Weekly Pursuit – Week 3 of November
Verses:
1 Tim. 4:6 “If you lay these things before the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, being nourished with the words of the faith and of the good teaching which you have closely followed.”
Excerpts:
By these things Paul means that all he has covered thus far in this Epistle. Just as a steward lays different courses of food before guests at a dinner, so a good minister of Christ should lay “these things” before the believers. Furthermore, Paul’s use of the term being nourished indicates that his concept is that of supplying life to others…If we would minister Christ to others, we ourselves must first be nourished. Being nourished with Christ, we will have Christ as food, as life supply, to minister to others. The words being nourished give us the ground to say that a good minister of Christ does not merely teach others about Christ but ministers Christ into others as food. Others should be able to testify of us that we have nourished them with Christ.
Before Timothy could lay these things before others, he first had to feed on them himself. He had to digest them, assimilate them, and allow them to saturate his inner being. Then he would be able to lay them before the brothers. Today we should follow Timothy’s example and lay before the saints the things with which we have been nourished by the Lord through the ministry. How wonderful the church life would be if we all did this! It was not Timothy’s intention to teach anything different from what Paul taught. Rather, he would lay before the brothers what he had received from Paul. (Life-study of 1 Timothy, msg. 8)
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