1 Timothy 5:23 – "Remember these faces."
21 I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality. 22 Do not lay hands on anyone hastily, nor share in other people’s sins; keep yourself pure.
23 No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities.
Actor Dennis Haysbert has the total package. His deep, resonant voice allows him to command the attention and respect to a president or a master sergeant without raising his volume. His disciplined bearing so integrates with that persona that he has been credibly selling us insurance for years even without another major part to play.
Imagine that gravitas brought to a specific, intense, intersessional focus in his role as Master Sergeant Jonas Blaine on the special forces show The Unit. Given his function as a noncommissioned officer, Blaine has no more respect than that which is vocationally required for life's higher-ups, but his disgust with a particular Department of Defense planner's aloof manner is palpable.
Recognizing that he won't be able to get the DOD's hired consultant to reconsider risks in his plan which Blaine considers unnecessary weighed against the importance of the objective, Haysbert as Blaine references his small coterie of assembled operators and charges his nominal superior, "You remember these faces."
I think we need counterexamples like this to realize how revolutionary Christian love is. In the letter that comes to us as 1 Timothy, Paul is fighting a war with consequences more dire than anything the Department of Defense ever considered. Timothy is his proxy. Through the letter's opening, both of them know the importance of the battle into which Timothy has been deployed in leading the church at Ephesus.
The leadership under Timothy, leadership representing Christ into the lives of impressionable congregants, is bad. Supposed spiritual leaders are losing sight of the sacred humility of their responsibility. They are teaching in ways that make much of themselves and their preferences and predilections instead of Christ.
After covering other topics, Paul as, humanly speaking, master strategist, circles back around to this problem which must be dealt with. He has just impressed that Timothy's character in the fight that's coming is nothing less than crucial. His, "Keep yourself pure," has a Blaine-like importance-by-brevity to it.
Then he remembers Timothy's face that he has never quite forgotten. For, Paul has interwoven Timothy's testimony and connection to his heart throughout a letter of strategy and doctrine. Paul, especially writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, doesn't need a gruff Master Sergeant interposing himself to remind Paul that he is dealing with real, vulnerable people rather than chess pieces in a game a strategy against Satan.
Just as Paul ramps up the intensity of instruction, of Timothy's usefulness in the advance of the kingdom of God, and of Paul's reputation which is bound up in it by extension, the Holy Spirit incorporate a human downbeat. The man Paul reminds the younger and less imposing man Timothy to take wine for his recurring stomach problems.
The quest for purity in appearance and example doesn't distract Paul from pointing Timothy toward wine as medicine, from encouraging him to partake in part of Christ's blessing. Under perfect inspiration, he is willing to trade off some relief for his disciple even if it might cause those inclined in Ephesus to gossip or complain.
Not surprisingly, the Holy Spirit is the ultimate Strategist echoes Christ's perfect reasoning and Example in leadership. The rules are made for man. Not man for the rules. As He embodies, empowers, and is glorified by ministry in His own character, it will not treat the individual made in his image as expendable.
In the best sense without going to the man-centered, idolatrous extreme, Christ and Paul in His Name exhibit the qualities Adam Stadmiller admired when he pointed out in Praying for Your Elephant, "These were men who cared more about the people of the ministry than the ministry."
Translating that grace into our sphere can be a challenge. We can glide past the sweet placement of this verse altogether if we don't foresee challenges with exerting spiritual authority, with stomachs, or with wine. Watching how these two humans, though, fight the good fight both in the sense of galactic, high-stakes spiritual warfare and in their regard for one another can be holistic and inspiring.
Where we influence, even at home, we can guard, and charge, and cast vision. Yet, we can also get caught up in the intensity of the big issues and fail to see and convey Christ's care in the small ones. Those stories from our loved ones that go longer than we would prefer? They contain insights which will help us demonstrate particular care. That litany of complaints we hear but are too spiritual to empathize with? They might contain the equivalent of a stomach ailment God has called us to help minister to.
He Who proclaims His sovereignty also cares for stomachs. He Who charged His own to teach as He taught also commissioned and positioned us to care for bodies in their delight and frailties. Otherwise, warns Eugene Peterson in Tell It Slant, "There is nothing more common than for people who want to talk about God to lose interest in the people they are talking to."
23 No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities.
Actor Dennis Haysbert has the total package. His deep, resonant voice allows him to command the attention and respect to a president or a master sergeant without raising his volume. His disciplined bearing so integrates with that persona that he has been credibly selling us insurance for years even without another major part to play.
Imagine that gravitas brought to a specific, intense, intersessional focus in his role as Master Sergeant Jonas Blaine on the special forces show The Unit. Given his function as a noncommissioned officer, Blaine has no more respect than that which is vocationally required for life's higher-ups, but his disgust with a particular Department of Defense planner's aloof manner is palpable.
Recognizing that he won't be able to get the DOD's hired consultant to reconsider risks in his plan which Blaine considers unnecessary weighed against the importance of the objective, Haysbert as Blaine references his small coterie of assembled operators and charges his nominal superior, "You remember these faces."
I think we need counterexamples like this to realize how revolutionary Christian love is. In the letter that comes to us as 1 Timothy, Paul is fighting a war with consequences more dire than anything the Department of Defense ever considered. Timothy is his proxy. Through the letter's opening, both of them know the importance of the battle into which Timothy has been deployed in leading the church at Ephesus.
The leadership under Timothy, leadership representing Christ into the lives of impressionable congregants, is bad. Supposed spiritual leaders are losing sight of the sacred humility of their responsibility. They are teaching in ways that make much of themselves and their preferences and predilections instead of Christ.
After covering other topics, Paul as, humanly speaking, master strategist, circles back around to this problem which must be dealt with. He has just impressed that Timothy's character in the fight that's coming is nothing less than crucial. His, "Keep yourself pure," has a Blaine-like importance-by-brevity to it.
Then he remembers Timothy's face that he has never quite forgotten. For, Paul has interwoven Timothy's testimony and connection to his heart throughout a letter of strategy and doctrine. Paul, especially writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, doesn't need a gruff Master Sergeant interposing himself to remind Paul that he is dealing with real, vulnerable people rather than chess pieces in a game a strategy against Satan.
Just as Paul ramps up the intensity of instruction, of Timothy's usefulness in the advance of the kingdom of God, and of Paul's reputation which is bound up in it by extension, the Holy Spirit incorporate a human downbeat. The man Paul reminds the younger and less imposing man Timothy to take wine for his recurring stomach problems.
The quest for purity in appearance and example doesn't distract Paul from pointing Timothy toward wine as medicine, from encouraging him to partake in part of Christ's blessing. Under perfect inspiration, he is willing to trade off some relief for his disciple even if it might cause those inclined in Ephesus to gossip or complain.
Not surprisingly, the Holy Spirit is the ultimate Strategist echoes Christ's perfect reasoning and Example in leadership. The rules are made for man. Not man for the rules. As He embodies, empowers, and is glorified by ministry in His own character, it will not treat the individual made in his image as expendable.
In the best sense without going to the man-centered, idolatrous extreme, Christ and Paul in His Name exhibit the qualities Adam Stadmiller admired when he pointed out in Praying for Your Elephant, "These were men who cared more about the people of the ministry than the ministry."
Translating that grace into our sphere can be a challenge. We can glide past the sweet placement of this verse altogether if we don't foresee challenges with exerting spiritual authority, with stomachs, or with wine. Watching how these two humans, though, fight the good fight both in the sense of galactic, high-stakes spiritual warfare and in their regard for one another can be holistic and inspiring.
Where we influence, even at home, we can guard, and charge, and cast vision. Yet, we can also get caught up in the intensity of the big issues and fail to see and convey Christ's care in the small ones. Those stories from our loved ones that go longer than we would prefer? They contain insights which will help us demonstrate particular care. That litany of complaints we hear but are too spiritual to empathize with? They might contain the equivalent of a stomach ailment God has called us to help minister to.
He Who proclaims His sovereignty also cares for stomachs. He Who charged His own to teach as He taught also commissioned and positioned us to care for bodies in their delight and frailties. Otherwise, warns Eugene Peterson in Tell It Slant, "There is nothing more common than for people who want to talk about God to lose interest in the people they are talking to."
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