1 Timothy 6:1 – God's Mastery over Ministry
Let as many bondservants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed. 1 Timothy 6:1, New King James Version
Elton Trueblood finds Abraham Lincoln's spiritual health in his perplexity. In Abraham Lincoln: Lessons in Spiritual Leadership, Trueblood distinguishes Lincoln from the fanatical moralists in that, "No sooner did he believe he was doing God's work that he began to admit that God's purposes might be different from his own. He never forgot," distinguishes Trueblood, "the contrast between the absolute goodness of God and the faltering goodness of all who are in the finite predicament."
I find the same strands of continuity connecting the end of 1 Timothy 5 and the opening of 1 Timothy 6, the internal preparation Paul guides Timothy to undergo for confrontation and the external dynamics the older saint encourages Timothy to set the tone for in his ministry. We may get to Heaven and find that the Holy Spirit and Paul both were clearing their throats and turning the page entirely, that we connect amiss, but meanwhile, there is courage and refreshment to be had in the possibility of a continuous thought.
For, the intrepid apostle Paul is bolstering his young charge for confrontation with self-important leadership within the young pastor's church at Ephesus. He has been doing so, as we continue to tie back, since the first chapter of the letter we get as 1 Timothy. In the midst of these battle preparations, he charges Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach, suggesting along with Paul's other tender guidance for and about Timothy that the young pastor didn't relish the idea of trying to uproot this stronghold of the enemy in his congregation. That the Spirit and the apostle choose now to talk about slaves and masters seems more than coincidental.
Facing aspects of work we may struggle to see as the full expression of the goodness of God, aspects of work that may be intimidating or seem-ill fitting, even if we know them to be only slightly inconvenient means to a glorious end, a refresher on Who is the ultimate Master and who is the servant is not just helpful for other people, even if we, like Timothy, do receive this lesson partly in order to convey it to those other people. We have to eat it before we can tweet it, as one friend conveys from Beth Moore. God has to get it TO us before he can get it THROUGH us, insists a pastoral friend of mine.
If Timothy's gut might twist in a knot at the idea of an upcoming confrontation, what better way to put duties that don't come naturally into perspective than to remind the young man they are in outworking of his theology? He is, breathtakingly, the conduit of an infinitely good God among the faltering goodness of those who are in the finite predicament.
And such are some of us. The master-servant dynamic confessed, again, we find ourselves in circumstances at one turn which prompt loud and enthusiastic confession of the goodness of God, and then, turning only slightly, illicit anxiety or grumbling.
As we help others establish that He is seamlessly sovereign over both, we may convince our own scattered hearts. We may, as we declare the whole counsel of the Word of God to ourselves, to our blogs, to our families, to our coworkers, to our cats and to our dogs, we may be fully convinced that His writ runs undiminished into that situation we are not entirely comfortable with.
Elton Trueblood finds Abraham Lincoln's spiritual health in his perplexity. In Abraham Lincoln: Lessons in Spiritual Leadership, Trueblood distinguishes Lincoln from the fanatical moralists in that, "No sooner did he believe he was doing God's work that he began to admit that God's purposes might be different from his own. He never forgot," distinguishes Trueblood, "the contrast between the absolute goodness of God and the faltering goodness of all who are in the finite predicament."
I find the same strands of continuity connecting the end of 1 Timothy 5 and the opening of 1 Timothy 6, the internal preparation Paul guides Timothy to undergo for confrontation and the external dynamics the older saint encourages Timothy to set the tone for in his ministry. We may get to Heaven and find that the Holy Spirit and Paul both were clearing their throats and turning the page entirely, that we connect amiss, but meanwhile, there is courage and refreshment to be had in the possibility of a continuous thought.
For, the intrepid apostle Paul is bolstering his young charge for confrontation with self-important leadership within the young pastor's church at Ephesus. He has been doing so, as we continue to tie back, since the first chapter of the letter we get as 1 Timothy. In the midst of these battle preparations, he charges Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach, suggesting along with Paul's other tender guidance for and about Timothy that the young pastor didn't relish the idea of trying to uproot this stronghold of the enemy in his congregation. That the Spirit and the apostle choose now to talk about slaves and masters seems more than coincidental.
Facing aspects of work we may struggle to see as the full expression of the goodness of God, aspects of work that may be intimidating or seem-ill fitting, even if we know them to be only slightly inconvenient means to a glorious end, a refresher on Who is the ultimate Master and who is the servant is not just helpful for other people, even if we, like Timothy, do receive this lesson partly in order to convey it to those other people. We have to eat it before we can tweet it, as one friend conveys from Beth Moore. God has to get it TO us before he can get it THROUGH us, insists a pastoral friend of mine.
If Timothy's gut might twist in a knot at the idea of an upcoming confrontation, what better way to put duties that don't come naturally into perspective than to remind the young man they are in outworking of his theology? He is, breathtakingly, the conduit of an infinitely good God among the faltering goodness of those who are in the finite predicament.
And such are some of us. The master-servant dynamic confessed, again, we find ourselves in circumstances at one turn which prompt loud and enthusiastic confession of the goodness of God, and then, turning only slightly, illicit anxiety or grumbling.
As we help others establish that He is seamlessly sovereign over both, we may convince our own scattered hearts. We may, as we declare the whole counsel of the Word of God to ourselves, to our blogs, to our families, to our coworkers, to our cats and to our dogs, we may be fully convinced that His writ runs undiminished into that situation we are not entirely comfortable with.
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