Author: admin

Paul recognized potential when he saw it. He had always believed young Timothy could become an effective soldier for Christ. But, like a father sending his young son into battle, Paul also knew there were hazards. Having potential is not enough in the Christian life. Countless followers of Christ have squandered the enormous potential that was theirs through careless or unfocused living.

Apparently there were those who had prophesied concerning Timothy. They had seen the work God had done in his young life and they sensed God had far more He intended to do. The key for Timothy was to heed the counsel of those who spoke words of truth into his life, rather than being distracted by those who spoke criticism and falsehood.

We live and serve on a spiritual battlefield. In a war zone, you don’t have to be careless for very long before you experience great suffering. So Timothy had to remember and apply the godly counsel he had previously been given. All the counsel in the world is of no use to the one who fails to apply it!

You live and work on a spiritual battlefield. Are you living your life by godly counsel and wisdom? You, too, have great potential. Be extremely careful you do not squander it.

It has been said that great leaders are also great followers. Wise leaders understand authority. They don’t continually strive to be in charge. Rather, they are keenly respectful of those who have authority over them. The apostle Paul was an inspirational leader of others, yet he never lost sight of his King. Paul never sought to usurp Christ’s authority or to strive for his independence. He knew his life was wholly dependent on Christ.

Paul was always candid about his own sin and shortcomings. He readily acknowledged that he was the chief of sinners. Yet he could never speak for long before returning his focus and attention to his King. He never lost his amazement that the King of kings had called him into service. As a result, it was never about Paul. He was but a servant. It was always about Christ.

Paul experienced some astounding accomplishments during his life. Yet he never dwelt upon them or boasted about them. He was never held captive by a need for others’ affirmation or approval. No matter what Paul was doing or discussing, he inevitably turned his focus to Christ. Every aspect of Paul’s life could be traced back to his Lord. His entire existence was a doxology to his King.

Sin is a grievous offense against holy God. As creatures of dust, it is an unbelievable affront for us to defy God’s commandments and to ignore His word. In today’s society, it is common practice to excuse our offenses or to minimize them: I did not have a good father . . . I had a bad boss . . . I suffer from low self-esteem . . . I have an addictive personality . . . A handy excuse for our sin is always at our fingertips. And, our peers are quick to accept our excuses as long as we are accepting of theirs as well.

Regardless of how long the apostle Paul served God with distinction, he never lost sight of what he was, apart from Christ. When he looked honestly at his sin, he was so abhorred by it that he could not imagine anyone being a worse sinner than he was. It was not that Paul was merely being hard on himself. This was no false humility. He despised the sin in his life that had done so much harm to God’s kingdom. His sin, in all of its stark ugliness, would always remind Paul of what he was part from Christ.

Paul was able to effectively help Timothy overcome his own sins because Paul was keenly aware that he was a sinner as well. Paul could never grow impatient with Timothy, knowing that he was the chief of sinners. Such humility enabled Paul to help many people overcome their own shortcomings. Having been saved from so much himself Paul was eager to help others find the freedom he had found. Have you been making excuses for your sin, or do you see it in all of its stark ugliness?

It is always good for leaders to remember what they were and what they would be, apart from Christ’s work in their life. It might seem unsettling for the revered apostle Paul to be confessing such shortcomings to the young man he was discipling. Would not Timothy think less of Paul? After all, the godly young Timothy had never committed the heinous sins of his mentor. How could Timothy take Paul seriously when he knew what a terrible person he had been formerly?

Paul wanted Timothy to know God’s power to change people. Timothy had not grown up with a Christian father. He was timid. He apparently had a weak stomach. It might have been easy for Timothy to assume that he didn’t “have what it took” to become a mighty man of God. So Paul shared his own story. Rather than worrying about what people thought of him, Paul gloried in God’s marvelous grace.

Once we become leaders and people of influence, we can forget what we once were. We forget that, apart from the grace of God, our lives would be a disaster. Leaders need to remain humble, regardless of how much God uses them or elevates them. One of the greatest ways to maintain our humility is to always keep before us the profound difference God’s grace has made in our lives.

Most people would view themselves as being reliable. But, of course, what matters is how God views us. How can you tell if God believes we have been faithful? One form of evidence is whether He gives us responsibility. There are those who see themselves as reliable, yet no one wants to entrust anything significant to them. The truth is that when we are faithful, God will give us more.

But this is the key. God never gives us responsibility without also providing us corresponding enabling. God will not set you up to fail! He does not call you to an assignment and then abandon you to your own limited resources. This is particularly important because God often calls us to do things that are impossible unless He intervenes in our lives.

At times we can be so anxious to serve Christ that we put ourselves into ministry. But that can be a frustrating way to live. It involves doing our best with our resources. When God puts us into ministry, He is the one who provides the required provisions for our success. Too many people are growing weary trying to do good things for God. They need, instead, to seek to be faithful in what God is calling them to do, and then enjoy His powerful presence helping them to succeed.

Righteous people don’t need to be surrounded with laws and regulations, for their heart is motivated to always do the right thing. They are not constantly trying to find shortcuts or to avoid their responsibilities. Such people don’t need to be hampered with layers of regulations. Instead, they need to be given as much freedom as possible to do their job well.

Lawless and insubordinate people, however, must be constantly guided and policed by rules. The more ungodly a people are, the more rules and laws they require. That is because it is impossible to legislate against the plethora of ways people can devise to be unethical or immoral.

How blessed is the leader who works with people of integrity! It is freeing to trust those you work with. On the other hand, it can be demoralizing to have to be constantly looking over the shoulders of people you cannot trust.

If you are functioning in an environment of distrust and rules, understand that the issue is people’s hearts, not the operations manual. They need a heart change, not another rule. When you hire your next person, ask yourself the question: is this person righteous?

Spiritual leaders are not called to merely teach or preach the truth; they are commissioned to incarnate the truth. Yet at times we can be tempted to talk about things we are unfamiliar with. We may have a surface knowledge but not an experiential understanding of what we are talking about.

This reality can be especially true when we talk about and teach God’s word. If we have grown up in church, or have been a church member for some time, we can become extremely familiar with its teachings. We know, for instance, that God commands us to forgive those who harm us. We understand that God has commanded us to make disciples of all nations. Yet these truths become so familiar to us that we don’t take time to truly consider what they mean, in our context. If we refuse to forgive someone who has harmed us, or we are not actively working to make disciples of all nations, then we do not truly understand what Jesus intended.

The apostle James warned that not many people should be teachers, since they would face a greater judgment (James 3:1). There is too much at stake for Christian leaders and teachers to be careless. We must ensure that we have truly experienced that which we are speaking about to others. Think about what has been coming out of your mouth lately. Do you truly know what you are talking about?

The great temptation for spiritual leaders is to use their people rather than to love them. We focus on the task that needs to be accomplished, rather than on the people doing the work. We regularly need to be reminded, as Timothy was, that the people are the work. If we cannot love those we lead, we should not hold our leadership post.

Godly leadership is always performed out of love. Such affection can only be properly expressed out of a pure heart. If our hearts are filled with anger or resentment or fear, then we cannot truly care for others. Our hearts must be pure, for the perfect love of Christ to be properly dispensed through us to others. Our love must also be expressed out of a good conscience. We cannot love others, hypocritically. We cannot care for people while talking about them behind their backs. We cannot act lovingly to peoples’ faces while denigrating them in private. To truly love people, our conscience must be clear. Finally, our faith must be sincere. We cannot proclaim our faith from the platform but deny it by our actions. If our faith is genuine, it will be expressed in all that we do, whether in public or in private.

Are you loving those you lead? Can they tell that you care about them? Is there anything that could be adjusted in your life so you are free to love your people to a greater degree than you are now?

If there was one thing Paul could not stand, it was wasting his time! God’s people are constantly being seduced into meaningless or divisive discussions while neglecting matters of real consequence. Paul’s sagacious advice to Timothy was to avoid being drawn into time-consuming and unproductive conversations.

It can be tempting to speculate about matters of trivia. There is always a casual conversation at hand about recent sporting events or weather changes or political developments, if we want to waste our time. But Paul knew how important his time was. What could almighty God accomplish with one hour of Paul’s time? Paul knew. He had witnessed God using his life powerfully, many times before. He always wanted God to do it again.

Paul may have known that tenderhearted Timothy would want to be kind to those he led. Perhaps Timothy may have been timid to change the direction of a conversation or to walk away from one that was unprofitable. So Paul cautioned him. Avoid conversations that are purposeless. There is too much important work to be done, for God’s servants to squander their valuable time!

The apostle Paul had begun the church in Ephesus on his second missionary journey (Acts 16:1-5). He had devoted two years of his ministry to preaching and teaching in that great city, starting numerous other churches in the surrounding area as a result (Acts 19). Ephesus was also a center of idol worship and contained many spiritual forces working against the early church. To this important church, Paul commissioned his young companion Timothy. There were those who were teaching certain doctrines that were unbiblical and which concerned the apostle. Rather than going there himself to correct the problem, Paul sent young Timothy.

Timothy apparently struggled with timidity (2 Timothy 4:7). He probably was less than enthusiastic at settling controversy or confronting those whose theology had drifted off center. But that is what Paul asked him to do.

If we are to help people mature as leaders, we must be prepared to entrust them with difficult tasks. We can’t simply shield them from their areas of weakness, focusing only on their strengths. Paul understood that fear, and worse yet, cowardice, was lethal to a godly leader. Paul, in his typically thorough manner, was determined to leave no stone unturned in developing Timothy into a first class leader. What is it you are doing to take people around you to a higher level?