I Timothy

Well, I haven't posted anything in a while, but I need to get back to it, so here goes.

I am reading and studying through the Pastoral Epistles (I, II Timothy and Titus). My goal right now is to read I and II Timothy completely through each day up until the first week in June.

I will try to keep some thoughts of mine updated.

I Tim 1:1--Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.

Just as Paul was commanded by God to be an apostle, what is it that God is commanding us to do in our lives? Many churches call this their mission/vision/purpose/whatever statement and try to bottle the "most important" thing that God wants from us. Other people have these same kind of statements for their lives. Not that there's anything wrong with that (JS) and I think it is a good thing to think about our main goal and what God has commanded us, but as I look at the whole of Scripture, there are commands from God that we don't even think of and sometimes pass by like they are just pithy nice suggestions. Let's take for example I Timothy 2:8. Now I know I am jumping ahead of myself but just bear with me. We may argue on this verse whether it is a command or not because Paul said that he desires that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.... Now if that is a desire coming from one of the apostles with God's authority, Timothy probably got on the phone or email right then...well, maybe Timothy actually got a little personal with people and directly talked face to face with them...but anyway, Timothy probably got to it right away forming a prayer group of men who lifted their hands. I don't lift my hands when I pray, should I? I don't know, but Paul said it was something he desired of the people, and if it was good enough for Paul, should I simply just write it off as a cultural position of prayer or a hyperbolic symbolism? I have heard a few things about lifting our hands, it is the common position of someone surrenduring, it is the common position of someone drowning and it is the common position of children when mommy or daddy get home from work. Maybe we are telling God something by lifting up not only hands, but holy hands in and during our prayers.

As I did a common Google search for commands in the NT, I found somewhere around 1000commands. Now some were to the apostles and some to Christians and some to specific people, but the majority of them are very viable for Christians living today.

I pray that I never just focus on one command of Scripture over any other and I hope I always remember that I can do nothing apart from Christ and all I do whether I eat or drink should be done to the Glory of God. God never let me think of your commands as pithy suggestions but as preordained commands coming from the One who created all and the One who has the authority to command.

P.S. I know some may jump on my statement about not wanting to focus on one command over another, because Jesus said there was a 1st and 2nd great command to Love God and Love others. He also said that those 2 summed up the entire law and prophets. What I am thinking of is where to lump all the other commands into those 2 categories and then how do we do them. Welcome to ministry.