“Fight the good fight of faith;take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ…” `1 Timothy 6:12-14
Timothy was called into the ministry by God and by Paul. In doing so, he was publicly ordained by the presbytery in the presence of “many witnesses.” At this time he confessed Christ before all, and made the conscious decision to endure physical agony too, meaning circumcision as a grown man. Knowing Timothy’s possible timid profile, this was no small step.
What get’s me is the manner in which the Apostle exhorts Timothy in verses 13-14. What if some revered minister placed his hand upon my shoulder and said, “I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ…” Talk about high expectations! But aren’t we all called in such a fashion, when you get right down to it?
We just don’t take our role in defending and modeling the faith seriously enough! Simply, it’s up to Timothy—and me and you—to be stainless, so that message will be stainless, or as Vincent says, “unsullied.” This is no small task. It requires godly discipline of the highest order. This is the kind of guy Timothy was. He was capable, despite his alleged timidity and ill health, of the same kind of fortitude and courage of his mentor Paul.
He had the right stuff.
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