Others might have asked, "Can I remain
faithful to God until the end?"
"How
do I know that I will remain faithful to the end?"
Good question, and I am so thankful that the
apostle is reading Timothy’s mind
and our anxious thoughts
here, and therefore his counsel to us this morning is very
helpful and practical.
To begin with then, please take note of the background
against which Paul says this to Timothy, the young pastor at Ephesus. He says this against the background of
spiritual deceit and apostasy and false
teaching which he calls in v.7 irreverent,
silly myths, or more literally, ‘profane and
old wives myths’.
Our
modern society is no different. Just
looking at a magazine shelf at a bookshop
leaves us under no illusions what our
people preoccupy themselves with in terms of finding ultimate satisfaction. And so
there is a true market place for all sorts of therapies and techniques from Astrology to
Zen Buddhism to relieve stressed souls -
all of course apart from the prescriptions of our
God and Creator.
Jesus never said, do yoga or transcendental meditation, and de-stress yourself as you surround yourself with positive energy fields
by doing Feng Shui on your house
and buy
crystals, in order to be delivered
from whatever worries and ails you.
He never said, “Go to
an African witchdoctor or his counterpart in many a charismatic church, the
so called “man of God” who magically removes all your love
problems and financial burdens.
Jesus said : “Come to me all who labour and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and
learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly
in heart, and you will find rest for
your souls.” (Matt. 11:28,29)
Some in Ephesus apparently
forbade people to marry and others focused on what to eat and what not to eat, when the
basic simple truth is that EVERYTHING
God created is GOOD, and when we
give thanks for and pray over our
food then it is even more good, because God is honoured by our eating and drinking.
Others appear to be absorbed
with their bodies. This too is a phenomenon
of our modern culture. There is, of course, nothing wrong with
exercise. It has “some value“, says
Paul. But surely the excessive attention
and endless energy given to our outer
appearances impresses others for a short while - but what more does it do? How does that keep us faithful to the end and
for eternity?
If you put these things
before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained
in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have
nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for
godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in
every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to
come.
I am learning never to
take practical godliness for granted in Christian people. Paul did not! In writing
to Timothy, Paul felt it necessary to remind
him to “put
these things before the brothers”. We are to train others, but in order to train others, the trainer himself must be subject to the rigors
of training. As a pastor in a
difficult environment at Ephesus is important that
He keeps himself in
spiritual shape, if he is going to be faithful to the end…. For many have made shipwreck of
their faith. The training associated with godliness is far
more valuable than physical training.
The ground and
substance for training in godliness is to be in the
words of the faith and of the good doctrine.
Negatively, he is to avoid
getting caught up in irreverent, silly myths. A good servant of Christ is not called to chase rabbits . He is to be a
single minded man.
Positively speaking He is to train
(Gr. gumnazō) himself in godliness. Let us focus on this for a moment
and let this counsel encourage us to see
how we may persevere to the end without
any fear that ‘we may lose it’ .
Principles for training
in godliness :
Commitment:
Train yourself : “No pain – no gain”. No one
makes it to the level of Olympics without paying the price of daily rigorous training.
Similarly, godliness does not come without paying the price of daily spiritual training
which God has designed for our growth in godliness.
There is a price to godliness. It doesn’t come cheaply, nor does it
come easily. You need to plan for it,
and more importantly you need to actually do it. The Greek word “train”
from which we get our English word
“gymnastics“ implies hard work and perseverance with
painstaking , diligent effort, therefore
implying commitment.
Timothy was personally
responsible for his growth and progress
in godliness. It is true that all we
do for God is by grace, and yet it is also true that grace does not come if we do not work out
our salvation at the same time (Phil. 2:12,13).
Somebody put it like
this: “It takes two to grow a potato:
God and the farmer !” God is
first.
The farmer second. God uses
farmers to produce potatoes. That is the
way in which God works. The same is
true for the work of the church.
God is
first. We are second. God uses His
people to do the work of
evangelism and discipleship. And
so, potatoes do not grow without farmers
and churches do not grow without evangelism and discipleship.
But our text is not
speaking primarily here about evangelism and discipleship. It speaks about
something far more basic. It speaks of a basic, underlying discipline called godliness, and many of us struggle more with
this than we realize. We are essentially very
focused on our daily existence, and are disciplined
in keeping our business, studies,
home, but not disciplined at all when it
comes to training in godliness . That is why there is such a tendency to look for shortcuts. People
always look for a miraculous infusion of godliness. The truth is that God does work in a
mysterious way to make us godly, but He
does not do this apart from calling us
to exercise the personal responsibility to train
ourselves in godliness.
We all need training in this area. Timothy needed it. Paul reminded Timothy
in 2 Tim 1:7 that “God did not give us a spirit of
timidity, but a spirit of power, of love
and of self discipline“. Timothy needed to grow
out of his natural timidity. He needed to grow in these three areas
mentioned. He need to learn to be bolder,
and to understand the nature of biblical
love better (1 Cor. 13:4-7) and to be more self- disciplined.
Jerry Bridges reminds us
that one meets many talented and capable Christians, but one meets fewer
godly Christians. The emphasis in our
age is on serving God and accomplishing things for God. As good and necessary as that may be, it is not the
first thing we need to do. The first thing that we need is to grow in
godliness.
Here’s an important thing to
understand. In God’s economy being is before doing! Many Christians invert this, and this leads them to self- absorption and
idolatry.
Many think and say to themselves, “I do,
therefore I am a Christian!” The
truth is the other way around: ”I am a
Christian, therefore I do.. .” There
is a wide
gulf between the two. The first is called ‘dead works’ and the other is called ‘ a faith that pleases God ‘ (Hebrews 11). The one leads to duty-ism, and the other leads to joy. It is
for joy that we have been redeemed by Christ.
And now you will see why
Paul says what he does in vv.
9-10: The saying is trustworthy and
deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we
have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all people,
especially of those who believe.
The Christian life, the godly life, must be lived from the
centre. Who is at the centre? Jesus Christ ! So, the
training that you need to be engaged in is to constantly focus
sharply on the Lord Jesus Christ and on His attributes. What is it that Timothy and we need in this
regard? Ah, says Paul, "don’t be intimidated by the
thought of your youthfulness (don’t look at the outward), but
focus on portraying and being like Jesus … set the believers an example in speech, in
conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." That is godly behaviour. And it
takes training, because it is not natural for us to think and act like that.
What else must
Timothy do to increase personal godliness? Paul says: “Timothy, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to
teaching”. Expose your people to the reading, preaching and teaching of God’s Word in order that they may
be trained in godliness! That is the
work of the pastor. That is Timothy’s
work.
But we can also turn it around. How can I
as a church member grow in godliness? By regularly sitting under the Word of God
brought by my God appointed pastor. My advice is that you need to take every
opportunity to bring yourself under the Word of God. Every Christian should
be a thorough student of the Bible. The
Hebrews were rebuked, since they
should have been able to teach others, they still needed to be
taught in the elementary truths of God’s
word (Hebr. 5:11-14).
If we are to
train ourselves in godliness we must give
Bible study priority in our lives
. The results of this will be evident.
Proverbs 2:1-5 tells us :
1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, 2
turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, 3 and if
you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, 4 and if you look for
it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, 5 then you will
understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.
In conclusion Paul says: Practice these things,
immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a
close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so
doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Practise… progress… persist … TRAIN.
What is the outcome? “By so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.“ By doing this you will make it to the end !
What is the outcome? “By so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.“ By doing this you will make it to the end !
WHERE CAN WE FIND THE
TIME TO DO ALL THIS ?
You will always
find time to do what is important to you.
How important is the
practice of godliness to you? Is it important enough to take priority over your
own routines and your excessive desire for recreation and scores of other activities ?
Unfortunately many professing
Christians are busy with many things, but not busy with cultivating those Christian graces which are essential to being Christ-like and therefore godly. For this reason many Christians seem to
display little fruit and power
in their lives. Our best time and energy should be invested in the pursuit of training ourselves for the
purpose of godliness- to be more like Jesus. Paul says that this practice
holds promise for both the present life and the life to come. This practice alone will ensure that we remain faithful to the end.
Amen !
