I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Timothy 5-6.

    I should have written on this passage yesterday, but I accidentally skipped ahead to 2 Timothy. So, I will study it today. Today’s passage starts with advice to Timothy which would have saved quite a few men today from grief had they followed it. We are instructed to treat those older than ourselves as if they were our parents and those our age and younger as our brothers and sisters. We should treat others with respect and purity. Paul proceeds from there to give Timothy instructions for caring for the elderly. He writes that believers should care for those of their relatives who are no longer able to care for themselves to the best that they are able. The Church should only step in when someone has no relatives who are able to care for themselves. Further, those who are able should seek out useful things to do with their time. We should seek useful things with which to fill our time because that is a positive good, but also because we will otherwise fill our time with activities which will lead us into sin.

    Paul continues with more instructions regarding those who should receive financial support from the Church and other items regarding living a Christian life. Then he warns against those teachers and leaders who teach contrary to Paul’s teachings. Paul warns us that such people have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels. They create friction between people and encourage people to believe that godliness is a path to financial gain. Paul writes that not only is godliness not a guarantee of financial success, but that godliness combined with contentment with out financial status is worth more than any amount of money. No matter how much material wealth we gain in this life none of it will accompany us into the next. If we have food to eat and clothes to wear we have all the financial wealth we should desire. Seeking after wealth is a trap which leads many to sin. The desire for money is the source of many sins. Paul follows this up in his conclusion by warning those who do acquire great wealth to remain humble and not come to believe that their great wealth is evidence of their righteousness.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Timothy 1-4.

    Paul encourages us to embrace suffering for the sake of the Gospel. We should seek out suffering which results from faithfully obeying God. When we have questions about whether an action is God’s will, the fact that taking that action might lead others to persecute us should be counted as one piece of evidence that said action is indeed God’s will for us. In the process of speaking of his suffering, Paul writes that he is not embarrassed by because he knows that God is able to keep what he, Paul, has entrusted to Him. Paul is referring to the fact that he has entrusted his soul, his very being and sense of self, to God’s care in the face of persecution for obeying God. This passage is the basis for a song which I love. I love that song because I am a person who is knowledgeable on many subjects. Yet, when it comes down to it, there is only one thing I really need to know: I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He is able.

    Paul tells Timothy that the last days will be terrible because people will love only themselves and money. The result will be that they will be boastful, proud, and abusive. Paul throws some more negative adjectives in to describe such people…descriptions which describe many in our society today. Paul writes that many such people will have what passes for godliness, but will deny that godliness has any power. They will claim that it is possible to be moral without believing in God (which is nominally true, although Paul tells us that it is not really possible for us to be moral even if we believe in God), while failing to recognize that there is meaning to the word “moral” if there is no God. Francis Schaeffer refers to such people borrowing words and terms from belief in God, but stripping those words and terms of all meaning. They appear to be discussing spiritual concepts because they are using words with spiritual connotations, but the spirituality of those words relies upon their references to God, whom these people say does not exist. As a result, they say things which people think have meaning, but do not.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Timothy 1-4.

    Paul writes that Timothy is to command certain people (people whom Paul has previously identified to Timothy, but whom he is not identifying here so as to not limit this instruction to just those people) to stop teaching false doctrines and devoting themselves to fables and genealogies. Nothing further in the letter really gives us any idea what the genealogies Paul was talking about, but my guess would be that there were teachers who were claiming authority because of who their ancestors were (or, at least, who they claimed their ancestors were). However, Paul does give us a clear idea about what false doctrines they were teaching, these were false teachings which he wrote against time and again in his letters to the various Churches. These false teachings involved various interpretations of applying the law (primarily, the Law of Moses, but Paul’s writing suggests that there were other rules and laws preached by some of these teachers) to those who followed Christ. It is interesting that Paul both states that following the law has no value for believers and that the law is useful for pointing out their sin to those who broke that law. Such people are sinners and Jesus came into the world to save them, even the very worst of them. Further it is through faith in Jesus that we have been converted from being sinners into being righteous, and this no longer under the authority of the law.

    Paul calls for believers everywhere to pray for all people, but not just pray, pray, petition, intercede, and give thanks for. In particular Paul calls on us to pray for those in positions of authority. This brings us back to Paul’s references in letter after letter to the fact that we should pray constantly. If you do not know what to pray for, go talk to your neighbors. The Spirit will reveal through them something which you should be praying about. As part of this same lesson, Paul tells us that women should dress modestly and adorn themselves with good deeds rather than with jewelry and fancy clothes. I think both that this instruction applies to both men and women and is more directed at focusing our sense of self-worth on doing good than on our looks than at forbidding jewelry. Paul follows this up with the qualifications for leadership positions in the Church. While I think these qualifications are important, because of my lack of time I am going to skip over that and go on to my next paragraph.

    Paul comes back to the false doctrines which he wishes Timothy to preach against. He writes that the teachers of such false doctrines forbid people from marrying and insist that they abstain from certain foods. In response to such teachings Paul emphasizes that all foods are a gift from God to be appreciated by those who will and not avoided for religious or doctrinal reasons. However, Paul grants that there is some value in disciplining our bodies both by physical training and restricting our diets in a limited fashion (not eating too much, fasting occasionally, exercising so as to maintain our health). More importantly, we should focus on disciplining our minds and our spirits so that we develop ever more into the image of God.