1 Timothy 6:11-12

Summary retelling of 1 Timothy 6:11-12

Paul tells Timothy that he is a man of God.  As a man of God, he should flee sin, temptation, and the love of wealth.  Instead he should spend his time pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness.  He needs to make every effort to have good purposes in faithfulness.  He also needs to firmly grasp onto eternal life – which he has already learned about and confessed before others.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Timothy needs to flee sin, temptation, and the love of wealth.  This is really an important point – and I think so many of us believe it but fail to implement it.  We know sin is bad.  We probably even know those buttons that Satan can push to get us to sin every time.  Yet, we are so willing to walk into those sins.  In fact, we are so willing to not do what it takes to set up accountability so that we don’t stumble into those sins.  We know the sin is bad, but time and time again we fall into the same sin over and over again.

How many reasons can you think of for why human beings fall into a pattern of sin instead of learning from our mistakes?  How you ever struggled with a sin and purged it from your life?  How does it feel to be free of that temptation?

Second Thought:

Paul tells Timothy to pursue righteousness and the acts of righteousness.  Again, this isn’t so that Timothy can be saved.  Paul is reminding Timothy to do these things because he is saved.  If we do genuinely love God, we need to do the things that God genuinely loves us to do.  We should make an effort to live up to His righteousness (although we cannot fully succeed, so we shouldn’t get frustrated when we don’t make it, either).  The effort is a response out of our gratitude as well as a testimony to others how God can change a person’s life.

What do you do that you think would be considered as “righteousness?”  Why do you think it would be considered as righteousness by God?  Can you think of three things that you can change so that a part of your “unrighteousness” might become “righteousness?”

Third Thought:

Paul encourages Timothy to firmly grasp onto eternal life.  This doesn’t mean that Timothy isn’t saved.  In fact, Paul isn’t making a claim about salvation at all.  What it means is a reminder to Timothy that eternal life should be the most important goal on our list – especially as a Christian leader.  Nothing we do should jeopardize our standing with God.  If we are going to confess that God is important and if we are going to confess before others what our faith is about, we don’t need to be compromising that confession.

How often do you make a decision while thinking about how it might relate to your standing with God?  How often do you make a decision with respect to how it might impact your ability to talk about God and eternal life?  Why is it important to remember eternal life even after we are saved and already in a relationship with Jesus Christ?

Passage for Tomorrow: 1 Timothy 6:13-16