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But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. ~ 1 Timothy 6:11
We come today to the final section of Paul's first epistle to Timothy. In today's text, we discover what it means to be a "man of God." There are three imperative verbs here in 1 Timothy 6:11-12 that enables one to be a man of God. First, "flee," second, "pursue," and third, "fight." Today, we are considering the first two of these three.
In the Old Testament the title, man of God, was reserved only for the prophets. In fact, it is used seventy times in the Old Testament, always referring to someone who speaks God’s Word. In the New Testament this term is only used of Timothy.
You will remember that Timothy is one of the leading Elders in the church in Ephesus. There were false teachers there who were pointing people away from God. As a result, sin was rampant. Where truth is not holding sin in check, sin will run wild. There was doctrinal confusion there because the false teachers were undermining the truth. Thus, the people there were abandoning the truth and it was diminishing the ministry of the gospel.
As we learn later, this led the church at Ephesus to be referred to by the Apostle John in the book of the Revelation as having left their first love. In all of this, while caring for the needs of God's people, Timothy needed to care for himself as well, so Paul gives him these instructions.
The first step toward being a man of God is to “flee from all this.”
Paul is here referring to what he has just covered in the previous paragraph about false teachers. Timothy is to flee false teaching and the characteristics associated with it including selfishness, arrogance, conceit, pride, the love of controversy, and the love of money.
In today's text, the Apostle Paul commands the man of God to "flee" which means "to run from." It means to flee like a fugitive. During our whole life here on earth, the man of God is on the run from sin. This doesn't mean he will not sin, but it means that he will be aware of and stay away from those certain sins that hinders the furtherance of the Gospel.
Next, the man of God is to pursue which is to run hard after something. His first pursuit is righteousness not as a behavior, but as a belief. When we came to know the Lord Jesus Christ, He gave us His righteousness, and, as we understand that this is the way God sees us, we are to see ourselves as no longer guilty, no longer tied to evil, but made righteous by God. We are to therefore live out of our righteous standing in Christ.
This is what gives a sense of security and stability in life. If we are always focusing on our behavior, trying to get a sense of worth because we act right, we will end up becoming legalists, feeling that our behavior is what makes us acceptable before God. But if we understand that God has already made us acceptable in Jesus Christ when we believed in Him, and, therefore, that God loves us with the same love He has for the Lord Jesus. This means we are as righteous as the Lord Jesus is in the eyes of God. This is the basis of stability and of proper functioning in life.
This leads us to the next pursuit which is godliness which means balanced wholeness. The Apostle is speaking of a mind that views life the way God sees it. Our minds, wills and emotions are brought under His control so that we are not off balance all the time. This means we are not merely living for the visible things of life, but we see our relationship with God as the most important factor in life. That is godliness, balanced wholeness.
Next, the man of God pursues faith which is having confident trust in God for everything. As a result, we literally put our lives into God’s hands, and we trust Him with everything. We will then find ourselves living under His gracious sovereignty. When we look to Him for our needs and not others, we will genuinely love others.
The next pursuit of the man of God is love which is agape love. This is the type of love that is commitment love. Agape love sacrifices for the sake of others. It seeks to give, not to gain.
The man of God's next pursuit is endurance which is perseverance or patience. This quality carries the idea of sticking to it when the going is tough. It is not a complacency that waits, but a courage that continues in hard places.
The final pursuit of the man of God is gentleness which is meekness or power under control. A courageous endurance without gentleness would make the man of God a tyrant, but this will not be so if He lives out of His relationship with the Lord for He is most gentle with His children. Those who have experienced the gentleness of God, render it to others.
When we flee sin and we pursue God amazing things can happen. In actuality, when we do these and the third thing Paul tells us to do, we find ourselves being conduits for God to work amazing things into and through our yielded lives. Today is the the day to enter into the fray of the man of God. Will you do it?
