Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Timothy 1-4.
Early in his letter to Timothy, Paul writes that Timothy should command some people to stop teaching false doctrines. He tells Timothy that these people want to be teachers of the law, but do not actually know what they are talking about when it comes to the law. Then Paul says something to which I think we should pay more attention than we do: the law is not for the righteous, but for lawbreakers and the ungodly. The law is for those who are constantly looking for loopholes. You know, the people who constantly say, “Well, there wasn’t a rule against it,” as justification for something they have done which caused problems. On the other hand, those who seek to do good, who seek to advance the interests of others do not need a set of rules which lay out what is acceptable and what is unacceptable behavior. So, we do not create a righteous society by having the correct laws. No, we bring about a righteous society by following Paul’s second piece of advice to Timothy; pray for all people. If we want to transform society into the kingdom of God, and we should desire to do so, we must lift our hands in prayer, without anger or dispute. Instead of adorning ourselves with expensive clothes and jewelry we should adorn ourselves with good deeds. Let us pray for everyone, especially those in authority, not praying that they do what we think best, but that they do God’s will.
I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.