Hold On

1 Timothy 6:6-19

This is one of those passages which holds so many words of wisdom. Adages such as "Fight the good fight" and "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evils" are words as to what the Christian life is about. If not in these exact words, at least in some of the rhetoric we hear or see. However, for as long as I've heard this passage, and others from 1 Timothy, I can honestly say I've heard a lot about the whats, but not so much on the why.

This first letter to Timothy is written at a time when the Christian way is falling apart due to some of the teachings, or claims, people who are going into the churches started by Paul are making. These people are making the claim that they are the true Apostles of Christ and they have the answers the church should be looking for. It would seem, at least from this passage, that what this letter is addressing is how these "false teachers" are preaching in the name of Jesus purely for personal gain. 

This letter to Timothy is written in the hopes that the Christian church in Ephesus can ward off these false teachers and get back on track. The words written in this letter is meant to guide the church's pastor, Timothy, on how to do that. That being said, there are a few things in this letter I disagree with, but then again I wasn't in this church at this time and so don't have a full understanding of why this letter needed to be written.

What I can talk about is that there are many churches in today's cultures which are going through this same kind of onslaught by those who lead and teach for personal gain. In the very beginning of this letter the author writes to Timothy that the "aim of such instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith." The case is then made that anything less, or any other reason for teaching within a church of Christ, is going against what Christ himself lived and died for. 

This letter to Timothy then ends with the words from today's passage: "take hold of the life that really is life." And there is the why. Life, in biblical terms, is to live with freedom. Not necessarily the kind of freedom from empirical oppression, but the freedoms from those things which separate relationships. If greed is getting in the way of love and acceptance, greed is an enslaving force. If forcing people to believe one idea or another is getting in the way of love, ideology is an enslaving force. If a strict adherence to a set of rules is getting in the way of love, literalism is an enslaving force.

As Christians we are called to fight against these enslaving forces, both within ourselves and those forced against others. We are asked to find a way to bring people into a life of freedom in God's unconditional acceptance. We are asked as God's family to grab a hold of those around us and find a way to rise above current culture expectations to simply live a life free from the things which separate us from God, each other, and our self. 

We are expected to live a life that really is life.