1 Timothy 6:11–16 (ESV)
11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, 14 to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
My wife loves the 4th of July. She loves everything about it, but especially lighting off fireworks when it’s dark. One of my favorite firework moments is this video of a small dog who grabs a Roman candle firework that is firing off, but the dog decides that he needs to return it to his owners. It’s a funny situation as everyone is scrambling to keep their distance from this pup and his dangerous new toy. I was thinking about that situation as I was considering Paul’s instructions in this passage when Paul encouraged Timothy to “flee these things.”
This passage stands in stark contrast to where we’ve been over the last few days in the previous passages. In the previous passages, we’ve looked at the attitudes and practices of those who want to build themselves up and pursue gain. This passage is radically different.
In this passage, Paul flatly says “run away” from those things that cause discontent and push Christ out of the center of your life, and let me be clear here, Paul literally wants Timothy (and us for that matter) to run away from the things that are harmful to our relationship with Christ. We’re not to allow ourselves to be in situations where we might be tempted.
Paul says, “flee,” get away. Consider it like a bomb about to go off, and you need to be far away from it so that you are not injured or killed by the blast.
However, there’s more than just the instruction to run away from something, which would only create a vacuum. Paul says to run to the good stuff and pursue the good and right.
The good that Paul encourages Timothy to pursue is what we need to run to as well. I love the good stuff Paul lists in verses 11 and 14. However, notice that those things don’t happen by accident or by happenstance. They happen because we deliberately and intentionally pursue them.
But why do it? Why pursue such things?
The “why” is found in the climax of this passage as Paul paints this incredible picture of the Lord. God is King of kings and Lord of lords, and He alone is worthy of all honor and praise (verses 15-16).
We don’t really appreciate just how radical and subversive these statements are.
In these statements, Paul was taking on—rather plainly—Rome and their expression that the Roman emperors were gods and sons of gods (obviously, Paul is stating that only God is worthy of such high honor and praise).
Paul is also taking on the popular thought in the culture of the day (which is still a popular thought in our culture today), which held that we have an immortal soul that will live on in some fashion after death, no matter what we do. You can see this thought in movies, TV shows, and other media.
It’s clear from all of Paul’s writings that he believes in the afterlife, but Paul never talks about it from the standpoint that we have an immortal soul. Only God possesses immortality, only God is Sovereign and above all things. The only reason that we can hope for and have eternal life is in and through a relationship with Jesus, where we place all our trust and hope in Him. That’s what Paul wants Timothy to pursue, and we see this encouragement through one final thing, which Paul says is just stunning if you think about it.
Did you catch it? It’s in verse 14; Jesus is coming back.
What about you in your own faith journey? What do you need to flee from? What do you need to embrace? Are you ready for Jesus' return?
God bless you and have an incredible day, and know that I am praying for you constantly.
Scott