Timothy's Thoughts

R ecently, Michael Hyatt blogs about The Benefits of Playing Full Out . In that post, he begins by saying, “I attend a lot of conferences and meetings. I have noticed that most people play it safe in these settings. They are reserved—arms crossed and skeptical—or simply distracted, hunched over their smart phone. Precious few take the plunge and play full out.” But rather than focus on what attendees ought to be doing, I’m more interested in the question of what we can do when we are speaking to a crowd like that. We can’t send the audience to a conference attendee training session before we start and yet, a speaker’s success requires that the audience learn. The crossed arms and skepticism, as well as playing with the smart phone, are protective mechanisms. Instead of faulting the attendees for fearing things we think they ought not fear, if we want to engage the audience, we must become the protection. One thing people fear is the dunce cap. In a room full of people they don’t ...

W oodrow Kroll coined a word which he used on Back to the Bible, oughtness . He used it in relationship to prayer, in that we ought to pray. He defined oughtness as "that inner sense of obligation to obedience that many Christians find annoying and therefore unheeded." In the context of prayer, we sometimes find it difficult to pray because we pray and it seems like nothing is happening or we feel like we don’t have time. But we ought to do it. One of the things that stood out from what Woodrow Kroll said is that he made a distinction between oughtness and legalism . It would be easy enough for us to make this into a legal requirement for religious practice. We might tell people, pray three times a day or God won’t bless you. But it isn’t a legal requirement. It is just something we ought to do. But oughtness applies to more than prayer. There are a number of things that I see church people doing or not doing that bother me. Some of it is things clearly defined in the ...

H ow can salvation possibly be just? When we as Christians attempt to share the gospel with those around us, one of the issues we may encounter is that a person may question why a loving God would send anyone to hell. It is simple enough to say it is because the Lord is just. The Bible describes him as just also. “The just Lord is in the midst thereof; He will not do iniquity: Every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth no.” (Zaphaniah 3:5a) But how do we then explain salvation? If he saves us because he loves us, does that mean he saves everyone? Or maybe as Calvinists believe, he loves the world, but the world isn’t really the whole world, just the elect? But even if that were true, how can salvation possibly be called justice? Is there something about us that makes us worthy of salvation? That would imply works for salvation. Looking at what we have to offer, none of us deserve salvation and yet the Lord has offered it to us anyway. How can he be called just if he ...

I s this you last day on planet earth? Some people think it is. The rest of us are just making bad jokes about those people. We know that Harold Camping is wrong because his predictions are against the Bible that he claims to have gotten them from. The Bible tells us that no man knows the day nor the hour. It also says it is not for us to know the times or the seasons concerning Christ’s return. And if that isn’t enough, Camping is predicting the total annihilation of the world too soon. The Bible tells us that there will be a seven-year tribulation period. That hasn’t happened yet, so the world isn’t going to be wiped clean later this year. The Bible also tells us that there will be a 1,000 year reign of Christ before the world is destroyed. So, Camping is at least 1,000 years off in his prediction—which he would know if he had read the Bible instead of trying to use it as some kind of code. The sad thing is that many people will point to Harold Camping’s mistake as yet more proof t...

W hen we have trouble understanding what a passage is saying just from what the writer wrote in the verses around it, we must look elsewhere. It’s at this point that many people turn to commentaries, to see what other people think it means, but then we’re forced to rely on the opinion of others. The great thing about the Bible is that it is all true. If we have one passage that is difficult to understand in one book, we can look at what other books say on related subjects. Our understanding of a passage can only be correct if it doesn’t require something else the Bible says to be incorrect. For example, if John had said a coin was black and Peter had said it was white, it would be valid to think that it is black on one side and white on the other. It is rare that thing work that well, but you get the idea. To understand 1 Timothy 2:12, it is helpful to consider 1 Corinthians 14:34, 35. “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but [they...

I n coming to an understanding of 1 Timothy 2:12 we need to understand how it fits in the whole of the letter Paul wrote to Timothy. To understand the purpose of First Timothy, it helps to read the first chapter. What we find there is that Paul is encouraging Timothy to continue to teach people to teach sound doctrine, which is why he left him at Ephesus in the first place. He also warns him of those who would compel the believers to keep the law without understanding the purpose of the law. So, the first thing Paul tells Timothy should be done is to pray for our governmental leaders. If we understand this letter to be telling Timothy what he should be doing to encourage teaching sound doctrine, the call for men to pray is the first task Paul gives Timothy. As we noted before, that leads into the instruction concerning women: In like manner also, that women should adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobermindedness, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or...

W e began by trying to understand what 1 Timothy 2:12 means. To do that we pulled together the verse that form the paragraph around it. But that paragraph begins with a backwards reference to the previous paragraph, “in like manner.” Looking at the previous verses, we see that Paul is talking about the need to pray for our leaders. It appears he could be talking about both men and women praying until he gets to verse eight, “It is my will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.” It is my opinion that Paul is drawing a connection between the men “lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting” and the women being modest, shamefaced and soberminded. I don’t think he is saying that men should pray and not do good works or that women should do good works and not pray, but it appears the emphasis is on the men praying and the women doing good works. In like manner also, that women should adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedn...