An assignment that was not to your liking

 

1 Timothy 1:3-7

As a person in business were you ever given an assignment that was not to your liking, one that you personally believed was beyond your abilities and was a waste of your talent and time?  I do recall such a time after spending nine years in industrial sales, I was ask to take a roll as Key-Account salesperson in our Utility business.  It was something I enjoyed and God blessed me and it was a very successful time.  Then came new management, and they wanted me to go back to industrial sales as the Team leader, a job that required me to lead and direct people who did not want to be led or directed, and it was the hardest three years of my career.   If you identified with the statement above, you may want to read 1Timothy from that perspective. 

His father in the faith, his mentor, Paul had protected young Timothy to some degree, but it was time for Timothy to step out and be used by God; Timothy had a calling on his life and the assignment was Ephesus.  Often, in fact almost always a charge or directive is given with a new responsibility, mine was to grow 3M’s electrical business by twenty percent per year in the industrial market.  Young Timothy’s directive or charge is laid out in verses 3-4, “As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.”  Timothy is being given the task of standing against “False teachers” and bringing unity to the church at Ephesus, that is his charge, and how is it that young Timothy is ordered to carry out such a task?   By the way, he lived in community and Paul is very clear about this in verses 5-7, “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.  Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.”    

Timothy’s charge is to be an example of love, integrity, and to confront those who have wandered from the true teaching of Scripture, but not to harm them, but to restore them and to get them back on track because they are teaching out of ignorance of what the Scripture is saying.  Proverbs 19:2 says; “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.”  It seems to this writer that Proverbs 19:2 was taking place in the churches of Ephesus, and also many were just on a flesh trip, wanting to be the teacher, with no understanding of the Scriptures and no leadership of the Holy Spirit. 

I believe Timothy would have preferred to have gone on to Macedonia, it was a gig he enjoyed, Paul was his mentor, his father in the faith, but God wanted Timothy to be His ambassador to this new church; by being an example of God’s love, letting them understand that Christ is life, and that He will give them everything they need to live a victorious life on planet earth, no matter what the assignment, if they are abiding in Christ.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice