1 Timothy 6:11-16 (1)

Paul is writing a personal letter to Timothy.  Thus it is not just doctrine and teaching but it is the personal appeal of a friend, brother and spiritual father.  In this last chapter we are seeing Paul address the issue of wealth.  Submissive slaves will make their believing masters wealthy which will benefit many (6:1-2).  Then Paul has a concern for a minister of Christ, like Timothy.  So he notes that some teach a false view of money, that godliness will make us rich (6:3-5).  So in the body of Christ we should practice contentment, not making wealth the pursuit of our lives (6:6-10).  But then he comes back to Timothy: But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue … (6:11).  He will come back to the rich (6:17-19) before a concluding exhortation to Timothy (6:20-21).

Paul exhortation in today’s passage is to two things (note: 4 verbs are in command form: flee, pursue, fight, lay hold; by doing these we keep, v14): 

·        First, he is to pursue the life of Christ, the quality of eternal life provided by His death and resurrection.  Righteousness and godliness describe that life in full.  Faith and love are the bedrock of that life.  Patience (perseverance, pressing on in all situations) and gentleness (meekness, yielding to God in all things) are essential to a successful conclusion of our pursuit of Christ.

·        Second, he is to fight the good fight of faith.  This is a call to endure in ministry, a theme which permeates Paul’s second letter to Timothy.  He has been equipped for this warfare (1 Tim. 1:18) and like Paul must fight until the end (2 Tim. 4:7; it is true for all believers, Rev. 12:11).  We have made a good confession, having confessed Christ as Lord (Rom. 10:9-10).  But in fighting the good fight we lay hold of eternal life.  Think about this carefully.  This is not how we get saved; it is how we lay hold of the quality life, the eternal life that is God’s gift to all who believe (Rom. 6:23).  It will not happen without a fight!

The key to this is not our own best efforts although that is essential to perseverance.  The key is bound up in our God of whom Paul says two things.  First, God gives life to all things.  God as creator and giver of life is the One we trust so that we live and fight faithfully.  He can be counted on to enable us.  Second, we are called to do what God the Son did in His earthly life: to make a good confession even to the point of death.  We are not called to invent or create this life; we are called to copy, to follow in the steps of our Lord.  And even more than following His example, as we have noted already, we are to yield ourselves to Him daily that He might be our life.  He endured to death and was then exalted (6:15-16); so Paul exhorts Timothy, and us, to keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing.

May we respond well today to the command to endure, not because of what people around us will think, but because we live our lives in the sight of God the Father and God the Son.  This is our true accountability and only enablement!