, offers both honesty about vulnerability and coaching to continue in what is worthwhile. As our battles are intermixed with our games and our works, we have a limited awareness of what the next 15 minutes will hold. Through the lens of God's Word, though, we can walk and work with balanced, ever dependent awareness.
In what has become my annual ritual, I'm restarting the Ken Burns Baseball documentary series in methodical, relishing preparation for the new season still almost four months off. Baseball's spread at the earliest stages, the show points out, is being assisted by the intermingling and scattering of the Civil War. One contemporary letter writer marvels that men are gathered for a game who 15 minutes later will join a game of a very different kind in battle. It is astonishing, says this erstwhile civilian, the indifference we can develop to danger.
The apostle Paul would not have us indifferent to danger with even more long-lasting consequences than physical battles, no matter how willingly benumbed the culture around us. So it is that he stirs Timothy to alertness in 1 Timothy 6:11. From the opening of that letter, he has been distinguishing between the character of Timothy and the character of others in Ephesus who would teach with very different motives. As the letter nears its close, he is hammering on those distinctions. Whereas Timothy is to teach with a genuine desire to see others built up in Christ-likeness, many of those around him in Ephesus are teaching in order to build up a following and to gather resulting riches.
By now, our love of comparing and classifying expects Paul to declare Timothy a different species, impervious to such base motives. If so, we are surprised by the sobriety of the warning in 1 Timothy 6:11. Timothy is the beneficiary of a godly heritage from his mother and grandmother. He is the recipient of a specific calling of God, not to mention by this point almost an entire letter of inspired Scripture. Yet Paul would have Timothy, and us, more alert to danger, not less, because of the blessings of our position. We are wired, he knows, to pursue our desires. The Holy Spirit through Paul would have us constantly examine these desires that they line up with the workings of the Spirit rather than the distracting norms of the culture around us.
Noticeably, this wariness does not cast Paul as a perpetual scold or skeptic. Almost as soon he tells Timothy that dangers lurk about, he confirms God's work in Timothy's life. Paul has seen Timothy, he reports in the very next verse, confess the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Good counsel, Paul shows, offers both honesty about vulnerability and coaching to continue in what is worthwhile. As our battles are intermixed with our games and our works, we have a limited awareness of what the next 15 minutes will hold. Through the lens of God's Word, though, we can walk and work with balanced, ever dependent awareness.
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