St. Timothy, Bishop and Confessor
Today the Church remembers one of the saints from the days when the NT Church was in her infancy—St. Timothy. St. Timothy and St. Titus, whom the Church will remember in a few days, were important figures in the early Church. They were the “next generation” of Christians as they lived at the time the apostles were dying out and the Church was becoming more Gentile, spreading throughout the Roman world. Ones like St. Timothy served as that bridge between the Apostles and the next generation that did not know the Apostles.
St. Timothy had Christians in his family. Although his father was a pagan, both his mother Eunice and Lois his grandmother were Christians. We heard in today’s First Reading that during his second missionary journey, St. Paul met Timothy and wanted him to continue on travelling with him because Barnabas and Mark had left him. We read: Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy… He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. Here St. Paul “became a Jew to the Jews”, that is, he didn’t want anything to hinder the spread of the Gospel to them and so he accommodated to the weakness of their faith. Timothy willingly went with Paul and became his close associate and an important help to him. St. Paul writes of him [1 Cor. 4.17]: Timothy…is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord. Paul sent him as his representative to Thessalonica, Corinth, and Ephesus. St. Timothy proved himself enough to be made Bishop of Ephesus, St. Paul commending him to the Philippians this way [Ph. 2 20]: For I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state.
The Holy Spirit saw fit to preserve in Holy Scripture two letters that Paul wrote to Timothy. Among other things, in these letters we see St. Paul praising Timothy’s enthusiasm and example; but especially we begin to see the formation of the office of bishop and its important task of preserving the doctrine pure. So much did the Lord work through St. Timothy that when St. Paul was in prison in Rome awaiting martyrdom that he sent for Timothy to come to him. Not only did was Timothy obviously an encouragement and comfort to St. Paul, but Paul’s courage in suffering must have served to strengthen and encourage St. Timothy who years later would be killed on account of his faith in and confession of Jesus. According to tradition, in AD 97 St. Timothy, opposing pagan festivals in Ephesus, was killed by those pagans with stones and clubs.
It is a real blessing and encouragement for us today to remember the saints of the Church, like St. Timothy today. We remember the words of the apostle writing to the Hebrews [12.1]: since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses –the saints—let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We see their example as during their lives they set their faith on and gaze toward Jesus and on heaven. As we spend a few moments today reflecting on St. Paul’s words to St. Timothy in our text, may we be encouraged to direct/ live our lives now toward the future, not for the present.
Although St. Paul writes this specifically about and in a special way for St. Timothy, it also is fitting for all Christians: O man of God. That’s who we are as Christians—people of God. We are God’s possession—He has called us and claimed us in the waters of holy Baptism. Dear Christian, here is our value and worth—even above and beyond our dignity as human beings: we are the people of God. And as the people of God, whom He has claimed and made His own, we then can love and serve Him! Really, this is what all the words of our text revolve around—since we are the people of God, all of our happiness and completeness is in Him; only in the Lord are we truly at rest and content. The devil, the world around us, and even our sinful nature in us all work together to try to get our attention focused on this life, that we need to live for the here and now to be truly happy and content; that we need to feed our appetites and passions in order to be truly complete and fulfilled. Instead of directing our life toward our future heavenly life, from all around us we get the message and pressure to live for this life. To us the apostle also writes: But as for you, O man of God. May we remember that we, dear Christian, are the people of God. Our title is: man of God/ woman of God/ child of God—that’s who we are; that’s our identity given us in baptism.
And so what are we to do? But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. What are the these things? St. Paul had just finished talking about greed and the desire for riches. And notice the strong word that St. Paul here uses: flee! Let us flee/ run away from greed, the desire for riches, the desire to feed our passions, the desire to focus our attention on the present life. We flee from them. We don’t linger. We don’t entertain these notions. We don’t give credence to them. When do we normally flee/ run away from something? –When we sense a danger! When we think something can do us great bodily harm, we run away from it. That’s exactly what we are to do when it comes to focusing on the things of this life and living our lives for them. The thing is, the earthly goods and the fulfilling of our passions are just that—they are merely earthly, momentary, just for the here and now. They do not lie to us; they do not do a bait and switch. Everybody knows that wealth and power and pleasure, etc. are only for now, that they do not last beyond this life. So why do people strive for them as the all in all? Why do they seek their happiness and fulfilment in them? –Because our old sinful nature working together with the devil and world get us to think that this earthly life is all there is/ get us to focus all our attention on the present that we forget about our future eternal life in heaven. And if we forget about that future eternal life in heaven and focus only on this earthly life, we will lose what is truly vital—we will lose heaven. That’s why St. Timothy—and we too—are warned: But as for you, O man of God, flee these things.
There is great blessing as we flee from making the temporary, transitory things of the world number one in our lives; there is great blessing as we do not make self and feeding our desires/ passions supreme. And that blessing is freedom. We are freed from self and passions and can use the things that God has given us in a proper way/ the way that God intended—to supply our needs in this life, to give us joy, to surround us with beauty and to point us back to Him. We are not attached to them so that we become slaves to them, but they serve us and our physical need as God intended and they point us back to Him the Giver and our Provider. The more detached we become from the things in this life, the more they serve us and the better we can direct our life toward a heavenly future.
But our lives as Christians is both a fleeing and also a pursuing. We run away from greed and feeding our passions—the transitory things of this life—and with all our might run toward the things of God and strive toward the virtues that will mark our heavenly life: Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. There is a huge difference between the temporariness of having and striving after earthly possessions and the glory of spiritual possessions. And that huge difference is an incentive to flee from the focus on the things of this life and to pursue the glorious virtues that will be ours now imperfectly but will in their full glory mark us eternally in heaven. The simple fact is—what we pursue we will get: if we pursue the things of the world and the feeding of our passions, yes, we get them but we will lose the heavenly; if we flee from greed and the things of this world, yes, it will be a struggle but as we pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness, we will, by God’s grace, have these heavenly virtues now albeit imperfectly but we will have and enjoy for all eternity every heavenly gift and blessing.
Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Now in this life, as we direct our lives toward heaven, our lives will be marked with the pursuit of righteousness—that is we strive to live our lives in accord with God’s holy will; as Christians, as people of God, He has given us His Holy Spirit who leads and strengthens us living into a life of good works, striving to do God’s will and fighting against sin. Our lives will be marked by godliness or piety: that is, we live a life of reverence toward God, knowing and recognizing Him as God almighty and we are His humble creation; it means submitting ourselves and our will humbly before Him; it means to meditate on His word and speak to Him in prayer; it means to be regularly and faithfully in the worship in Church hearing His word and receiving His Sacrament. Our lives will be marked by faith; this is faith in Jesus as we by faith receive Him and His work and merit for us. Our lives will be marked by love; this is love toward God and neighbor. Our earthly lives will be marked by steadfastness; that is, a patient endurance especially as our faith is under attack by the devil and his allies, as we oppose the evil he is working against us. Our lives now are marked by gentleness; we know our own sin and how weak we are and so mindful of our own sin and imperfection, we do not flare up at the sins of others and magnify their sin and condemn the person, but we show them mercy as we have been shown mercy. Notice, all these things that we pursue turn our attention away from earthly/ temporary joys and pleasures and toward heaven.
As we direct our lives toward our heavenly future, they are not just marked by running—either fleeing or pursuing—but also by fighting. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. As Christians, we will have to stand and fight for the faith. Once we come to faith in Jesus, the devil will not leave us alone but will attack us with weakness, temptation and dejection. Think of St. Paul in prison and how the devil must have attacked him who was strong and secure in the word. Is it any wonder that he called for St. Timothy to come to him and strengthen him in the faith! This is the struggle that we are all called into. How easy it is to give up the difficult/ to give up directing our hearts/ eyes/ gaze attention toward heaven; how easy it is to give up the good fight of faith by living for the here and now and pursuing present pleasures. Dear Christian, let us daily hear these words to St. Timothy and make them our own: Fight the good fight of the faith. And how do we do it? Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called… Dear Christian, we already now—from the first moment of baptism—have eternal life. God called us into it and gives it to us fully and freely in Jesus; and we will experience it in full glory come the Last Day, soul and body in heaven. We are victorious in this battle against devil, world and self as we hold to God’s promises to us in the word and hold them fast. God called us and He will preserve us in that faith and life. That’s why we can: Fight the good fight of the faith and Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. –God is faithful; He will do it through His word and Sacrament. As we Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, we then put off and tear away an affection for the things of this life and focus on the eternal! Our attention, O man of God, is directed toward our future rewards of grace, not the present pleasures which can never satisfy our eternal longings. INJ