Today’s Thoughts – 25 November 2020
By T. S. Candee on November 25, 2020 in First Timothy Thoughts
Today’s thoughts tie into yesterday’s thoughts. You can read them here.
But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
Knowing what we learned yesterday about being content with what God has given us and how we should not be motivating our lives for money, Paul shifts his thoughts directly to Timothy. We must avoid the attributes previously spoken of (false doctrine, ministering only for money, etc.). Paul uses the word “flee.”
Flee
There are times in which fleeing is not right (Nehemiah 6:11) and there are times when fleeing is the right and only option (Genesis 39:12, 1 Samuel 19:10). In this case, we should flee all temptations and desires to put money and things above God and a right heart toward Him.
Follow
Instead, we should follow after things that are lovely and good. The list Paul provides here resembles even the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). If we focus on developing our character and the attributes that resemble God in our lives, we won’t follow the things of this world.
Fight
Yet, to do that means that there will be a battle – a war – in our lives. And Paul exhort us to fight! We are also to be faithful in this fight. Living a sanctified Christian life (a victorious Christian life) is not easy in the world we live in. We are constantly being bombarded with a culture that continues to degrade and finds its standing further and further away from God’s moral law.
Yet we must stand up and fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil each day in our lives (Galatians 5:17). To do so, we put on the armor of God each day (Ephesians 6:11, 14-18), die to our self-willed way of living (Galatians 2:20), and live conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29).
If we are to be good men and women of God, we must flee those things that distract and pull us away from Him, we must follow those things that develop our character and bring us closer to Him, and we must fight the good fight of faith against the world, the flesh, and the devil as they war against us in this spiritual war.
