burden

An army of deer led by a lion is more to be feared than an army of lions led by a deer[1]

Chapter 10

Timothy’s Story

To live up to high expectations that are placed on you is not an easy task. It places a heavy burden on any person to be told from childhood that a great destiny awaits you. You try your best not to disappoint those who believe in you. Sometimes you try so hard that your life becomes a duty instead of an adventure. A young man in the New Testament understood that very well. His name was Timothy and great things were prophesied about him.

Born to a family whose father was not a Christian, Timothy was grounded in the faith by his mother and grandmother who were believers.[2] The apostle Paul served as a type of surrogate father to him, especially in spiritual matters.[3] Timothy excelled in faith and virtue[4], becoming a trusted partner of the great Apostle.

Timothy had a cheerful disposition, took on challenging assignments in the ministry and aided Paul through many campaigns. He was a teacher and a leader that Paul could count on. Handpicked by Paul to serve in places like Ephesus[5],Troas[6]and Corinth[7], Timothy seemed to have it all together. Yet, hanging over all that he did, was the specter of expectations yet unfulfilled.

Twice in Paul’s first letter to Timothy reference is made to prophecies made about the young minister.[8] These prophecies are what put a burden of expectation upon Timothy. Having a mentor who is a living legend expecting great things from you is daunting enough. Having prophecies about you that come from the Holy Spirit – that leads to a lot of pressure. While Timothy was by nature a pleasant and trustworthy person, he is also described as having physical weaknesses[9], or infirmities, and timidity.[10] He seems to have a non-confrontational personality and yet he was challenged by Paul over and over to confront those who were wrong in their beliefs and teachings. Some of the things Paul instructed Timothy to do were:

Correct false teaching[11]
Fight for the true faith[12]
Point out errors in false teaching[13]
Discipline himself to godly living[14]
Proclaim the gospel publically[15]
Guard God’s Word[16]
Authoritatively lead[17], and
Do the work of an evangelist[18]

Paul admonishes Timothy to be a good soldier[19] who would fight for the faith and stand firm on the truths of God. For a personality such as his, this would be difficult. Timothy would struggle between who he was and what God was calling him to become.

This is a very familiar scenario for many Christians. While not everyone has clear prophecies uttered over them, all of God’s children have a service He calls them to perform. All of us have some knowledge of what God wants us to be for Him and the discrepancy between that and who we currently are is sometimes very great.

Timothy had performed admirably for Paul up to the time of the second letter. Like Matthias, Timothy had performed his duty. In order to go on, to go further in the ministry, Timothy was going to have to learn how to serve God out of love. He needed to learn to go beyond duty, to anticipate and take the lead over his churches. By this time in his life, Timothy should not have to wait until orders from Paul arrived. He should have the confidence in his training, his skills, his God and be the leader he was prophesied to become. Timothy was ready to graduate to the next level of leadership and Paul was pushing him along.

Timothy needed confidence. When a person is acting out of duty, following orders, there is a safety net built in. If things go wrong you can always fall back on the old excuse, “I was just following orders.” To seize the reigns and lead is to cut away the safety rope and take responsibility. That takes courage. It takes ownership. Timothy needed to be reminded of the God who believed in him. He needed to be reminded of the God who equipped him with gifts and talents. He needed to be reminded of his training, of his faith honed from his upbringing with Paul. He needed reminding of how he had forged this faith through his adventures and travels. Timothy needed confidence in who and what he was – a minister of God. He needed to stop worrying about his young age, what his detractors thought of him, his reputation, or his physical constitution.

Paul’s letters to Timothy are equally encouraging and scolding. It was time for Timothy to step up and become the man God intended him to be. Paul’s final charge to Timothy, to do the work of an evangelist[20], is a call for him to stop hiding behind his comfort zone and engage people face to face with the gospel message. That is what Timothy was called to do. Yes, he was a great pastor. Yes, he knew how to lead a church. To do the work of an evangelist meant going outside the church and engage lost people wherever they were.

Whenever God calls one of His children to do something for Him, it always entails moving beyond a person’s comfort zone. It always includes developing new skills, new talents, and new approaches. God uses all of our experiences and all of the natural abilities He has already gifted us with, but He moves us beyond all of those things so that we become completely dependent on Him for effectiveness and so that He alone receives all the glory.

For us, it is a call to trust Him. It is a call to believe that we can accomplish all things through His power as He has promised. It is a call to go beyond duty. It is a call to do more than obey because we are scared of failing, afraid of punishment, or fearful of ridicule. God wants us to obey Him out of love, not just out of duty. Repeatedly Paul encourages Timothy not to be ashamed[21] of testifying of the Lord but to proclaim boldly the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. Paul knows that when Timothy starts serving out of love and not out of duty or fear of letting someone down that he will be freed to accomplish great things for the Lord.

Timothy will serve out of love. He will accomplish great things for the Lord. Church history tells of some of the things Timothy accomplished in his lifetime. We know that he led Ephesus to become a bastion of orthodoxy, for we read in Revelation 2:2-3 of their testing of those who claimed to speak in the name of Christ. We also know that Timothy is spoken of in the highest way in other New Testament letters. In his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul writes,

“But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your state. For I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel.”[22]

Paul says that Timothy has the same mind set as his own. He says that Timothy does not seek his own comfort, his own advancement, but looks out for the welfare of others. He has a self-sacrificing spirit. Very few compliments for a Christian to receive are better than this one. His character, Paul says, is proven. It is an established fact. This spirit of sincerely caring for others can only come from love, not duty. Timothy becomes a person that lives up to all his potential, just as God foresaw.

The letter to the Hebrews mentions Timothy as well.

“Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly.”[23]

This seemingly obscure reference has a major revelation in it. Timothy was admonished by Paul not to be ashamed of the gospel, not to be embarrassed by his imprisonment, to go out of his comfort zone and engage the world. He did so and paid the price. Like his mentor, Timothy was thrown into prison for preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. That is what the term in Hebrews means when it says he was “set free.”

The young man who was once ashamed of his advisor’s imprisonment had now followed his example. Timothy threw off his timid nature and entered the spiritual battle for the souls of men with abandon. He would pay the ultimate price. History records that at age 69, Timothy scolded some citizens of Ephesus who were celebrating the idolatrous feast of Catagogion. This so exasperated the people that they fell upon him with their clubs, and beat him. He died from the beating two days later.

Timothy went from timid preacher to thundering ambassador, from an ashamed follower to an imprisoned disciple, from dutiful apprentice to loving encourager. Timothy’s transformation gives encouragement and hope to all followers of Jesus Christ.

To know what is right and do it is obedience. To know what is right and desire to do it stems from love. The Holy Spirit produces such desire in followers of Christ as they let him transform their lives. The Spirit is the one that brings about a life full of joy and completeness, satisfaction and celebration. Salvation is much more than life after death. It is also a fulfilling life now; one lived out with a love that comes from God above.

[1] Chabrias 410-375 B.C.

[2] 2 Timothy 1:5, 3:15

[3] 1 Timothy 1:2,18

[4] 1 Timothy 1:5

[5] 1 Timothy 1:3

[6] Acts 20:4-6

[7] 1 Corinthians 16:10-11

[8] 1 Timothy 1:18, 4:14

[9] 1 Timothy 5:23

[10] 2 Timothy 1;6-8

[11] 1 Timothy 1:3-5

[12] 1 Timothy 1:18-19, 6:12

[13] 1 Timothy 4:6

[14] 1 Timothy 4:7

[15] 1 Timothy 4:13, 2 Timothy 4:1-2

[16] 1 Timothy 20-21, 2 Timothy 1:12-14

[17] 2 Timothy 2:14

[18] 2 Timothy 4:5

[19] 2 Timothy 2:3

[20] 2 Timothy 4:5

[21] For example, 2 Timothy 1:8

[22] Philippians 2:19-22

[23] Hebrews 13:23

In reading Martin Luther’s Letters of Spiritual Council,” I was struck by how profound many of his insights into healthy grieving were. Since I currently work as a hospice chaplain, I spend extended time with patients and families both before death occurs and up to 13 months after it happens, I see many types of grieving behavior. Those who grew up being admonished for not “getting over” the loss of a loved one quickly or for grieving “inappropriately” would benefit from reading his wise words. Far too often, Christian leaders have used 1 Thessalonians 4:10 (do not grieve as those who have no hope) out of context. This verse does not preclude mourning, wailing or giving lament to one’s loss. It does prohibit the giving up of one’s hope of ever seeing a fellow believer again or losing one’s self to self destructive despair.

Luther insists that while we should not become hysterical, there is nothing disgraceful about mourning, nothing unfaithful in giving vent to one’s feelings (just read Job or Habbakuk.) The stiff upper lip mindset we inherited from Victorian England should have been retired long ago. Indeed, a Christian can grieve harder over death because he or she knows that death is unnatural, a consequence of the Fall. Death is described in the New Testament as our enemy. We mourn over what should have never been — separation in this life. We grieve hard over the death of non-believers, knowing their fate. The fact that they are lost to us forever cuts us deeply. Luther, in fact, suggests that it is a sign of unfaith when people never mourn.

In “All Our Losses, All Our Griefs,” by co-authors Kenneth Mitchell and Hubert Anderson, there is this quote: “To be a follower of Christ is to love life and to value people; things that God has given us in such a way that losing them brings sadness.” p38.

Jesus wept over Lazarus’ death. Jewish people and many other cultures hired mourners and grieving went on for several days, sometime weeks. A whole book of the Bible, Lamentations, deals with loss as do many Psalms. Scripture records that the mourning for Jacob’s death lasted 70 days and for Moses 30 days (Genesis 50:3 and Deuteronomy 34:8) Why would we think that a few days off of work is all a person needs to come to terms with a significant loss.

We mourn – not at the thought of a person being lost to us forever (with the exception of non-believers), nor because we do not know where they are. We mourn because we valued them as a person made in God’s image, a unique person. We miss their camaraderie, their love, spontaneity, friendship and a thousand other things that made them special to us. We need to let people grieve fully. We need to stop telling them to “get over it” and “move one.” Let God work the healing process. He is far better at it than you could ever possibly be. There is a time for everything, including mourning. It doesn’t last forever — one morning joy will come again and surprise us when it does. The deeper one loves the deeper one grieves. The deeper one loves God, the better one can lean on Him for strength in times of sorrow. He is well acquainted with grief. Jesus is described as a Man of Sorrows and one who suffered many losses.

I mourn my losses deeply, more deeply as the years go by, but I don’t fly into hysterics because I know my God and He is good. I trust in Him to make sense of it for me when I can’t see any sense in it. I have faith that He is both just and merciful in equal measure and that He knew what was best for my loved one’s life.

When you council with the grieving, let them know that they have permission to cry, to feel lonely, to hurt, to vent feelings without being judged. The best way to help them grieve is to help them remember the loved one. Share memories, share experiences with them. This sharing time helps to normalize the reality of death and allows the griever to know that their loved one’s life mattered to others. By talking about them, sharing pictures and moments about them it keeps alive, in a way, and diffuses the pain. Many times it allows laughter to mix with the tears. We are called to share each other’s burdens and the burden of grief is one that all of us can use help shouldering.

ta ethne

Training all peoples in God's Word

A Heart Hungry To Worship Part 11

The Burden of Grief

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