Your Ephesus Needs a Timothy

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ezekiel 32 Listen: (5:30)
Read: 1 Timothy 4 Listen: (2:05)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Ezekiel 33 Listen: (6:03), Read: 1 Timothy 5 Listen: (3:22)
Read: Ezekiel 34 Listen: (5:11), Read: 1 Timothy 6 Listen: (3:16)

Scripture Focus: 1 Timothy 4.12-16

12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Reflection: Your Ephesus Needs a Timothy

By John Tillman

Timothy faced dangerous “wolves” in a dangerous city. (Acts 20.28-30)

Timothy was young. He did not fit neatly into any racial or cultural box. His mixed Greek and Jewish heritage helped him connect two different worlds but also isolated him from both of them.

He led the church in Ephesus, the third-largest Roman city, with a temple to Artemis four times the size of Athens’s Parthenon. When Paul’s teaching threatened commerce surrounding Artemis worship, the city rioted. (Acts 19.23-28)

Paul left Timothy in Ephesus specifically to address false teaching. (1 Timothy 1.3-5) The wolves Timothy dealt with were hypocritical liars and conspiracists, whose constant lies burned away their consciences. Paul described the malicious myths they perpetuated as the teaching of demons.

One way Paul expected Timothy to counter false teaching was by watching his own “life and doctrine.” Today, we’d say “orthodoxy,” what you teach, and “orthopraxy,” what you do. Our faith must match our works. We may not all be church leaders, but we still face dangerous “wolves,” with burned-away consciences. Hypocritical liars and conspiracists seem more prevalent than ever.

It sounds exciting to fight off dangerous wolves or doctrines of demons. But Paul’s instructions to Timothy remind us we fight with plows, not swords, and cultivation, not destruction. (Isaiah 2.4; Micah 4.3) We bring forth goodness from the Earth, not spill blood into it. The world may riot. We must root ourselves in the example of Jesus and Paul.

How do we do this? Read and teach the scripture with both supernatural giftings and practical diligence.

Read and teach the scripture. (v 13) “I read the scripture but I’m not a preacher.” You are to someone. Someone listens to you in small groups and conversations. Someone reads your social media posts, even if they never comment or “like” them. So read and teach.

Cultivate your gifts through the Holy Spirit. (v 14) A prophetic word was spoken about Timothy, but that did not mean Timothy just coasted. He had to cultivate, not neglect, his gift. Paul later wrote to “fan into flame” the gift. Cultivate your gifts both spiritually and practically through prayer and practice.

Make diligent progress. (v 15) Paul expected Timothy to progress, to improve, in ways that were visible and evident to all. Demonstrate diligence in solving problems and, like a math problem, show your work and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Be Timothy to your Ephesus. Embody truth in a world of lies.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. — Psalm 92.12

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.