Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

Watch Ourselves For We Are Being Watched

1 TIMOTHY 6:11-12 – 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.”

 

 

THEME OF THE DAY:  WATCH OURSELVES FOR WE ARE BEING WATCHED.  Today’s scripture is a portion of one of the New Testament books known as “The Pastoral Epistles” written by the Apostle Paul to his son in the faith Timothy, a young pastor.  Now that doesn’t mean we may stop reading and say, “I am not a pastor so it doesn’t apply.”  Yes, it may not apply in the context of being a pastor, but its truth and principles apply to all of us as Christians. And none more important than Paul’s exhortation in the last part of the scripture – the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.  Let’s unfold its truth and application.

 

The Apostle Paul does two things in his instruction to Timothy and now us.  He exhorts us to take care of our individual spiritual lives.  Be disciplined.  Be diligent.  Seek and live the qualities of a true believer; righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness, and do so fighting successful spiritual warfare while clinging to the eternal life Jesus gave.  Then Paul would tell us why we are to be aggressive in the pursuit of Biblical Christianity in our lives and watch over ourselves; people are watching, people have heard we claim to be Christians and they are watching us – you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

 

Christians, more damage is done to the testimony of the Gospel and our profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by tolerated hypocrisy than anything else we might do.  To live a dual life, and especially in our homes, is to not only bring great displease to the Lord, but it so sours people to Christianity because they don’t see Christianity.  They see fakes.  They hear hypocrites.  They observe contradictions and deception.  I wonder how many children who grew up in supposedly Christian homes, at least having the outward reputation of such in public, walk away, deny the faith and jettison the church because parents gave them a reason not to believe!  Granted, God is sovereign in salvation and we cannot own the lack of salvation of our children or their refusal to follow Christ.  But we need to seriously heed the warning of Paul of making a profession of faith in the company of witnesses, even our children and spouses.  They and the world deserve to see true Biblical Christianity from us who profess it.

 

So, take time and ponder our profession of faith.  We may be great communicators of the Gospel but invalidate our proclamation by being poor illustrations of a Gospel-changed life.  Be mindful.  We are being observed and more often than not, unbelievers observing genuine Christians are first being drawn to Christ by such people.     

 

PRAYER: “Father, impress upon me my life as a Christian is constantly on display and to live out such awareness.”
QUOTE: “The world deserves Christians who make a profession of faith in Christ to represent Him well before them.”

 

Because of Him,

Pastor Jim