1 Timothy 1:3-4

Thanks for sharing!

“When I left for Macedonia, I urged you to stay there in Ephesus and stop those whose teaching is contrary to the truth. Don’t let them waste their time in endless discussion of myths and spiritual pedigrees. These things only lead to meaningless speculations, which don’t help people live a life of faith in God.”

She spoke the words that I’d heard a hundred times before: “Pastor, I just don’t know enough…I mean, have you heard so-and-so talk? They use all these spiritual words, and they sound so good!  I’ll never be like that!” This woman was convinced that somehow she was an outsider because she didn’t know fancy enough words. She felt like somehow, unless she got the words right, she was spiritually a second-class citizen.

Paul, in writing to Timothy, has something to say about that.  These verses tell us that Timothy was Paul’s chosen representative at a particular church in the city of Ephesus.  Timothy’s job was to stop people from using too much fancy, spiritual talk (Paul calls it “discussion of myths and spiritual pedigrees”).  Why? Because too much of that kind of talk can lead to “meaningless speculations…” Paul has no interest in spiritual conversations that sound great if that don’t actually help us live life differently.  Instead he cares about a new way of living. He calls it “living the life of faith.”

Here’s your freedom for today: there is only one thing that matters in the spiritual life. This protects you from ever feeling like an outsider. If elaborate spiritual ideas were what mattered, you might feel like an outsider because you didn’t understand them. If complicated spiritual words were what mattered, you might feel like an outsider because you didn’t know them. Those things might be beyond your grasp, leaving you feeling exempt or unimportant. The real thing that matters, though, is something simple enough that anyone can pursue it who wants to. Anyone can seek to live a life of faith in God. But how does one live a life of faith? That is exactly the question that Paul will seek to answer throughout this letter, so throughout the coming days we will discover the answer together.