Random Act of Exegesis: 1 Timothy
Did you know that Timothy means "Honor God"? Yeah, I thought you did.
Did you know that Paul cites Timothy as a co-sender in six letters? Yep. Can you name them? Me either... (I looked it up, though - there they are, all six...)
Yeah, yeah, okay. It's all good.
Timothy is a good letter to wretsle with right now for me. I can't explain why exactly, though undoubtedly I'll delve into the maybes, but a lot of what I'm reading Biblically is about sin. Now, before you tell me that you can't swing a dead cat in the Bible without hitting a sin passage (wait, um...that metaphor really doesn't work, does it? Well, youknowhatimean....), let me say that while the Bible DOES talk a lot about sin, I'd suggest that it talks a lot more about redemption and restoration and discipline (in the learning sense, not in the woodshed sense).
But I'd been reading an awful lot about how sin is bad. Okay, I know that. Even the most liberal of theologians is going to say sin is bad. I mean, you just can't escape that spiritual reality. Sin separates us from God.
Oh, and we don't like to talk about it.
But God wants us to talk about it. To 'fess up. We're all sinners, redeemed by grace.
And there's the word - the thing I'd been missing for the last couple of weeks from my reading:
Grace.
I love that word. I'll write it again in really big, blue letters:
GRACE
In 1 Timothy chapter 1, Paul writes that even though he was a blasphemer and violently opposed to Christ, God has called him. Not only has God called him, but God TRUSTS him with that which he once cursed and persecuted and hated. THAT'S grace, isn't it?
And Paul never forgets what he came from. He is not proud of it (man, I hate when people go on and on and on about their lives before Christ and then summarize their salvation and the past 10 years of being in Christ in two sentences...) but he won't run from it.
We don't want to confess. We're "good people" and good people don't sin, right?
Um...
Lord, may I never be so arrogant to think that I've gone a whole day without doing something that has strained our relationship. When I become perfect, what do I need You for?
Hastily added note: I just stumbled across this blog:
http://www.infuzemag.com/staff/randall/
archives/2006/10/about_the_monke.html
Did you know that Paul cites Timothy as a co-sender in six letters? Yep. Can you name them? Me either... (I looked it up, though - there they are, all six...)
Yeah, yeah, okay. It's all good.
Timothy is a good letter to wretsle with right now for me. I can't explain why exactly, though undoubtedly I'll delve into the maybes, but a lot of what I'm reading Biblically is about sin. Now, before you tell me that you can't swing a dead cat in the Bible without hitting a sin passage (wait, um...that metaphor really doesn't work, does it? Well, youknowhatimean....), let me say that while the Bible DOES talk a lot about sin, I'd suggest that it talks a lot more about redemption and restoration and discipline (in the learning sense, not in the woodshed sense).
But I'd been reading an awful lot about how sin is bad. Okay, I know that. Even the most liberal of theologians is going to say sin is bad. I mean, you just can't escape that spiritual reality. Sin separates us from God.
Oh, and we don't like to talk about it.
But God wants us to talk about it. To 'fess up. We're all sinners, redeemed by grace.
And there's the word - the thing I'd been missing for the last couple of weeks from my reading:
Grace.
I love that word. I'll write it again in really big, blue letters:
GRACE
In 1 Timothy chapter 1, Paul writes that even though he was a blasphemer and violently opposed to Christ, God has called him. Not only has God called him, but God TRUSTS him with that which he once cursed and persecuted and hated. THAT'S grace, isn't it?
And Paul never forgets what he came from. He is not proud of it (man, I hate when people go on and on and on about their lives before Christ and then summarize their salvation and the past 10 years of being in Christ in two sentences...) but he won't run from it.
We don't want to confess. We're "good people" and good people don't sin, right?
Um...
Lord, may I never be so arrogant to think that I've gone a whole day without doing something that has strained our relationship. When I become perfect, what do I need You for?
Hastily added note: I just stumbled across this blog:
http://www.infuzemag.com/staff/randall/
archives/2006/10/about_the_monke.html
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