1 Timothy 6:12 – Grasping and Letting Go
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life… 1 Timothy 6:12, New King James Version
Charles Spurgeon in his sermon "The Resurrection of the Dead" meaningfully connects this bodily existence with what is to come. He entreats, "If this throat is to warble forever with songs of glory, let not of lust defile it. If these eyes are see the king in his beauty, even let this be your prayer,'Turn off my eyes from beholding vanities.' If these hands are to hold a palm branch, let them never take a bribe, let them never seek after evil."
Perhaps this sense of continuity between the time-bound and the timeless is what Paul is charged with in 1 Timothy 6:12, and the past and he would conduct like electricity to Timothy. To that end, he commissions Timothy with an interesting oxymoron, to lay hold of eternity. Grasp that, young squire, which will outlast the strength of your grip, grasp that which is more broad than the biggest human hands outstretched to their limits.
Given what Christ can grasp FOR us when all the world's waters fit in the hollow of His hand (Isaiah 40:12,) perhaps Paul is pointing us to the Truth behind Wordsworth's later admission that getting and spending we lay waste our powers. Perhaps Paul is pointing to a Truth deeper than Thoreau knew when he suggested that a man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
As Timothy, and we after him, read Paul's vigorous verb and instinctively think of our hands, perhaps their availability to lay hold of eternal life comes in there grasping loosely to the things of this world. Timothy, will remember, in the context of 1 Timothy 6 is being warned away from the wealth of Ephesus and the preoccupation of chasing after it, and surely the same warning would apply to us.
As we realize our richness in Christ in that we can afford to let go of that extra dollar's hold on us, we begin to lay hold of eternity. If these hands, we say with Spurgeon, are to hold the palm branch, that the never take a bribe, or seek after evil, or seek that which is neutral as a tool but which we would use as an alternative to relying on Christ, our unspoken "just in case He doesn't" fund.
But neither is the invitation to lay hold of eternity the soothing of our laziness. As we begin to realize our real accounting is in Heaven for how we have used Earthly goods in the Master's service, (Matthew 25:35-36) we begin to appraise as He does. We are on the same wavelength. We are picking up what He is laying down. We are laying hold of Him and His Truth. We are, since He invites those in such a condition in Matthew 25 to enter into the Kingdom prepared for them, training for reigning with Him in how we get this world's goods, and how we let them go.
Charles Spurgeon in his sermon "The Resurrection of the Dead" meaningfully connects this bodily existence with what is to come. He entreats, "If this throat is to warble forever with songs of glory, let not of lust defile it. If these eyes are see the king in his beauty, even let this be your prayer,'Turn off my eyes from beholding vanities.' If these hands are to hold a palm branch, let them never take a bribe, let them never seek after evil."
Perhaps this sense of continuity between the time-bound and the timeless is what Paul is charged with in 1 Timothy 6:12, and the past and he would conduct like electricity to Timothy. To that end, he commissions Timothy with an interesting oxymoron, to lay hold of eternity. Grasp that, young squire, which will outlast the strength of your grip, grasp that which is more broad than the biggest human hands outstretched to their limits.
Given what Christ can grasp FOR us when all the world's waters fit in the hollow of His hand (Isaiah 40:12,) perhaps Paul is pointing us to the Truth behind Wordsworth's later admission that getting and spending we lay waste our powers. Perhaps Paul is pointing to a Truth deeper than Thoreau knew when he suggested that a man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
As Timothy, and we after him, read Paul's vigorous verb and instinctively think of our hands, perhaps their availability to lay hold of eternal life comes in there grasping loosely to the things of this world. Timothy, will remember, in the context of 1 Timothy 6 is being warned away from the wealth of Ephesus and the preoccupation of chasing after it, and surely the same warning would apply to us.
As we realize our richness in Christ in that we can afford to let go of that extra dollar's hold on us, we begin to lay hold of eternity. If these hands, we say with Spurgeon, are to hold the palm branch, that the never take a bribe, or seek after evil, or seek that which is neutral as a tool but which we would use as an alternative to relying on Christ, our unspoken "just in case He doesn't" fund.
But neither is the invitation to lay hold of eternity the soothing of our laziness. As we begin to realize our real accounting is in Heaven for how we have used Earthly goods in the Master's service, (Matthew 25:35-36) we begin to appraise as He does. We are on the same wavelength. We are picking up what He is laying down. We are laying hold of Him and His Truth. We are, since He invites those in such a condition in Matthew 25 to enter into the Kingdom prepared for them, training for reigning with Him in how we get this world's goods, and how we let them go.
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