Ministry and Matriculation
1 Timothy 4:12-5:2 – 12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, and conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 13 Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. 14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. 15 Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. 16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
1 Do not rebuke an older man, but exhorting him as a father, younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters with all purity.
Virgil Abloh reflects in this week's New Yorker profile by Doreen St. Felix on his college major in architecture. "It's a way of thinking. It's a way of problem-solving with a rationale. You can apply that rationale to building the building but also to scrambling eggs."
Befitting his broad view of the transfer of skills and experience, Abloh has risen to fame in fashion design rather than architecture. Life beyond his resume proves the validity of his assertion.
In his instructions to Timothy at the close of 1 Timothy's fourth chapter and the beginning of the fifth, Paul stresses that kind of bleedthrough, conscious or unconscious.
What Timothy studies in his private time, what he majors in in the adult sense, is going to impact what he teaches. His reflective time is going to automatically color his approach to potential conflicts in his relationships.
One pivot is in 1 Timothy 4:15. Timothy is charged to give himself entirely, to dive in, to his opportunities, including reading and refining his teaching. Paul is sure the result will be THAT his progress will be evident to all.
For progress to be evident, or she who would engage in the adventure or take the risk of ministry cannot wait until some self-defined version of perfection has been reached. We have to see ourselves as works in progress, and ministry anyway, minister BECAUSE God is at work in us.
Paul takes in other ax to the root of our thinking that we "graduate" and then minister by leading Timothy back to his prayer closet in the chapter's 16th verse. As we reflect and put those reflections into action, we go back to reflect again, to consider our approach.
First, we ask to be shown whether our actions are true to God-honoring doctrine. The possibility exists, we know along with sometimes timid Timothy, that we can be blown off course by our desire to please people.
I think the transition into 1 Timothy 5 is actually a second aspect of our needed reflection. After assurance from the Holy Spirit that what we are modeling is His Truth, then we can move our focus outward.
Readily, we would stop this panning outward with whether we are speaking the words that are sonorous in our own ears. Do we look the way we want to look in the ministry biopic about us?
Paul has something else in mind. Keep panning outward, he exhorts. Someone with a heart for ministry, with or without the job title, will consider how and where his words land.
Our reflective time, after honoring the Lord primarily, is then quickened with intercession for those He places closest to our hearts. By His work, in His work, we care whether we come across most effectively to the older man, to the younger woman who by the Holy Spirit's perfect and humbling orchestration needs our timely guidance.
Of course, we could be dazzlingly creative in our approach. We could hit every mark with just the timing we envisioned in our pre-planning. We could perfectly balance enthusiasm and gentle compassion. We could do all that, and without the Holy Spirit acting in and through both parties, absolutely nothing would change.
BY His power working with equal, proprietary expertise in the old and the young, the male and the female, the experienced minister and the neophyte, change happens. Change happens in the community. Change happens as we, again, reflect on our experience and ask to be made new.
We take the best of what we have been and have known and move forward into a series of others-first challenges. Life, reflects one parent in Tim Russert's Wisdom of Our Fathers, is a series of freshman years.
1 Do not rebuke an older man, but exhorting him as a father, younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters with all purity.
Virgil Abloh reflects in this week's New Yorker profile by Doreen St. Felix on his college major in architecture. "It's a way of thinking. It's a way of problem-solving with a rationale. You can apply that rationale to building the building but also to scrambling eggs."
Befitting his broad view of the transfer of skills and experience, Abloh has risen to fame in fashion design rather than architecture. Life beyond his resume proves the validity of his assertion.
In his instructions to Timothy at the close of 1 Timothy's fourth chapter and the beginning of the fifth, Paul stresses that kind of bleedthrough, conscious or unconscious.
What Timothy studies in his private time, what he majors in in the adult sense, is going to impact what he teaches. His reflective time is going to automatically color his approach to potential conflicts in his relationships.
One pivot is in 1 Timothy 4:15. Timothy is charged to give himself entirely, to dive in, to his opportunities, including reading and refining his teaching. Paul is sure the result will be THAT his progress will be evident to all.
For progress to be evident, or she who would engage in the adventure or take the risk of ministry cannot wait until some self-defined version of perfection has been reached. We have to see ourselves as works in progress, and ministry anyway, minister BECAUSE God is at work in us.
Paul takes in other ax to the root of our thinking that we "graduate" and then minister by leading Timothy back to his prayer closet in the chapter's 16th verse. As we reflect and put those reflections into action, we go back to reflect again, to consider our approach.
First, we ask to be shown whether our actions are true to God-honoring doctrine. The possibility exists, we know along with sometimes timid Timothy, that we can be blown off course by our desire to please people.
I think the transition into 1 Timothy 5 is actually a second aspect of our needed reflection. After assurance from the Holy Spirit that what we are modeling is His Truth, then we can move our focus outward.
Readily, we would stop this panning outward with whether we are speaking the words that are sonorous in our own ears. Do we look the way we want to look in the ministry biopic about us?
Paul has something else in mind. Keep panning outward, he exhorts. Someone with a heart for ministry, with or without the job title, will consider how and where his words land.
Our reflective time, after honoring the Lord primarily, is then quickened with intercession for those He places closest to our hearts. By His work, in His work, we care whether we come across most effectively to the older man, to the younger woman who by the Holy Spirit's perfect and humbling orchestration needs our timely guidance.
Of course, we could be dazzlingly creative in our approach. We could hit every mark with just the timing we envisioned in our pre-planning. We could perfectly balance enthusiasm and gentle compassion. We could do all that, and without the Holy Spirit acting in and through both parties, absolutely nothing would change.
BY His power working with equal, proprietary expertise in the old and the young, the male and the female, the experienced minister and the neophyte, change happens. Change happens in the community. Change happens as we, again, reflect on our experience and ask to be made new.
We take the best of what we have been and have known and move forward into a series of others-first challenges. Life, reflects one parent in Tim Russert's Wisdom of Our Fathers, is a series of freshman years.
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