This section of 1 Timothy 4 struck me in light of thinking about many people I know and know about who are averse to working for one reason or another. I know a young man, for example, who is being treated for various mental issues (without success, I think) who can’t stay in college and can’t hold a job (according to him). Anyway, here’s what Paul told Timothy:

For to this end we toil and strive... Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have…Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4.10 – 16, ESV)

Let’s bullet out the action words:

• Toil
• Strive
• Set an example
  • Speech
  • Conduct
  • Love
  • Faith
  • Purity
• Devote yourself
  • To reading scripture
  • To exhortation 
  • To teaching
• Don’t neglect your gifts
  • Practice
  • Immerse yourself in them
• Keep a close watch on yourself and the teaching
• Persist

Sounds like work to me! Paul did not say to Timothy, “God loves you just the way you are,” even though that’s true. What Paul said to Timothy was, “I’m working very hard, and I expect you to work hard too!”

More on this tomorrow:

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15.10, ESV)

For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. (2 Thessalonians 3.7 – 12, ESV)