Commentary
by Walter Albritton
Modeling the
Lifestyle of a Godly Minister of Christ
1 Timothy 4:7-16; 5:1-8
Key Verse: Godliness
is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the
life to come. – 1 Timothy 3:9
The plan worked
then. It works now. God’s work thrives when God’s people live holy lives.
Holiness, after all, is what God expects of all true disciples, not merely
church leaders. Nowhere does the New Testament even hint of a double standard,
one for laity, and another for clergy.
As much as any
man in the 20th Century, Elton Trueblood challenged the church to
repent of its distinction between laity and clergy. The Quaker scholar even
called the pulpit “an evil thing,” because it elevated clergy above laity. He
was right. The word “laity” does not even appear in the New Testament. Christians
one and all are called to be the “
Modern
Christianity provides us with church dignitaries with high-sounding titles, as
distinguished from what are called nonprofessionals or lay people. The New
Testament, on the other hand, addresses the rank and file of Christians, not
merely the apostles, and calls them all to “ministry” or servanthood. Ordinary
Christians understood that they were all “called to the ministry” of serving
others in Christlike ways.
In Second
Corinthians 5:18, for example, all Christians are given “the ministry of
reconciliation. This insight led the scholar J. B. Lightfoot to observe, “The
only priests under the Gospel, designated as such in the New Testament, are the
saints, the members of the Christian brotherhood.”
The bottom line
is, of course, the profound assertion by Trueblood that “every Christian is a minister.” Thankfully, this concept is widely
accepted today, at least in theory. All Christian disciples, therefore, are
ministering servants of Jesus Christ engaged in the ministry of common life.
Godliness, then, is the result of devout, disciplined service to Christ whether
one is a dentist or a homemaker.
The source of
godliness is, of course, the indwelling Christ. We cannot “achieve” holiness.
God produces it within us in response to our surrender to the Lordship of
Christ. This does not mean that God requires any less of us; he requires our
all, in absolute surrender to the command of Christ to “be holy.”
Modeling a
godly life was a tough assignment for Timothy. His culture, like our own,
ridiculed godliness and invited people to focus on the physical body and
worldly pleasure. Today’s society is obsessed with physical fitness, diets, and
entertainment. We need to heed Paul’s warning to Timothy to value godliness as
more valuable than physical fitness partly because it offers us no eternal
reward. Physical training is good; it improves our quality of life. Spiritual
training for godliness blesses us in this life and the next.
Paul wants
Timothy to see that godly living involves all of life – his speech,
relationships, beliefs, and actions. It is important for us to see that holy
living results from holy thinking. Our beliefs dictate our actions. Godliness,
then, involves the ways we relate to and treat other people. In exhorting others, Timothy was instructed to
do so with respect, and not harshly. He was expected to treat older men as
fathers, older women as mothers, and younger men and women as brothers and
sisters in Christ.
Widows deserve
the care of their families as well as the compassion of the church. Widows are
to be encouraged to live holy lives rather than seek earthly pleasures.
Insensitive behavior toward one’s family was a denial of the faith and branded
one as “worse than an infidel.”
Every church
could benefit from heeding Paul’s warning to Timothy: “Do not neglect the gift
that is in you….” Since all Christians are gifted, the church has the unique
opportunity to encourage its people to recognize, embrace, and use their gifts.
By encouraging one another in the use of our gifts, we help to build up the
body of Christ.
Timothy
fulfilled his assignment well. He modeled godliness by the way he lived,
taught, and related to others. Now it is our turn. We too, with God’s help, can
model godly living by intentionally seeking holiness in preference to the
pleasures of an undisciplined life and a casual relationship to Christ. May God
give us a desire for holiness equal to the desire of our Olympic athletes.
They endure rigorous training in the hope of winning gold
medals. We, on the other hand, persevere in godliness in the hope of receiving
a greater reward, the crown of righteousness promised by our Lord for all who
are faithful to the end. + + + + (Contact Walter at walbritton@elmore.rr.com)