Living as a Man of God

^"18Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, ¹⁹holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith." 1 Timothy 1:18-19 (NIV)

As I had mentioned in my previous post, I am reading through 1 Timothy, and right after the passage I just blogged on was another passage that really stood out to me as I studied it. In these few verses, Paul shares a bit of his heart, and a glimpse of what it means to be a man of God as he instructs Timothy. Timothy was called to be a man of God, and Paul gives hims instruction on how to live. Let's look to see what God has to say...

First of all, Paul tells Timothy to fight the good fight. It is important to remember that we are in a war. We need to stand and fight for our King! As Paul instructed the Ephesians, we need to put on the full armor of God so we can stand. We need to be devoted to prayer, the great weapon with which we can fight and bring down strongholds. James tells us that the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. We need to stand and fight the good fight, so we, like Paul, when we come to the end, we can say that we fought the good fight, that we finished the race.

Next, Paul tells Timothy to hold on to faith. We need to be faithful, have faith in God and His promises. The writer of Hebrews tells us that faith is being sure of what we hope for and being certain of what we do not see. It is not doubt, in any form. Faith believes God, believes His promises, and holds to it without wavering. Faith overcomes. Faith empowers us to stand. Those described in Hebrews 11 are great examples We ought to hold to Faith, for we have a great and glorious hope. Faith trusts God and doesn't back down.

Thirdly, Paul instructs Timothy to hold to a good conscience. What we do and say affects us. The more we wallow in sin, the more it deadens us and renders us ineffective. God's forgiveness is freely available to those who repent, but there are always consequences for sin. By having a good conscience, not being stained by sin, we can be effective for Christ.

Some, however, Paul says, have rejected these and in so doing have shipwrecked their faith. They have lost the faith, have fallen away. Simply put, they fell, with great damage to themselves. These things that Paul gives are in essence, the living out of our faith. Without them our faith is dead and useless- not saying that works save, but rather that they are evidence of Faith. It is important that we live out our faith, that we stand up and be counted as men (and women) for God.

I think we can agree that in this day, we need men who will stand, men of God who live out their faith. I hope that we all take a few lessons from these instructions from Paul, as the Spirit gave him. May we live as men of God!

For Christ's Glory!