It Starts Small

If you have been following along, I missed two days. I do not know how I managed to do that. I think I was so excited about learning about examples in God’s Word of righteous people I posted the wrong blog post.

Our scripture today is very close to 1 Timothy 6:11.

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

1 Timothy 6:11

Paul is repeating himself here to Timothy and I feel like when one of the author’s of God’s Word is repeating themselves, it is an important message. Paul says, Flee from youthful passions.

Paul is referring to strong uncontrolled desires that are characteristic of the young and immature. Without the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we remain immature in our faith. We have uncontrolled desires and no self control.

A man without self-control
    is like a city broken into and left without walls.

Proverbs 25:28

John writes in his first letter writes what lack of self control is:

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

1 John 2:16

These relate to the selfishness, greed, ambition, and pleasure through which Satan has influenced unbelievers and believers everywhere. All of these desires wat against the God’s will for us because these characteristics are not of Him. Uncontrolled longings for pleasure, entertainment, beauty, prominence, possessions, wealth, or popularity are all self-focused and aimed at getting what we want. The way to overcome is to flee from them and begin pursuing God’s desires for our life, as revealed in His Word. 

What does God desire? In our scripture today, and our focused scripture of 1 Timothy 6:11 says God desire is that we pursue:

Righteousness.
Faith.
Love.
Peace.

Righteousness is toward oneself, faith is toward God, and love is toward others; peace is the issue of these three virtues.

How do we do this?

We pursue Christ. To pursue means to seek, search out, follow, or run after—another definite, active word.

On one hand, we must flee something terrible: youthful lusts. On the other hand, we must pursue something wonderful: righteousness, faith, love, and peace. Of course, this isn’t referring to our own righteousness; Paul is referring to the attributes of Christ Himself. While we flee, we also seek, search out, follow, and run after Christ as all these virtues for our living.

How can we have a daily life of fleeing lusts and pursuing Christ?

In the second half of the verse, Paul gave a practical way to flee and pursue: “with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

It’s impossible to flee and pursue all by ourselves. We’re no match for Satan, his world system, and our fallen flesh. But notice that Paul urged Timothy to flee and pursue with those, meaning, with other believers.

Why is this so important? We’re all influenced by the kind of people we’re with. If we choose to be with people who draw us away from God, we’ll easily succumb to lusts. Instead, we should choose to be with fellow believers who are fleeing the damaging lusts of the flesh and pursuing righteousness, faith, love, and peace.

Today let us ponder who we run to. What are we running towards? Are we running from God after our own desires, or running away from our flesh and the world to God?

Who takes up a seat within our inner circle? People that are going to encourage, build us up, lead us towards Christ, or those who lead us away, tear us down?

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