1 Timothy 4:6 "If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained."
Paul is rather blunt here, telling Timothy that there are those claiming to be speaking for God who are actually "...giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;"
I find it curious that the two things that are mentioned specifically as being "lies in hypocrisy" are 1) forbidding to marry and 2) the prohibition of eating meat. I've thought over this for awhile and can't come up with a solid answer as to why these are the 2 things that are specifically mentioned. My only thought is that there were specific people saying things like this and Paul was addressing something that Timothy was currently facing.
Regardless, the principle here is clear. One of the ways we can serve as a good minister of Jesus Christ is to nourish, or educate, or form our mind around, the words of faith and of good doctrine and then do what we can to remind our fellow believers of the Truth we have learned.
Am I being a good minister of Jesus Christ today?
No comments:
Post a Comment