“... Holding faith and a good conscience”

Fighting the Good Fight: 1 Timothy 1:19-20

... holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

The two parts of “waging the good warfare” (or “fighting the good fight”), the Apostle tells us, are holding fast to faith (living trust in our loving, good God) and to a robust conscience (a clear awareness of right and wrong and a humble but committed determination to stay on the correct side of that divide). Note that the word “good” in “good warfare” is kalos, which is the general word for good, but also carries the sense of what is right and fitting. The word “good” in “good conscience” is agathos, which means “worthy”, “upright”, “fertile” – we might say a “clear” conscience, but that really doesn’t catch the full sense. It’s not about a blank rap sheet, so much as a strong and accurate moral compass which (carrying forward the sense of nobility and fertility in the word) has positive effects in the world around us.

What follows is one of those passages which, although nearly a “throwaway” in Paul’s prose, is one of those sit-up-and-take-notice points.

“By rejecting this”. What is the “this”? Some translations actually supply “conscience”; while not wrong, I don’t think that’s sufficient. The “this” is singular, but I take it to refer back to the “holding”. It’s not at all clear what the two persons named, viz., Hymenaeus and Alexander, have done (or failed to do), but the abandonment of conscience and a failure in trust in God go together. Vigorous faith is the foundation of Christian conscience, which is in turn the expression of active trust in the Father.

Now Paul uses an image that should “clear our sinuses”, as a friend of mine likes to say. He refers to the “shipwreck” of faith. Today, we’d be more apt to use an image from aviation or NASCAR like “crash and burn”; but a real shipwreck was just as dramatic, destructive, deadly. A ship hitting shoals in a gale would begin to break up on the rocks, splintering and taking on water. Men would be hurled into the waves, against the rocks, or into the depths of the ship. Rigging and sails, what had been the means of propulsion and movement about the ship, would become webs and cocoons of death. Prisoners and those weighed down by shackles, tackle, or equipment would be lost. Those who did survive faced exposure, hunger, loss of livelihood, financial ruin. The reputation of the captain and owner might also be seriously damaged.

The image is clear: turning away from trust in God and from a strong conscience on the stormy seas of life is inviting disaster. These two have suffered disaster in their discipleship, as a result of their own decisions.

Then more sobering words – shocking, even, from the Apostle: whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

What do we learn from this?

To blaspheme is to slander God: through abuse of the Name, through slandering or insulting God, by presumptuously arrogating to oneself privileges or titles not given by God, by claiming to have a word of knowledge or prophecy which is one’s own invention and not from God. The ultimate blasphemy is to turn away from grace, and it is for this reason that despair, though pitiable, is also such a serious sin. Again, we don’t know exactly what these two were involved in to trigger this reaction from Paul, but it must have come across as a serious challenge to the glorification of God and the trust of the church.

Second, we see that the consequences are serious, even devastating. “There is no free lunch” is an expression we hear in the business and commercial world; it is also true in the moral universe.

Third, we see the authority of the Church. Paul is able to act through prayer and counsel in a way which exposes Hymenaeus and Alexander to further trial and danger. Most of us in the modern Church are profoundly uncomfortable with such ideas. Yet just as a parent must sometimes punish a child or allow them to suffer the consequences of their actions to help them to learn and grow (painful as it is for the parent!), and just as a counselor or psychologist must allow a client to “hit bottom” and become sufficiently miserable as to motivate positive change, so also in the spiritual realm pain is sometimes the best, even the only, motivator for repentance. Our tendency to jump to shielding persons from the work of God in this way (to use Oswald Chambers’ term, to play at being an “amateur providence”) inhibits, and does not do, the work of God. (Caution: the alternate error, becoming a judgmental, pharisaic person, is just as deadly and just as common.) Paul uses the authority given him, no doubt in prayer, and no doubt with tears, to remove the hedge of protection in the lives of these two persons. I wonder: has the Church abandoned this sense of responsibility for the flock? Is this because of our own compromised bad consciences? Has this worked immeasurable harm to the cause of Christ and the work of building people up in the faith?

Fourth, we see the ultimate redemptive purpose of discipline in the Body. Paul doesn’t say, “They’re going to hell” – though, presumably, that could be the ultimate outcome. Rather, he focuses on their “learning”, on their present predicament being a means of growth and, ultimately, recovery. In this, Paul reflects the Gospel message that God’s intention toward us, though we deserve judgment and punishment, is grace.


Lord, it is a sobering thing to fall under discipline. More sobering, though, would be not to do so, not to feel Your guiding, restraining, correcting hand in our lives. Teach us both responsiveness to you, and the true yearning over the lives and souls of others, that we may not be inert but rather robust in our care of the flock of God, whether as members of that flock or as undershepherds of Yours. For the love, cause, and in the Spirit of Christ, amen.



(Lusby, Maryland)

“Wage the good warfare” (part 2)

WHAT IS THIS “GOOD WARFARE”? (1 Tm 1:18, part 3)

What is the “good warfare”? To what can we compare it?

Across thousands of years, leaders and countries have made great, heroic, sometimes ludicrous efforts to make their conflicts appear just. In the American Civil War, both sides prayed to the same God for victory in arms. Even the Nazis tipped their hats to this principle, going so far as to stage a phony attack on a radio tower in a border city as the “justification” to start a ground war in Europe.

We need to be on guard, though, lest the cynical acts of others make us cynical as well. History does provide examples of struggles against tyranny, battles to liberate oppressed peoples and endangered communities, conflicts begun with dubious motives but the end of which occasions much good. Much of the best Christian teaching recognizes the principle of “just war” engaged in righteously and rightly, if reluctantly.

This is not even to mention moral campaigns such as the “war on poverty”, “war on drugs”, “war on terror”, the civil rights struggle and the battles against ills such as illiteracy and obesity.

Struggle, it turns out, is a normal, even necessary, part of life. It is with struggle and strain that we are born into the world and see our first light of day. Too-easy deliverance from struggle can even be harmful, such as for the animal who is helped to break out of its egg, and whose ability to fight to survive is compromised thereby. And some of our nouns representing the most noble traits and qualities were themselves born in struggle: hero. Duty. Valor. Virtue.

In annals, story, and song ... in sources as disparate as Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage and “The Ballad of Private Rodger Young”, it is not the one who has nothing to live for or who knows no fear, but the one who has his or her whole life ahead and future at stake, who may feel that he or she has every good reason to flee the battle and turn their back on the fray, yet who is drawn or driven on by something higher, deeper, more important than one’s own existence, who is valorous.

What Paul is speaking to here is the passion of the quest. Paul recognized it in Timothy, saw a reflection of his own “upward calling”, that prize to which all else was subordinate, the struggle of most supreme importance that claims even one’s life.

The question for each of us, daily, is: have I given myself fully to the quest? Am I waging the good warfare?


Lord, remembering that the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, nor riches to the wise, let my life’s energies be bent with all my strength to the quest and struggle for Your Kingdom. Let whatever lack there is in my swiftness, or strength, or resources be supplied by Your goodness. Let my heart’s cry be for that which is most important to You. In Christ, Amen.



Romulus, Michigan (DTW)

"Wage the good warfare”

CLARITY, DISCIPLINE, AND SACRIFICE: 1 Timothy 1:18 (part 2)

The Apostle calls his young charge to “wage the good warfare”. Military imagery – which Paul uses often – is out of fashion in many quarters today. Still, it’s quite apt for the Christian journey, beset as it is with problems, opposition, and the need for continuous focused effort. This is all the more true for those exercising leadership in the body of Christ.

What are some of the characteristics of this “good warfare”?

Clarity. A clear, precise battle plan, taking into consideration not only troop movements and the probabilities of enemy responses, but also capacity, supply, endurance and potential political and noncombatant complications, is essential. Are we as disciples clear on our purpose and mission? If we are leading others, is it seat-of-the-pants or week-to-week, or do we have a sense of the direction in which God is guiding and how our following should be lived out? I believe that if we’re putting more time and thought into our vacation, career, or dinner plans than we are into our discipleship, then the Holy Spirit is urgently calling us to take another, more careful look.

Discipline. Indiscipline yields negative results. In a sport, I lose the game – or at a minimum, Coach yells at me. Taking a class, I get a bad grade. Eat unhealthily and don’t exercise, and I feel bad, get gluey stuff in my arteries ... and maybe keel over at an early age. Spiritual indiscipline is no less a problem, even if the results can take time to show up.

In the military, the disciplines of rank, regulations and training serve a purpose: to keep the soldier alive and make him or her an effective weapon against the enemy. As disciples, we being molded into instruments that fight evil in the world and seek to establish God’s righteous, life-giving policy (i.e., the Kingdom of God).

Sacrifice. For the serviceman/-woman, distance from family, limited comforts, even privations and perhaps injury or even death are part of the service rendered for the sake of duty to one’s country. In every age this has been true, whether the “heat and burden of the day” has been borne for the Senate and People of Rome, King and Country, or the Flag and Constitution. Ultimately, indeed, every fight is for home and hearth and the ideal of one’s native land.

Recently, I’ve been reading a bit on the American Civil War, and retracing the steps of the Confederate cabinet after its flight from Richmond. Gradually, travel became harder, supplies less certain, dangers more oppressive, and even formerly rebel-aligned cities began to make their former leaders unwelcome. Yet with courage and equanimity, and even good humor, they bore all this for the sake of “the Cause”. If they could bear such things for a cause which history has shown to be defective (in fact, I think it was awful on a number of levels), how much more should I, a citizen of a vastly nobler Homeland, be willing to bear for its sake and the sake of my King!

There is of course one more aspect to warfare: allegiance. We have to know whose side we’re on, and live with full loyalty, to “the last full measure of devotion” as President Lincoln put it. This is both simpler, and more intricate, than we typically make it out to be.

On the way here, I was waiting in line at the airport in front of an enlisted man en route to his duty station. From his insignia, I could see that he was one of ours (i.e., a U.S. soldier), and also could clearly see his name and rank. This gave me the opportunity to thank him for his service. Gratitude aside, can others observing us clearly see both our allegiance and our identity in Christ?


Lord, you have called me to wage a sustained fight for You. Help me to do so with clarity and discipline, despising and bearing patiently the sacrifices, and with full and loyal allegiance. Help me to remember also that my fight is “not against flesh and blood”, and to need to approval beyond Your own. In Your hold Name. Amen.


Ellensburg, Washington (Lazy F Camp)

“In Accordance with the Prophecy”

THE GOD WHO KNOWS US INTIMATELY (1 Timothy 1:18)

This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare ....


My son John is in possession of a full set of whisical expressions you can add to your normal everyday conversations to get a rise out of someone ... a raised eyebrow at a minimum, and maybe the conviction in someone’s mind that you really are certifiable. One is, “... but not with your duck”, as in: “You know, you could go home and curl up with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate tonight – but not with your duck.” Another one, more effective at making you sound card-carrying kooky I think, is: “... in accordance with the prophecy”. As in: “I think I’m going to go grocery shopping this afternoon and pick up some bathroom tissue – in accordance with the prophecy.”

Likely response (while backing away slowly): “Sure. You do that.”

But – what if? What if it weren’t just whimsy? In fact, what if it were true?

That’s the message in this verse, which is much more than just Paul’s kindly, admonitory transition to get to the next topic.

Timothy, along with Titus, Sylvanus, and a few others known to us (and probably many others whose names are lost or barely known such as Thecla), was one of Paul’s most trusted lieutenants, a protégé entrusted with critical aspects of the larger ministry and in particular, exercising leadership. This didn’t come about by chance, or simply because the Apostle is a gifted talent scout. It was part of God’s larger plan for the work of spreading the Gospel message, planting church communities, the ministry of apostleship ... and also the plan for Timothy’s life.

Picture it: a meeting, perhaps in secret, maybe in a home or outside in a glade or the back of a shop. There is tension in the room, but also excitement. Songs are sung in worship; the great truths of the Scripture are remembered and recited. Prayers go up for the brethren, and for those who don’t know the Lord yet. There is confession, and earnestness. There is praise. And there is a young man moved to offer himself for whatever service the Lord has for him. Even knowing it will mean hardship, poverty, and very likely cost him his very life.

Arms reach to embrace him. He lifts up his hands toward Heaven, and other hands are laid on him. As prayers are said, and tears stream down his face, the sisters and brothers bring forth words of knowledge and prophecy from God. The Holy Spirit knows Timothy, and has chosen him. With his history and his devotion. With his gifts and his faults. With his mistakes and his successes. With his relationships and his yearnings. God knows him intimately. Has a plan for him. Picked him for this work. Timothy’s contribution to this is a motion of will: he says, “yes”.

It is a sacred moment. In one sense, the climax of a journey to this point. In another, deeper sense, the launching moment of what is to come.

God knows each of us. His Spirit has gifted us with a matrix of gifts, talents, personality, experiences, temperament, relationships, and more ... all for the purpose God has chosen for us.

How easy it must have been when the challenge came, the heartbreaks, the promising disciples who walked away and the false brethren who betrayed, to want to throw in the towel, to say it was all a mistake, to dismiss the work of Christ as a noble but ultimately impractical dream.

That’s where the intimacy of God comes in.

When what the world calls “reality” strikes, when we are sorely tempted to give it all up as a bad game, it is the work of God in our lives, the knowledge that the Father of lights knows me, even me, with a clarity and intimacy that I can never attain for myself, that calls me back again. Amid the little “realities” with which we struggle and against which we often find ourselves fighting, it is the deeper Reality of God in Christ that has known and claimed us, and can hold us.

There’s no frustration, no persecution, no shortage of funds or matériel, no lack of fellowship or loneliness, that can trump that.

“In accordance with the prophecy”. From before all worlds, God knows me. My life, and every life I have ever met, is in His hands. What greater consolation can there be?


Lord, all praise to you. Thank you for knowing me ... and in knowing me, loving me ... and in loving me, making me ... and in making me, calling me for that purpose that You have determined. Keep me steady and focused and above all, living for You. In the Name of Jesus Your Son, our Lord. Amen.


Memphis, Tennessee (Christ United Methodist Church)

“To the King of Ages”

A LOVING DOXOLOGY: 1 Timothy 1:17

To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Paul closes his reflections on sin, life, and grace with a spontaneous burst of praise. As a deeply observant Jew, such an expression of glorification would come as naturally as breathing. Yet for Paul, there is something extra; it is the joyful fireworks of a soul which has known at first hand the blessing of unmerited redemption.

In the Middle Ages, such expressions would become the basis of a way of doing theology called “apophatic”, i.e., theologizing-by-taking-away, or the “negative way” (via negativa). The name most frequently connected with this is that of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, an otherwise unknown monastic philosopher-theologian who was mistakenly identified with the Dionysius who was converted by Paul at Athens on Mars Hill (the Areopagus). The general idea is that, when we follow an apophatic method, we are more likely to avoid errors in what we say about God. For Ps.-Dionyius and others, it was more than just a method for pursuing rigorous spiritual thought, it was a form of spiritual discipline and prayer in itself, a contemplation of the mysteries of God.

Thus also the hymn based on this passage:

Immortal, invisible, God only wise
In light inaccessible hid from our eye
Most blessed, most glorious, the ancient of days
Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise!

Paul has brought us to the junction of understanding and mystery, of recollection and amazed wonder, of intellectual rigor and ecstatic praise.


Great and incomparable God, bring me again to the wonder-filled contemplation of Your Majesty, and to joys both deep and explosive in Your Presence. Let my life be as a fountain of glorification to You. Amen.


Lusby, Maryland

Praising Christ’s Perfect Patience

THE PARADOX OF GRACE: 1 Timothy 1:16

But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.


Having touched on the paradox of conviction, Paul now turns to a second paradox: that of grace. He understands the clemency shown to him in Christ to be exemplifying, not the perfect righteous person, but that of the foremost sinner. In other words, if Christ can forgive and make a saint of God out of Saul of Tarsus (Paul), then a fortiori Christ can for you and me also.

But Paul is also touching on another issue here to which we current Christians should pay attention: that of my redemption as serving a larger purpose for others’ redemption. The apostle knows it’s not just about “me and Jesus”, his private deal with God. It’s about a larger purpose that involves the redemption of others.

Gloria Steinem is quoted as having made a comment to the effect that successful or wealthy people plan for generations to come; the poor, for Saturday night. As elitist and classist as that statement comes off, there’s a grain of truth in it. The spiritual “wealth” in our discipleship is tied, at least in part, to how we fit into a larger work of God that affects many lives beyond our own.


Lord Jesus Christ: forgive me for those times when I have wanted to see my spiritual welfare as a private affair. Help me to have a broader vision, in line with yours which claims all of humanity, and the breadth of creation. For truly, you are the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” Amen.


Lusby, Maryland

"Of Whom I Am the Foremost"

THE PARADOX OF CONVICTION: 1 Timothy 1:15 (part 2)

King of sinners though I be,
Jesus shed his blood for me.

Paul writes that Jesus came to save sinners, calling himself the foremost of them. How can he, the great apostle to the Gentiles, say such a thing?

We cannot see the heart of another person; only God can do that. It is amazing, however, how those who seem to be closest to the Lord, have the keenest sense of their own distance from the holiness of the Divine Presence.

So the great bishop and theologian Gregory of Nyssa described the approach to God, using the imagery of Moses' ascent onto Mt. Sinai, and the impossibility of closing the gap to comprehend the Divine. And Augustine of Hippo in his Confessions writes of his conviction of sin, and the ongoing need for grace.

So Teresa of Avila writes in her Interior Castle of the human heart as a palace or castle made up of rooms or levels -- yet as the soul makes its ascent into higher and higher levels, it also becomes more pained by, and acutely aware of, its sin.

C.S. Lewis wrote that the person in grace has a clear sense of good and evil, understanding both, where the one who is deep in sin understands neither. At the same time, though, our feelings betray us -- for when we feel holiest we are often complacent or blind to our flaws and failings. (Once I knew someone who was outwardly very righteous but complained that she did not understand the need for prayers of confession, because she didn't think she had anything to confess. Though I admired her uprightness, I remember being concerned about the state of her soul because of this evident blind spot.) It is, paradoxically, when we feel farthest from God because of our shortcomings, that we may actually be closest because we are clinging most closely to Him.

Paul was acutely aware of his shortcomings, and his checkered history with the people of God. I suspect that he carried this about with him, and needed a fresh measure of grace on nearly a daily basis. May God give us like conviction ... and assurance ... and the growth which comes as a result.


Lord, grant me the keen sense of conviction for sin, that I may also know the amazing balm of your grace. Draw me close to you; never let me go. Amen.


(Prince Frederick, Maryland)

Trustworthy Sayings

Why We Should Accept What Christ Says (1 Timothy 1:15)

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

Trustworthy, reliable testimony: it’s one of the greatest needs in any society. It may also be among the most problematic.

It’s a problem in society. In business, politics, charities, even religion: we are almost daily confronted with allegations or evidence of malfeasance and the effort to cover it over. Or, conversely, people say what others want to hear (or what they think others want to hear) without clear regard for the validity or truth of that statement. Then, later, disappointment and disillusionment set in, followed by cynicism about all authority.

It’s a problem among people. A few years back, it was the fad to say, “I lied!” – even when making a mistake. The casual nature of interpersonal dishonesty in our time gives every serious person pause. Dishonesty has a corrosive effect at every level.

It’s a problem of ultimate questions. As we consider the issues of God, destiny, truth, beauty, love – in short, all the great questions, how can we find a solid base on which to build our lives and our beliefs?

Paul writes to Timothy that “the saying is trustworthy”. Why is it trustworthy?

1. It is from God. It is not based merely on human authority. And we know from Scripture and experience that God’s character is just, loving, and good.

2. It is tested by experience. Those who have experienced the forgiveness, grace, and faithfulness of Christ, especially in the most difficult circumstances, attest readily to its verity and strength.

3. It is reasonable. Those who attack Christianity, even theism generally, have to give an account of the source of goodness. This, I find, they singularly fail to do convincingly. Yet it must come from somewhere beyond merely “enlightened self-interest” and cultural consensus. A God who redeems His creation is in keeping with the character of a God who creates the world, moreover an orderly world.


Lord, your testimonies are reasonable, just, and true. Let me be grounded in them, and lead others to confidence in your goodness and faithfulness. Amen.


(Prince Frederick, Maryland)

"... overflowed for me"

WHAT GOD DID FOR ME: 1 Timothy 1:14

and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

When John, our older son, was about five, he gave us a vivid illustration of overflowing grace. We were living in the parsonage at Lusby, which had a bathroom on the upper bedroom floor, over a second bathroom on the ground level by my office. One day, for reasons I can no longer remember, he decided to fill the bathtub with water. He turned the taps on, then went away and was distracted by something else. Like all modern tubs, this one had an overflow relief drain; but the overflow was not sufficient to compensate for the inflow. Gradually, first the tub and then the floor began to fill with water, so that we were beginning to work on a healthy little aquarium on the second floor.

John, bless him, was oblivious to the problem he was creating. So was I, until I interrupted my work for a relief break downstairs, and went into the bathroom. When I turned on the light, it seemed odd, so I looked up. That's when I noticed that the large dish which served as the cover for the light bulbs was full of water. I knew this, because of the unaccustomed cool rippling effect of the light coming through the fixture, and because of the small stream which was even then beginning to make its way to the tile floor of that bathroom. Quickly, I flipped off the switch to prevent half the house from shorting out, and ran to investigate the problem. John, who was by this time pleasantly immersed in other quiet pursuits, was innocently amazed at the deluge of which he was the small creator. Fortunately, we didn't have to replace the whole ceiling.

St. Augustine of Hippo taught that God uses something he called operating grace, by which God woos and draws us to Himself. This grace is always active, and always effective, whether we are aware of it or not. It continually seeks us, draws us, and would enfold us in the love of Christ. John Wesley referred to this as preventing grace (we now call it "prevenient" grace), or the grace which comes before. Its fruit is faith, and the love of Christ calls forth a reflecting love from us, who taste God's goodness.

God's grace is above, showering down on us, even before we know it. As for Paul, so also for you and for me.

Lord, thank you for your astounding grace, which is at work before I'm aware of it. Let me draw upon this grace to grow in faith and the depth of my love for you and for others. In Christ, Amen.


Dunkirk, Maryland

"Ignorantly in unbelief"

GROUNDS FOR MERCY: 1 Timothy 1:13 (part 2)

But I acted ignorantly in unbelief.

Paul here sets down the first of two grounds he will cite for God’s forgiveness of him: he didn’t know what he was doing, and did not understand what was at stake.

This is a statement deeply rooted in the Jewish tradition. The Torah makes a clear distinction between unintentional sin and that which is done “with a high hand” (as the old KJV puts it): the first is pardonable and the latter is far more grievous. So also the Psalmist asks to be kept clear from “hidden faults” (Ps 19:12). In the New Testament, Hebrews 10:26 ff. reflects this same sense, and the present tense of “to sin” in 1 John 3 probably does as well (as is so translated by ESV: “keeps on sinning”). Paul, in the words of Jesus’ intercession for His persecutors from the cross, “did not know what he was doing”.

Yet Paul still feels the weight of this sin, and carries a sense of unworthiness even as he claims the freedom of grace (which is the second great ground of redemption as we will see). Sin is a serious thing, known or unknown; and the closer we get to Christ, the more aware we are of that fact and of our tendency to be on the wrong side of it. It is by the forbearance of a merciful God that we find grace.

Lord of all knowledge, forgive my faults done in ignorance and with a lack of faith, or faith in the wrong thing. Fill me with your presence, and give to me the wisdom that comes from you so that, like the Apostle, I may turn and bless and help others along their pilgrim way. Amen.


(Lusby, Maryland)

"Though formerly ..."

CHRIST CHANGES LIVES (1 Timothy 1:13)

... though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief ....

Paul has outlined his call and charge, the sacred trust Christ has given him and the task for which He gives strength. Now the Apostle offers a kind of “truth-in-advertising” disclaimer, pointing to his own humanness in the form of a very sinful past, rebelling against God’s purpose and indeed seeking to stamp out the work of Christ.

Paul was a blasphemer. The word refers to someone who slanders God. By opposing Christ, Paul was opposing God Himself. By saying and doing terrible things against the Way, Paul had been deriding and disrespecting God.

He was a persecutor. The Greek means one who “pursues”, i.e., chases with a malicious intent. From house to house, city to city, Paul travelled with letters and instructions to oppose the Church. Yet Christ identifies with His Church; for as Jesus said, “For as much as you do it to one of the least of these, you do it to me.”

He acted in a fashion which was insolent. With the shiny-eyed focus of a True Believer, Paul knew that he was 100% right. There was no margin for moderation, mediation, meditation, or even new information – until the Lord Himself met Paul on that Damascus Road.

It has been said that there are a lot of “used-to-be’s”, a lot of “formerly’s”, in the Kingdom of God.
Thank God for that! Christ is able to transform lives wherever and whenever He encounters us. This is also a bulwark for each of us who are growing into discipleship as we take it to heart; for no matter how “advanced” one becomes, no matter how “perfect”, each of us is still a “formerly”. If it was true of Paul, it is true for each disciple since.

Lord, thank you for calling me from what I was, to what you will make me. The transformation has begun, but it is not yet complete. Keep me from complacency, or pride of achievement, or the self-righteousness which so easily takes hold. Let me be ablaze for you, as Paul was. In the Name of Christ. Amen.


Lusby, Maryland

"I Thank Him"

THE COMPELLING APPOINTMENT: 1 Timothy 1:12

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful appointing me to his service.

Having wrapped up his discussion on the danger of false teaching, Paul moves on to the matter of his own calling and credentials for writing, giving both positive and negative examples and points for his protege, Timothy.

[He] who has given me strength. The task is too much for the Apostle alone, as it is for any of us. On the other hand, God does not call and deploy without giving the means to do the job, whether of internal or external resources. This is absolutely necessary. In my father's office for many years there has hung a framed prayer for ministry, imploring the guidance and protection of God lest the one making the prayer make a mess of everything. Anyone who has sought to fulfill a spiritual calling knows well the aptness of this prayer, and the dangers which lurk close by. But God is faithful to lend the strength necessary to the occasion. What is required from us is faith: not in the sense of some kind of herculean spiritual effort that we have to work up to, but like the simple turning of a tap to open the way for God's resourcing to flow, saying "yes, I will trust" to God's offer of all things needful. Faith is our assent, yours and mine, to the abundant provision of God.

To faith, then, God adds not just ability and skill but stamina, too, to continue. To stamina God adds anointing. To anointing, God adds wisdom. To wisdom, God adds compassion. And to compassion, love. This is the strength which God imparts to us.

He judged me faithful. Paul (as he will soon aver) was a persecutor of the church! He would have seemed the last man to be trusted -- as his first experience at Damascus and Jerusalem proved. Yet God had other plans. In what sense then is this true?

Paul had faith. He trusted God, and knew God's power, even if it was at first wrongly applied.

Paul was devoted. He gave 125% of his effort (as we say) to the "cause", whether it was his misguided cause (opposing God's work by persecuting "the Way" of Christ) or his later, holy one. The energy was there and focused in intensity -- it just needed to be focused in the right direction. Many of the Church's greatest leaders over the years were persons who had great flaws or who had been at one time great persecutors of the faith, but whom God turned in a different direction.

Paul was faithful in his work. Starting from the beginning (see Acts 9), he persevered against all odds and under all circumstances, to the end.

Appointed to His service. Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen." Paul could not keep the message to himself. The call is a sacred one, and the Holy Spirit opened the doors for the Apostle to fulfill it.


Lord Jesus Christ, you have given me strength to do Your work. Grant that I may live fully-charged and fully-engaged in the work to which You call me, as You have been to me. Appoint me each day to my allotted tasks for You, but let me ever fulfill them in loving service to You. In Your holy Name I pray, Lord Christ. Amen.


Prince Frederick, Maryland (Providence)

"I thank him who has given me strength"

THE SOURCE OF OUR ABILITY: 1 Timothy 1:12

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service. (1 Tm 1:12)


Just this morning I had the opportunity to attend a most wonderful worship service, at a small country parish in northern Calvert County. St. Edmond's Church has it going on: I was greeted very warmly from the time I stepped up to the door, was helped to participate in the service by my neighbors in the pews, and was uplifted by spirited worship and a great sermon that touched my heart. I Pastor Joan Jones to be a friend as well as a colleague, yet it was the first time I had heard the privilege of hearing her preach. Wow.

Part of the heart of the message -- which was on joy, a spiritual category as opposed to mere happiness (which may have to do with external circumstances), focused on gratitude for having been able to get up this morning, and to dress oneself, and drive oneself to church. If God can accomplish all that, what else will He bring out of the day? It was marvelously delivered, and inspiring.

Paul would have concurred. In life, it is God who gives us strength. When God appoints us to His service, there will be challenges and sacrifices, hurdles and hardships -- often, just because they are the stuff of human life. Yet God gives us the strength to endure and prevail, the more so since we are appointed to fulfill His mission in the world.

As for St. Edmond's, by the way, the church presumably derives its name from the saint who was king of East Anglia in the IX. century, and who died a martyr after capture by hostile pagan forces rather than deny the faith. Our local St. Edmond's is clearly a place to find faith and perseverance under fire, as well.


Prince Frederick, Maryland (Providence)

TWO ON LAY PASTORAL CARE

BOOK REVIEW: Stone, The Caring Church and Farabaugh, Lay Pastoral Care Giving

Recently, as background for writing a proposal for a local church's efforts at launching a new lay pastoral care ministry, I was offered these two books to read. They are both helpful, in different ways, though not evenly so.

Howard W. Stone's 1991 book is apparently a bit of a classic; and while it is dated in its approach to communicating (for instance) and lacks an awareness of some of the modern pitfalls of caring ministry, such as navigating in the waters currently infested with the sharks of fears of litigation and the shadow of various kinds of misconduct.

Stone offers a general, and fairly comprehensive, approach to a simple yet potentially robust ministry. His method can be adapted to various circumstances and needs; yet, like all such guides, stresses the imperatives of solid training and supervision, and support by pastoral leadership that is moreover willing to give more than mere lip service to standing aside enough, or delegating enough, to permit the laity to exercise ministry as called and spiritually equipped by God. There are some helpful and well-presented case studies, as well as topically-arranged discussions of relationships, listening skills, hospital visitation, and grief. Stone's approach leaves lots of latitude for local variations.

Especially nice in this work was the emphasis on spiritual gifts -- too often missing from considerations of lay ministry of all kinds. The commissioning service is also good: simple in design, not too long, but lifting the appropriate themes before the congregation.

Farabaugh's book is titled "Lay Pastoral Care Giving", but should be titled "Lay Pastoral Care Giving for Seniors (Mostly)". The author's expertise is clearly and explicitly with the elder set; however, it seems that almost every chapter and topic continually comes back around to this demographic, and in the end to the neglect of some other key considerations (issues of youth and families, to name two -- though there is some attention given to children, almost parenthetically). The book is also badly edited, embarrassingly so. On the other hand, the chart on pages 63 ff. is helpful in its laying out of developmental issues and needs, as is the discussion of stages of grief -- though there lacks sufficient development of context for this information to be truly useful to the average reader.

One of the most disappointing parts of the book is the dialogue on pp. 85-86, which is extremely unhelpful: the model shows only the caregiver's concerns and agenda being important in the conversation!

Both of these works can provide information that will be useful to those setting up training and execution of a lay pastoral care ministry. However, the Farabaugh book requires some serious adaptation and rounding out (not to mention tolerance for all the usage errors), while the Stone book merely needs some updating for more contemporary concerns and issues.

(With thanks to Cal Colvin and Rev. David Graves for making the works available for my review.)

Stone, Howard W. The Caring Church: A Guide for Lay Pastoral Care. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991. 128 pp.

Farabaugh, Timothy M. Lay Pastoral Care Giving. Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2009. 154 pp.


Prince Frederick, Maryland (Providence)

"In accordance with the gospel"

THE ENTRUSTED WORD: 1 Timothy 1:11

... in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

This verse closes out the first major section of chapter 1. The emphasis here is on being entrusted; this is not some "word" or teaching that Paul has cooked up, nor is the good news some product of his overheated wishful thinking, a dream he is trying to force into reality. Rather, it reflects a sacred charge. But to what end?

Safekeeping. In the ritual for ordination in The United Methodist Church, the ordinand is charged and pledges to proclaim the doctrine of the Church "and no other". Part of the role of the Christian teacher is to safeguard the treasure "old and new" of the message of salvation, and its attendant messages of God's righteousness, human sin and the wrath of God, and the eternal intention and purpose of God to redeem the fallen humanity whom He loves. Our message must be rooted securely in the word received -- as it is, not as we would want or amend it to be -- unchanging but interpreted afresh and given vitality in our own time, in every time that is "now", "today".

Proclaiming. This is a treasure, yes, this Gospel -- but it is one which is by name and design that is to be shared. As the holiness of God both tell us that God is perfectly righteous, yet is used by God to bring us into a relationship of righteousness before Him -- to make us righteous -- so also the Gospel is meant to define the people of God called the Church, but in such a way as to draw "all men unto" the Lord of the Church. God's judgment is intended to bring us to mercy. Our defining the bounds of the Church and her message must be in order to drawing others within those bounds, not for the purpose of holding them out.

Paul is therefore responsible: to the message, and to the Lord of the message. It is an awesome charge, in the true sense of that overused word. The word "entrusted" (episteuthen) comes from the verb pisteuo, the same verb as "to believe", "to trust". Paul is called to keep faith, so that others might have faith. And it all rests, so to speak, on Christ's faith in Paul, to whom He has entrusted the message. With what has Christ entrusted you and me? How do we keep faith?

And it is awesome in another way: Paul mentions "glory" (doxa), a reference to the same attribute of God's holiness which filled the tabernacle and the temple with His Presence, and which is the destiny of the children of God. Contrary to the parodies of this world, seen in entertainment and media and held by many, God does not call us to death, bondage, boredom, or hopelessness, but to glory, joy, and abundant life. "Satan's glory glitters; God's glory shines."


Prince Frederick, Maryland (Providence)

"Whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine"

THE UNLOVING AND UNLOVELY: 1 Timothy 1:10

The Apostle continues his list of those who are the proper subjects of the Law by listing those persons who, in their unloving actions, show themselves to be outside God’s purposes for humankind. In verse 9, he cites those who show contempt for their parents (or elders) and for life. Now he moves on to other categories of offenders:

“The sexually immoral.” This is Greek pornois, a general term for those who practice sexual immorality. (A related noun, the feminine pornê, means “prostitute”; compare our word pornography.) As Paul points out elsewhere, sexual sin is a sin against one’s own body, and of course another’s; and it tears at the covenant bonds of community and fellowship.

“Men who practice homosexuality.” The Greek is arsenokoitai, a word which has become much-disputed, but basically is a compound meaning “those who copulate with men (males)”. This practice was contrary to the moral and holiness codes of the Old Testament, and the prohibition carries over into the Church.

“Enslavers.” Andrapodistais means “those who make off with (i.e., steal) people”, so the reference is to human trafficking, as we call it. This continues to be a plague in our time, and not just in semi-feudal societies: the roll call of offending nations includes western democracies. Anyone who wonders how there could have been any debate over the Scriptural disdain for the slave trade in the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries and thereby exercise a little chronological chauvinism, should bear in mind the current discussions about the first two terms, above. In each age, the residents of that epoch must come to terms with its own struggles and sins in the light of Scripture, or else dismiss the Bible as irrelevant.

“Liars.” The Greek is pseustais, a general term for active dishonesty. The Decalogue prohibited false witness, though the tenor of the Old Testament is clear that lying is disapproved by God as well (with some notable caveats). This is a more comprehensive proscription.

“Perjurers.” Perjury is false testimony that goes beyond a simple lie in its impact, which is to cheat or defraud another. The Greek word epiorkois, also refers to those who break oaths. This latter reading is perhaps to be preferred here in translation to draw out the meaning of the Greek original, since perjury is also presumably included in the previous term.

“Whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.” What is striking about this expression is that it implicitly equates sound teaching with right practice. As Wesley once said, in a quote I see whenever I visit Wesley Seminary’s main campus in Washington: “Unite the two so long disjoin’d: knowledge and vital piety.” Paul also makes the point that the Bible is not an exhaustive field-manual of legal prescriptions and proscriptions. W.C. Fields is famous for having drawled, when caught reading the Bible: “I’m looking for the loopholes.” Not only do they not exist, but the standard of God’s holiness cannot be limited by any human framework of regulation, even an inspired one. On the other hand, there is much in the world which is “contrary to” (lit., “set against” or “standing in opposition to”) “sound doctrine” – the word “sound” here carrying also the overtone of “healthy”.

When I was in high school, my French class took a field trip to a restaurant as a cultural-enrichment experience. The restaurant was located off the Capitol Beltway several exits north of the school. In those days, it was possible to travel in private cars with students as drivers, something which would never be permitted now. We went in about three vehicles, had a lovely time at the restaurant, and left to come back with my teacher’s admonition, “Go straight back to school” ringing in our ears. And we did. Only ... we went the long way around the Beltway, in what would be forever enshrined in our retelling the tale as “The Grand Prix”. It was a wonder that none of us was killed, given the speeds at which we were tooling around the Beltway and the expansion project which was at that time going full-bore on the Virginia side, with concrete barriers and lane shifts. Technically, we complied, but not really. When we got back to campus, it was just in time to go home ... and to say hello to one very relieved teacher who laughed at our prank but must have been frantic with worry by that point.

Often we humans play such games with God, going through a pretense of obedience or a formal semblance of it, while heading off the exact opposite direction in our hearts, our affections, our practical service. We also take a great risk when we do this; and while we may return at length to the loving embrace of our heavenly Father, we expose ourselves and others needlessly to real hurt and pain, and rob ourselves of the joys of steady discipleship.

“In accordance with the gospel.” The Christian message is meant for life, to be life-bringing and life-enhancing. As Jesus said, “I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly.”


Washington, D.C. (North Capitol Street)

"For the unholy and profane ..."

THREE KINDS OF IMPIETY: 1 Timothy 1:9 (part 4)

... understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers ...

Paul continues his roll call of those for whom the Law is divinely tailor-made with a delineation of three kinds of impiety.

Contempt for the things of God. To be "unholy" is to think, speak, and act in a way which deliberately repudiates or denigrates what God has made holy. It is a form of blasphemy, slandering God through the misuse of His good gifts for evil ends. "Profane" means to treat the holy as common, failing to make a distinction between what is sacred and what is common and disreputable.

Still, it is not necessary to say the Lord's Prayer backwards or hang a cross upside down to act in an unholy way; nor is Belshazzar's use of the sacred temple vessels for a drunken party (Daniel 5) the one and only paradigm for treating the sacred as vulgar and common. There is a certain casualness which can creep into our spirituality, to which those who handle holy things routinely may be most vulnerable, which by its levity can not only passively dishonor God's majesty, but rob others of the sense of the mystery of the beauty of holiness.

Failure of filial piety. The law of Moses decreed death for those who strike their parents (Exodus 21:15). Most people would say, "I would never do that; I would not in a hundred years hit Mom or Dad." But again, this law says more than it at first seems. Too often I have had occasion to witness the abandonment or rejection of family members by parents, children, siblings ... those whose homes and lives should have been ever open. We live in a culture which glorifies youth at the expense of age, and in ways too many and complex to delve into here, sets the interests of generations at odds with each other.

Disdain for human life. "All life is sacred," intones our society with its facile credo, but actions say otherwise. In fact, we tend to hold sacred the life that we value in some way, and dismiss other life -- whether it is the unborn child, the prisoner, the victim of poverty or warfare in the third world, the unseen worker or victim of human trafficking. Nor is "murder" limited in its scope to the actual ending of biological life, for the casual disruption of someone's livelihood and willful character assassination can be just as destructive, as is the robbing another of a future which might have been his or hers. A worker's years of devoted service to a company fail to receive their due reward in old age because a corporate raider breaks it up to sell off its assets; a young person's place in a college or training school is stolen due to corrupt practices; a home is destroyed or a dream shattered by another's selfishness.

The law calls for respect in fact where there is a tendency to offer only lip service and platitudes. The Gospel ethic of course is higher still: active love.

Lord, when I first read this list I think these things cannot apply to me. I don't take Your name on my lips in vain; I don't hurt my parents; I don't commit murder. Yet the deeper impieties of heart and contemptuous ways of mind and spirit convict me to the core. Forgive me, O holy Lord, and let me be conformed inwardly as well as outwardly to the holiness without which "no one shall see God". For the sake of Christ: Amen.


Prince Frederick, Maryland (Providence)

"For the ungodly and sinners"

COMMISSION, OMISSION, AND FOOLISHNESS: 1 Timothy 1:9 (part 3)

If the contrast between the "lawless" and the "disobedient" turns on whether or not one has the law, that between the ungodly and sinners falls on the fault line between those who have God but do not walk in God's way, and those who are fully apart from God.

"Sinners" is a straightforward word. To be in sin is to be alienated from God; to commit sin is to violate God's law or God's will. Original sin is the term for that alienation from God which is our common lot as human beings apart from grace; actual sins are those actions or inactions which cause us to runafoul of God's purposes for us. The latter come in two varieties: transgressions or "stepping across the line", which are active sins of commission; and the neglectful sins of omission, which can be just as active in their own way but feel to us to be passive.

But who are the "ungodly"? Who else could they be, but those who do not know God or acknowledge Him as Lord? The Psalmist declared: "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" (Psalm 14:1; 53:1). Yet the distinction is subtler than it may first appear, since we can confess God's existence and sovereignty with our lips, while functionally denying Him (as Jesus pointedly reminds us in Matthew 7:21). In fact, it's tempting to say that while many "secular" seekers in the world are indeed sinners, the great tragedy is the way in which conventional religion -- even much of what passes for Christianity -- is nothing less than an exercise is pious-sounding ungodliness.

Lord, I echo the apostle's sentiment that I am the chief, the very king, of sinners. Forgive me, I pray. Even more, forgive my bent toward ungodliness and deliver my heart from the casual neglect and denial of You. Amen.


Prince Frederick, Maryland

"The lawless and disobedient"

THE CARE AND FEEDING OF THE CONSCIENCE: 1 Timothy 1:9-10 (part 2)

The Apostle writes to his protege that the design of the law, and therefore we infer God's intention for the law, did not have its first or main reference to those who do right and live according to God's revealed will, i.e., the "just". For whom is it, then?

The Lawless. These are those persons who recognize no authority beyond themselves, a malady of soul which manifests itself with many symptoms. For some, it is the continual questioning of the authenticity, relevance, or applicability of the law as revealed in the word of God. Questions are good, and skepticism to what one is told or taught is a useful tool. But beyond a certain point, honest seeking becomes dishonest obstructionism, an unwillingness to bow the will. A seemingly relatively inert comment such as, "I have my own religion" or the so-common-as-to-be-almost-trite "It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere" may be symptoms of this disease.

Great evils, like great achievements, start from tiny seeds which take root in the soul. When someone asks, "How can there be such great wrong in God's world?" it is unnecessary to look any farther than the unwillingness to honor God as God by recognizing and submitting to God's will. "The fool says in his heart, there is no God." A Biblical exemplar of lawlessness is Pharaoh, whose "foxhole faith" under fire from the ten plagues is the contrast note to a background of practical atheism where the God of Israel is concerned. The first result is lawlessness. The second result is death for the Egyptians, but freedom for God's chosen people Israel.

The Disobedient. These are those who know perfectly well that God is real and just and that the law of God is valid, but do what they want to do, anyway.

The offense may appear small. While acknowledging it is wrong to steal, someone pads his expense report, fails to disclose a bit of income on her tax return, trims the time on the clock at work, pirates the occasional movie or software. Recognizing that there should be no other "gods" in our hearts ahead of the one true Lord God, one fails to spend time acknowledging that God in prayer and praise and Bible study, neglects worship, and allows the Name or the sabbath to be violated without concern or comment. ("After all, God will always be there. This opportunity won't be ....") The commandments, a framework for our lives, number ten. The ways in which we violate them are nearly endless. Perhaps all the while, professing faith in and love of God.

Every human being falls into one of these categories at times, perhaps often. Rare is the disciple who readily and determinedly faces her or his own transgression honestly, and doggedly seeks to root it out, with the help of the Holy Spirit. Instead, self-justification flows from a happening to a habit, to a hobby, to a habitual way of life. The Biblical definition of a saint is one who, conscious of this trend and the gravitational force of wickedness, overcomes shame and sloth to stand desperately bare in the blinding light of God's holiness, to be embraced in the warmth of God's gracious love, no matter what the cost.


"King of sinners though I be, Jesus shed His blood for me." Lord, the lawless man and the disobedient child both reside in my spirit. Often, they are me and I am they. Forgive me, O God. Teach me to invite you into the remotest parts of my life, and the secret places of my soul. Prompted by your Holy Spirit, let me not stand for any rebellion against you in my life. And let me be alert to -- lovingly -- help to alert for and remove it in others, as you direct. Amen.


Prince Frederick, Maryland (Providence)

"Understanding this ..."

THE LAW IS NOT FOR THE JUST: 1 Timothy 1:9-10

... understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murders, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine ...

Now Paul is coming to the heart of his understanding of the law; and we see here what will become Martin Luther's first purpose of the law, viz., to restrain evildoers. But on a deeper level, we understand that all of us transgress the law at one point or another, in one particular or another. We understand also that, even if we are able to keep up an external appearance of righteousness, we all transgress inwardly in our desires, intentions, and thoughts. By ourselves and under our own power we are all, as Jesus accused the Pharisees of being, "whitewashed tombs". Only God is truly just.

The old theological category of "concupiscence" -- a term not much heard anymore, at least not in the circles I worship in -- is helpful here. Concupiscence is that "tinder of sin" which, like the tinder one gathers to start a campfire and becomes a roaring blaze -- or which can become a massive forest fire from one carelessly tossed match -- still resides even in the redeemed while we are in the flesh. So we, too, even filled by the Holy Spirit, need the guidance of God's law to tame our unruliness and as a check to bring us under submission to the Father, that God may be "all in all".

As the lines from Charles Wesley's hymn have it:

Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
end of faith, as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty.


Lord Jesus, set my heart at liberty this day. Put your law within my heart once more and in a fresh way, so that I can be free to serve you fully and truly. My flesh continues to put itself first. Tame my unruliness but make me wild for Your holiness. Lord, I ask this for Your dear Name's sake. Amen.


Prince Frederick, Maryland (Providence)