1 Timothy: A Strong Man Is CourageousSample

Need a Recharge?

In today’s passage, we see Paul do two things every mentor and leader needs to do.

First, he gave his protégé a charge. Do you know why? Because when someone needs direction, mere hints or suggestions don’t always work. If you leave it up to a hint or a suggestion, the other person will draw conclusions and assumptions about what you might want them to do. Most of the time, they’ll get it wrong. Especially when it comes to things of a spiritual nature. Paul knew that Timothy had to not get this one wrong. There was too much at stake—like the gospel message to the church in Ephesus.

Second, Paul connected this charge with a reminder about previous promises given to Timothy, telling him that he was writing “in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you” (1 Timothy 1:18). This means that Paul’s charge here was really a recharge. This recharge was just a reminder. Sometimes we need to be reminded, don’t we?

Paul was charging and reminding Timothy so Timothy would “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience” (1 Timothy 1:18-19), so he would never stop acting and believing as God’s man.

Although Paul was repeating to Timothy something Timothy had been told time and time again, this time, Paul was saying it with new emphasis, because he knew it would meet with new learning.

Isn’t this true for all of us? How many times have you read one text in the Bible and then read it again after you went through a challenge, difficulty, or some opposition in your life, and suddenly, you saw new meaning in it? That has happened many times in my life.

Each time we see something in the Bible as if for the first time, it gives us a good reason to cling to the promises in God’s Word. It gives us a good reason to repeat those promises again and again to ourselves.

The writer of Hebrews says that God’s word is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). The more we immerse ourselves in Scripture, the more we open our minds to God’s truths so that we can be recharged as strong men of God.

God, I cling to the hope and promises you have given me. What do you want to remind me of today about who You are?