Morning Moments

1 Timothy 4:6-9

If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.

By constantly "nourishing up" himself in faith and sound doctrine, Timothy is a good "servant" (indicating his activity, not his position) of Jesus Christ. Let it be said of us who desire His word more than our daily food and who hide it in our hearts that we might not sin against Him.

I love the way Paul balances his teaching by presenting both positive and negative. He commends Timothy and encourages him in faith and doctrine, but he also makes it very clear to him what he is to renounce and refust.

REFUSE THE BABLING

REFUSE THE BABLING

Just as there are those and things we must receive, there are also those and things we must reject. This is where "lovey dovey" Christianity has lost perspective. Remember those who sin before all are to be rebuked before all. We must also keep the wrong in the sphere of the wrong. If the wrong is personal, keep it personal, but if it is public, make it public. To trust trash is tragic, but to trust truth is triumphant.

The language in our text is strong. It is difficult for those who are shy to stand strong and Timothy needed encouragement. He had not been taught stories, but Scripture. He was not a minister of the mystical, but the miraculous. Leave the babblings to the blundering, but for those who are saved and secure saints, give them the Bible.

Continuing his thoughts on training, Paul tells Timothy to "exercise". If there were as much emphasis today on spiritual exercise as there is on physical exercise, the Church would be changing the world instead of circling the track. A man said to his wife, "I want to stay young and thin." She replied, "Don't look in the mirror then."

The exercise Paul is referring to here is much more strenuous than physical. It is spiritual and it is eternal. What if we gave the attention to the spiritual we give to the physical? We reward vanity and refuse virtue. Pity!

Wuest says, "The word “refuse” is paraiteomai, “to refuse, decline, shun, reject, beg off, get excused, avoid.” The word “profane” is bebēlos, “accessible, lawful to be trodden,” hence, profane in the sense of unhallowed, common, the absence of a divine or sacred character. The word “fables” is muthos “a fiction, a fable, an invention, falsehood.” The fictions of the Jewish theosophists and Gnostics, especially concerning the emanations and orders of the aeons, are called muthoi, myths."

Be careful little ears what you hear.

BLESSINGS