Man of God

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

These instructions are given by the Apostle Paul to his protege Timothy in the last chapter of 1st Timothy. These are part of his closing charge to Timothy after giving him instructions on how to lead the church he has been placed over. 

Most of the instruction in this book has been about what to teach, who was worthy of certain roles and how each group of people should be treated based on age and gender. But here Paul reminds Timothy of the man he needs to be. He urges Timothy to flee false teachings and other traps but more importantly to pursue certain characteristics that will set him up as an example for those around him. 

It is my belief that these characteristics are characteristics that every Chrsitian man should pursue, not just those who are called to leadership in the church. We are going to look at these over the next few weeks. Some of them seem obvious for men to pursue. Things like righteousness and steadfastness. Others like love and gentleness are less easy for many men to understand how we should pursue these things as men.