But you, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses. I command you before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate testified the good confession, that you keep the commandment without spot, blameless, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; which in its own times he will show, who is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and eternal power. Amen.
Charge those who are rich in this present world that they not be haughty, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold of eternal life.
Timothy, guard that which is committed to you, turning away from the empty chatter and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called; which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.
Thoughts
Flee one-upmanship and flee the pursuit of wealth. Instead, seek out righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness… that sounds like a plan to me. I especially like the line about fighting the good fight of faith—but don’t ever, ever consider yourself doing this without using the tools he mentions previously: righteousness, godliness, etc. When we use tools other than these to fight the good fight of faith, we often get egg on our Christian faces.
I think it’s interesting that Paul mentions the rich here after going off in the previous section on those who would pursue wealth. The bottom line: we’re going to have rich people in church; otherwise, there is no money there to do good things. I wonder how these people came to gain these riches… did they pursue their love of money? Was greed a factor? If not, did they just happen to get rich in the process of following God? I guess the important thing is this: we can’t set our hope on the uncertainty of riches, even if God blesses us with a lot. I can attest to this. Money comes, money goes. It’s a poor crutch to lean on.
Paul wraps this letter up with a nice little bow for Timothy. Keep your eyes on what’s important and blow off the rest. Good advice.
