Following God’s Way: “Up on the Tight Wire” – 1 Timothy 4

 The trip across Niagara Falls atop a tightrope is perilous, even when executed by a talented and practiced professional. That trip offers even greater peril when the tightrope walker attempts to carry an untrained onlooker across – complete with his or her pack and personal belongings. Paul called on Timothy to move across the perilous zone and even to carry others – but to do it carefully, prayerfully, and according to God’s methods. How do we bring the young believers across the raging waters of compromised ethics, self appointed prophets and churning trouble makers?

Key Principle: There is a raging current below, and you have a rope to cross. You must be trained and then rely on the training.

“Don’t look down!” They always yell that in the movies when someone is hanging off the cliff. We would be inclined to say that when we are on the tightrope. Looking down is dangerous, because it is so unsettling. Yet, no one in that situation is unaware of the churning waters below and the perilous drop. They don’t feel safe. Paul tells Timothy an opposite piece of advice, “Before you step out, look down! Do you see the water churning? You must know two things to cross, where the rope is, and what awaits you if you forget where the rope is!”

Paul began with the churning of the water. He helped Timothy see in the mind of the spirit what may be covered up to the unregenerate mind. He helped him to understand that there is a clear and imminent danger to believers that is growing as the days draw toward the final curtain of God’s plan on earth. He called on Timothy to both recognize the danger and tell those he was leading that the water beneath was churning, and the rope was their only hope of safe passage.

• The threat has been clearly revealed (4:1a): Defection from truth is to be expected.
• The focus has been clearly revealed (4:1b): Enticing spirits and acceptance of demonic teachings.
• The opponents have been clearly revealed (4:2): Arguments of sincere but immoral and seared “experts”.
• The battle ground has been clearly revealed (4:3-5): Teachings of relationships redefined, new moral restrictions unsupported by God’s Word and real spiritual life.

In summary, God warned beforehand that individuals and then whole communities, churches and even nations would defect from the truth, even when living in the truth brought great benefits. The enticement to rebellion, the magnetism of baser instincts and the downward demonic pull would drive men to become darker – a term they would cynically call “enlightenment”. They would carefully construct lies out of a desire to do as they please and reframe morality on the basis of their fallen desires. When they did, they would teach a defiled view of the world from a sincere and yet wholly rationalized perspective. Calloused and tough to anything of the spirit, their hearts being deadened by rationalized morality, they would set out to redefine relationships and societal boundaries, creating new religious sounding moral restrictions that fit their newly made code, even when in direct violation of the Word of God. Shamelessly, they will declare their new ethic, though founded by men who violated even the nature’s laws of decency, as superior to the antiquated morality of the Bible.

• Position: (Where the rope is)- It is found in mature believers calling attention to the God’s Word among those who come behind them (4:6a).
• Practice: (How to get used to the rope)- Constant renewal in God’s Word and the practical relationship principles and truths must be daily worked (4:6b).
• Persistence: (How to focus ONLY on the rope)- Because focus is essential, we must learn to clean out the constant fouling of nonsense that clogs up our thoughts and lives (4:7a).

• Personal: “discipline yourself” (4:7b)– no one is responsible to do it for me, I am supposed to take on the responsibility of my own healthy growth in the Lord!
• Purposed: “for the purpose of godliness” (4:7b)- disciplines for the sake of gaining prominence, securing health, wealth and prosperity are all set aside. My purpose is “eusebia”: reverence. If I discipline my life to gain anything but a greater sense of God’s ownership, even this is going off in a wrong direction. It is not for my affirmation or comfort. I walk in disciplines of life for HIS PLEASURE.
• Promising: “promise for the present life and life to come” (4:8-10)- We live the truths of God’s Word for His honor and pleasure, but we do so with the absolute and unshakeable promise that these truth WORK in this life and are REWARDED in the life to come. We don’t do them for the reward, but we celebrate that they are rewarded with life now and life then!
• Passed: “prescribe and teach” (4:11) – the terms “paraggel’o” and “didasko” are terms that share how the disciplines will be accomplished in those who follow after us. They literally share the idea “mark out the trail before them with truth” by verbally sharing each idea and concept. The truth is, words aren’t enough! Paul followed up this idea with “don’t let them discount you because of your youth – live so they will see your example (4:12). To pass the truths of the Word we must verbally rehearse them, but also outwardly live them. Modeling is essential for the words to have life!

• Powerful: “give attention” could be rephrased “put your energies into”. In other words, Timothy was to openly read the Word (4:13) – because the power of the Word was to be given prominence. Believers must always remember their persuasiveness is nothing compared to the sheer power of God’s truth. By reading it aloud, he allowed the audience to hear it as God revealed it, and to test whether he was telling the truth about what it said. He was also to give attention to “exhortation and teaching”. Exhortation is the term “paraklesis”: to summon or persuade to action. It is sometimes used as “encouragement” and other times in the sense of warning to return.