(Based on a sermon preached at First Baptist Church, Chamois, MO; not an exact transcription.)
Introduction: We’re continuing in our “back to school” theme this morning, today taking a look at Paul’s instructions to Timothy. Last week we saw how Paul was encouraging Timothy to preach the word at all times and so on. That message was from Paul’s last letter. Today, we’re looking at, really, an earlier instruction that was in the first letter to Timothy.
It’s hot so let’s get going with the message today. We’ll take a look at this one verse of Scripture and see what we can find:
Text: 1 Timothy 4:12, NASV: 12 Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.
<Opening prayer>
1 Paul’s first instruction
The first part of this verse has Paul’s first instruction to Timothy, namely, to stop letting people look down on his youthfulness. Now, some of this couldn’t be avoided—Paul was a human dynamo or maybe the closest thing to a “perpetual motion” machine ever made! Think about it: about the only times when Paul wasn’t preaching, teaching, or writing was when he was in jail!
Another reason was that Timothy was, well, a lot younger than Paul. Paul was already a grown man when he met Timothy at Lystra (Acts 16) and by now, a good number of years had come and gone. Guessing Paul was in his mid-30’s when he met Timothy, and guessing Timothy was 18 or so (of course, we have no idea or indication), he’d be in his own mid-30’s. That was still young in Paul’s eyes and Timothy must have needed some of this encouragement.
Think about it: Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus, which was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire at the time. Ephesus also had a good amount of believers, plus, one of Paul’s letters (well, that one may have come later but still, Ephesus was a happening place). Timothy may have felt overwhelmed at the job Paul had given him and, you know, I can feel the same as old Tim in that regard.
It’s been a few years but when I was interim pastor at another church, one of the men came to me after the service and told me he could see me as pastor of a church with 200 members or so! Stunned, I waited a second or two and told him he clearly had more faith in me than I had in myself! He laughed with me and to this day I consider him one of my true friends. May the Lord bless you really well, G!
And part of that, I have to say, is that I’ve always been a small-church kind of guy. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with the size of any congregation but when it’s smaller, there’s more of a chance to get to know one another, relate somewhat to each other, and truly minister to one another. I can only hope you folks have received something from me, as I can tell you, you’ve all done more than you think for me. God bless you all.
So, maybe Timothy needed this word to grow into his position. I doubt he was nearly the “force to be reckoned with” that Paul was, and, you know, there’s not one word of Timothy’s recorded in the Scriptures. He stayed faithful, both to Paul and to the Lord, and it sure seems to me that he heeded these first words of Paul.
But there was more Paul had to say, so let’s take a look at the rest of the verse.
2 Paul’s final instructions
We saw in the first instruction, the first part of the verse, that Paul wanted Timothy to stop letting people look down on him because of his youthfulness. I almost forgot that many of the people whom Paul had led to Christ were about Paul’s age or older and they may have wondered how this young pup could do the job like Paul had done. I think Timothy got the message, but Paul wasn’t quite done yet.
He now tells Timothy to be an example of believers in five different areas. The first of these that Paul emphasized was in speech. Of course none of us can keep from making verbal mistakes, slips of the tongue, and so on but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to do our best. I mean, none of us can ever un-see what we’ve seen and we can’t un-hear what we’ve heard. I’m reminded of an old saying, “Watch your tongue, as it’s in a wet place and it’s easy for it to slip!”
James, writing years before Paul, also had some things to say about the tongue. I won’t go into them at this time, though. When you do get a chance, take a glance at the Letter of James. Lots of good stuff in that book.
Paul and James would also agree about being an example of how to speak, but also how to live. Conduct is, I think, a word for how Timothy—and for us, too, for that matter—should be living our lives. Something was not quite up to speed for Timothy, or Paul probably wouldn’t have written this instruction. Then again, maybe he was, and Paul was just giving him an encouraging word. Couldn’t all of us use more of these?
There’s more to say about conduct but we’ll save that discussion for another day. Basically, the Word tells us what to do so let’s just do that and practice good conduct in our lives.
Paul then turns a corner and mentions being a good example in love. First, we don’t have any record that Timothy ever married but that may not have stopped any number of ladies from having a crush on him! Remember, he was in, maybe, his mid-30’s, the prime of his life, and might well have been very handsome in appearance, as he had both Greek and Jewish ancestry. That could be something Paul was warning Timothy—don’t let yourself become a statistic by falling in love, or just plain falling, for the wrong partner.
Second, Paul may have also encouraged Timothy to be careful in how he showed his love. There’s nothing wrong with having the Love of God for everyone, whether or not that person is a believer or not, but very wrong in withholding love from some and not others. Again, Timothy knew exactly what Paul meant and I sincerely hope he took the advice.
Next, Paul mentions faith. Again, there are a lot of angles to look at but let me just talk about a couple. One, of course, is truly having faith in our Lord. He made promises, and He will keep them; the problem is that some of us don’t use the faith He gave us. Timothy may have had that problem, in that he had Paul’s approval, commission, and maybe even more but something was wrong. That’s why Paul wrote the words we have in this passage!
And I think there was something else about “faith”. Had Timothy grown in faith, and in the faith, as much as he could have? All of us can grow and keep growing in faith and the faith. The Lord doesn’t and didn’t put a limit on it!
Finally Paul speaks about purity. Some of this is mentioned under love but there is a difference. One can still be pure, or even have problems with purity, and not be “in love” with anyone. We do have any number of examples in Scripture: Proverbs 7 is one such chapter where Solomon described in detail one of the stupidest things any young man could do. Read it for details.
(Some material omitted for space) There’s also a very personal meaning for me. Way back when I was 14, our church had revival services in the spring. The evangelist was a ball of fire and he preached hot, hard, and heavy and even though I don’t remember many of the messages, I can tell you that it was during that time our Lord called me to preach. That was a good thing and the preacher gave me plenty of good advice.
But the bad thing is that word came to us that this preacher was later found in a motel room with a woman, not his wife. That just about gave his ministry the death sentence; and I’ve never heard another word about him from that day to this. Was Timothy in temptation? Whether he was or not, Paul wanted him to be an example of purity for all believers.
Let me sum this up by saying this: Paul first told Timothy to stop letting people look down on him because of his youthfulness. Then Paul gave him five areas to concentrate on. Timothy stayed true to the faith, even to the point of going to prison (Hebrews 13:23). You and I and all of us can be good examples of believers, no matter what our age may be! Blessings!
Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Version of the Bible (NASV).
