Blessed be the Lord forever.
Amen and Amen.
(Psalm 89:52)
Jeremiah 37:1-38:28
When it looks like Egypt is going to stop the Babylonian advance, King Zedekiah doesn't listen to Jeremiah's warning that the Lord has cautioned him that the delay is only temporary. When Jeremiah attempts to leave the city, he is arrested, beaten, and imprisoned.
Then the king brings him secretly to his house to ask him if he has heard any word from the Lord. Jeremiah says, "Yes I have. You are going to be taken captive by the Babylonians. Your prophets have just been telling you what you want to hear. Why have you arrested me?"
As the word spread that Jeremiah had been saying that Babylon was going to take over Jerusalem, the people in power were so upset with him, that they threw him into a cistern. He sank in the mud. Although the most powerful had tried to shut him up, one of the king's servants, a foreigner, talked the king into releasing Jeremiah.
The king asks Jeremiah to speak the truth to him. Jeremiah did. The king did not like what he heard. He ordered Jeremiah not to tell anybody what he had said.
1 Timothy 6:1-21
Slavery was still okay with Christians. How does our acceptance of the change in this attitude affect our attitude about other matters of injustice that were okay with them in their time, in their place?
This letter to Timothy then describes the characteristics that false teachers portray: envy, dissension, slander, suspicions, and wrangling. They think that being godliness is the means for gain. Do we still suffer from this assumption?
He adds that of course there is a great gain in godliness combined with contentment. If only I could somehow be content with food and clothing..... That's not even realistic for me because I can so easily imagine better tasting or more appealing looking food and even more easily imagine newer clothes. I'm trying to understand Paul's comment in context of my life and I'm afraid that I do understand it quite well.
Loving money, striving for riches, takes my focus away from what should be attracting my attention and effort. And it can be even worse than that, Paul reminds us. We may be willing to do many unkind or wrong things to ensure that we can accumulate some financial security.
Paul lists for Timothy what goals a Christian should be striving for: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.
Striving for these goals is done publicly not privately. The evidence of righteousness, godliness, and love will be noticeable -- as would be their absence. We have promised to pursue these qualities always but gently. And we have promised publicly to do so by joining the church.
This advice to Timothy is not only to him as an individual Christian but also to him as a leader of a Christian community. "Live it and teach it. In your congregation are those that are rich. Tell them not to be so proud of their achievements. After all, none of us have any guarantee that our wealth will last. What we can be sure of is that God is eternal and that God will continue to provide us with what we really need. Rather than spending your effort building up your personal wealth, instead be generous with your time and money."
Timothy is reminded that we bring nothing into the world and take nothing out of it, and that what we do between that coming in and that going out of the world matters: Doing good, being rich in good works, will provide us with a treasure surpassing what money could have bought for us. This treasure will be "a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life."
Psalm 89:38-52
Proverbs 25:28
Like a city breached, without walls,
is one who lacks self-control.
Prayer for Today: O Lord, guide us away from our temptations to focus on striving for more money. Focus us on what we should be trying to achieve-- righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Amen.
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