I can be a little bit nerdy when it comes to studying the Bible. My dad, Pike, passed on to me a love for teaching God’s Word. Thanks, Dad! Nearly every day I use the website, biblestudytools.com, to help me with understanding a particular scripture or text. The website is free, so I highly recommend it. I find it so valuable if they ever begin charging a monthly subscription, I’d pay to use it. Don’t tell them though because free is a great price!
Today I find myself still thinking about one of the words which was so dominant in yesterday’s blog (August 1 ~ A LESSON IN PERSEVERANCE AND DETERMINATION), the word: PERSEVERANCE. A search using my favorite website led me to 1 Timothy 6:11 (NLT) “But you, Timothy, belong to God; so run from all these evil things, and follow what is right and good. Pursue a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.” Paul, who wrote this letter to the young pastor he was mentoring, Timothy, tried to help him avoid what was becoming a snare to far too many Christ followers back in the day: MATERIALISM. Instead of being consumed to get more, Paul tells Timothy to be content with what God gives him. Without a doubt materialism and the pursuit of more is one of the deadly sins of the 21st century. The acquisition and accumulation of more and more is strangling the spiritual lives of many Christ followers. Paul refers to this unholy pursuit as “evil” (V10). It’s not wrong for Jesus loving people to have material possessions, even really nice things, it’s all about how we go about obtaining those things. Do we relegate our relationship with Jesus to a secondary priority, while we pursue more materialistic things? Another way to express this type of “evil” is: It’s not the things we own, it’s the things which own us.
To counter this strong distraction, Paul tells Timothy to “run” in the other direction. The reason for this strong encouragement is because Timothy “belong(s) to God.” If we’ve committed our lives to Jesus Christ, as our Lord, we’re no longer our own (1 Corinthians 6:20; Galatians 2:20). Paul gets very specific with Timothy, as to what he needs to “pursue” if he’s going to live a “godly life.” Four holy pursuits: FAITH, LOVE, PERSEVERANCE and GENTLENESS. I’d love to go deeper into all four words, but I’ll limit my focus in today’s blog to PERSEVERANCE. In the original language of the New Testament (Greek) perseverance is the word, hupomone (hoop-om-on-ay’) and I love what it means: “steadfastness, constancy, endurance.” Strong’s Concordance provides this more detailed description: “In the NT the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.” Connected to perseverance is the characteristic (fruit of the Spirit): PATIENCE. Our pursuit of material things and the pressures of everyday life can distract us from the holy purposes of God’s call upon our lives. Each of us needs to identify and evaluate the things which are demanding our attention and distracting us from fully devoting our lives to Jesus Christ, and begin running in the other direction. The opposite of patience is restlessness [discontent]. If in all of our pursuits, peace is absent, it’s a sure sign we have our focus in the wrong place. So, if you’re struggling with impatience and restlessness, the key is not to stop feeling that way. The key is to change your focus and to recommit yourself to holy pursuits: FAITH, LOVE, PERSEVERANCE and GENTLENESS. In future blog posts I want to explore these four pursuits and get very specific and practical as to how they can become part of our daily life as Christ followers.
Grace and Peace, Mark
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