(Based on 1 Timothy 4:1-16)
I used to be a leader in Young Life, which is an organization that centers around loving high school students. I had the opportunity to grow really close to a group of five or six guys during a trip to Colorado, and from that trip sprung some relationships that are still going on ten years later. We spent a lot of time together going through a book called "Wild at Heart" and creating havoc. We prayed together, ate together, drank coffee together, and struggled together. When they entered their senior years of high school, I was heavy into my drinking. Up until this point, I thought if I just stayed away from alcohol and focused on being a good leader, I could keep that part of my life in the closet. Eventually though, there was nothing that could keep it compartmentalized. My friends would come over to the house finding me slurring and swaying with a bottle in hand. It was in these moments that they saw me as a messy, dirty, hopeless human being. I was no longer able to keep my "leadership" life separated from my drinking life. They blurred into one, and nothing could stop it.
I still wonder if the times my friends saw me in that state screwed them up. I wonder if my actions gave them permission to do the same things. I wonder what I was teaching them in those moments.
Every once in awhile, I'll get a message from one of those guys saying how much they appreciated me. It reminds me that no matter how messed up I am at any given time, there is good coming through. I just don't see it most of the time.
In today's passage, Paul encourages Timothy about his teaching. He says there are three avenues through which we teach: word, demeanor, faith, love, and integrity, and he is trying to empower Timothy to help restore the broken church he's a part of. The church is getting overrun by liars who are telling people not to get married and not to eat certain types of food. They aren't viewing creation as holy, but are diving everything up into secular and sacred parts. Paul wants Timothy to live out something different. He wants Tim to put his teaching on display without falling into the same trap, viewing the people he disagrees with as secular thinkers.
What Paul does not do is tell Timothy to rally the troops and overthrow the leadership of the church. He doesn't tell him to picket the leaders' houses. He doesn't tell him to moralize or lecture anyone. He simply tells him to teach through word, demeanor, faith, love, and integrity.
Timothy's job is to infiltrate the broken, messy church with uplifting, encouraging, teaching.
I love Paul because he used to murder people he didn't agree with, and now he's encouraging Timothy to not even point out the flaws of the people he disagrees with. He's encouraging him to live out what he believes, and that God will take care of the results. People will notice.
So often, I find myself in Timothy's shoes. I stand back, look at the world and the church and see a broken, messy, disaster. Ignoring the disasters going on in my own heart, I'll start figuring out ways to change what I see. I'll start trying to fix what I have no power over. Instead of working on the parts of me that are broken and in need of major repair, I start spinning my wheels on how I can fix an institution.
The first thing Paul told Timothy to do in the previous chapter was to pray. Now he is telling him to teach. I don't think he's talking about getting in front of an audience on a stage and declaring anything. He's talking about simply teaching in his everyday, moment to moment life. After all, aren't we all teachers? Haven't we all been taught, and we're just carrying on the messages we believe?
In our society and church, there is a gap between the teacher and the student. Just take a look at how we present messages inside the school or the church. There is a platform for the teacher and it's raised. The teacher sort of floats above the audience as this guru who has something that nobody in the audience has. The audience sits back in their chairs receiving what it is this teacher has to say. There is no dialogue, unless the teacher allows it.
Paul is conveying here that this isn't how it actually is. In his time, open dialogue allowed everyone to realize they were teachers. Inside the temples as well as the schools, people got together and talked. People discussed politics, religion, and philosophy. People listened to each other and wanted to learn more.
To Timothy, Paul is taking what is normal and adding to it. He is telling him that in the middle of conflict, he should still teach. As he watches the train wreck happening, don't be afraid of teaching through word, demeanor, faith, love, and integrity.
Whoever we are and whatever we're doing, we're teachers. People are watching us. They are listening to our words. They are seeing how we practice our faiths. They are paying attention to how we love others and ourselves. Are we teaching a message that builds the people around us up? When we see problems around us, or moral dilemmas, or political or religious corruption, are we teaching the same messages or are we letting the outside world determine the content?
Today's Action: Pay attention to how we teach today. What are our words like? What is our demeanor like? What is our love like? What is our integrity like? What is our faith like? What messages are we sending out.
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