[Music] Paul's first letter to Timothy Chapter 4 Paul's first letter to Timothy Chapter 4 Verse 12 only verse 12 which says thus Let no one despise your youth but become a pattern of the faithful in the word in conduct in love in faith in purity we already prayed asking for God's blessing so now let's walk towards what God has proposed to us in his word if you wanted to if you were in the 18th century and you wanted to discover and meet one of the greatest preachers of those days who would be indicated as a child still who would grow up to become one of the greatest preachers that history has ever had you would have that it was a town called gloster in england and on one of its corners you would find a bar and on top of that bar you would find a little boy who became known as george withfield one of the greatest preachers that recent times have given us if you still wanted to find the most important person who walked this earth back in the first century then where would you look for him would i look for him in Jerusalem would you look for him in the city or in the place in the most important neighborhood of a city one of the most important positions in society in a son of an authority it is there that you would find this most important person who stepped on the face of the earth if here the word of God shows us that the most important person who passed on this earth and there will live a small and despised town called Nazaré. In fact, it was so despised that that was a city that people said that nothing good could come out of it or they questioned whether we could really find someone who could do something important there and then you found Jesus Christ of Nazareth if you know this it must be news to you but God likes to reveal greatness in small things in many things that are limited things that are unpredictable and many things that are even negligible And why not if he does that with things because he wouldn't do it with people either the apostle Paul when he writes the first letter to the Corinthians actually says that God by his foolishness he puts the wisdom of men to shame by the foolishness of preaching he reduces to nothing that wisdom of men he confounds the wisdom of men men it ends up frustrating men's expectations that's because we have expectations that are wrong we have expectations that are created according to some types of criteria or predefined parameters It's true, we have very predefined criteria for a series of things but we shouldn't take it to the last consequences as many people do here we have Paul writing to a young pastor who pastored the Church of Ephesus around the 60's of the first century and he is assigning Timothy to pastor is a church where he would encounter some challenges challenges and among those challenges perhaps the main one was that he was dealing with false doctrines that were being preached in the region or in that same city in that same locality the city of Ephesus was a city that was not known very well for its morality on the contrary even as similar to what you find in Corinth you have there also a city that is known for an accentuated idolatry in many cases so Timothy a young teacher is there to pastor the church that was being bombarded with several false doctrines you find this in chapter 1 in verse 3 when Paul talks about lest they teach any other doctrine Timothy was placed in Ephesus precisely to bless the people of God the case is that Paul commissions encourages encourages this young pastor to be someone who confronts the false teachings and that promotes the doctrine of the Gospel doctrine that he learned even from Paul and the other apostles but how would a young pastor like Timothy be successful in his church because considering the days when Timothy lived pastoring that place judging by the standards of the in his time how could he shepherd those brothers being still very young this was a real problem and that Paul needed to deal with Paul needed to give the word of God to him and from Verse 12 to Verse 16 of this excerpt that we read here from Chapter 4 from verse 12 we have Paul instructing Timothy on how he should behave in relation to the community which he will shepherd and also helping to understand what he should order or arrange adjust and also teach says verse number 11 orders and teaches these things these things that he had already spoken before Paulo knows that someone if they would take advantage of the fact that timothy is young just for the sake of being young using that as a pretext not to listen he was a pastor in the church he was an authority he was someone combined with apostolic authority So people could use that age plain and simple as a pretext not to listen to young Timothy Paul's order that Timothy's youth or youth probably between 30 and 40 years old it is possible that this age was already was still very much considered too young in those days Timothy was then despised and that this was primarily something that you Timothy had to take into account what Paul is saying but not only him but also the whole church the letter was not only sent to Timothy it was sent to him by name but this letter should be leader it should be recognized by the community What does it mean that arriving at what we have today as Verse 12 the whole church should hear Nobody despise your youth Paul speaking here to Timothy as being heard by all So what shows us is that in addition to Timothy himself considering that this should not be a reason for contempt should not be a pretext to which people would appeal not to respect or cherish him now the church also hears this same command this same demonstration this is because Timothy was instructed to give authoritative instruction to the church but to his position as being relatively young not that he was only the young man of that church Possibly obviously there should be other young people there but in relation to many others including considering elders the word Elder itself comes from elder precisely pointing to more mature people not only mature in life age but also mature in faith mainly mature in faith how would he deal with these difficulties these difficulties that were even cultural this was a guideline this was something that the culture of those days lived and that also penetrated the Church of Christ and how did he would deal with it the envisaged situation Is one where a younger person should have authority over older people which would be countercultural against the custom of those days but Paulo is not intimidated so he doesn't say we need to figure out how to conform or what the world says or the culture preaches so that you will succeed nation in your Pastoral task Paul is not concerned with this so much that he writes categorically both to Timothy and also to the church as a whole before this Paul gives an order with two aspects an order given with two aspects first then a negative aspect that is not to despise Timóteo's youth This must be understood mainly as an incentive then to Timothy so that he does not allow himself to be intimidated by the fact of being young by other people and secondly place as a word the church itself so that this church that needed pastoral care would not show disdain or even contempt for this pastor who was dedicated to the Lord's work. order follows because Paul says that Timothy should be a godly example or role model to others a godly example or role model to others with the implication that this will earn him the respect of others who may be measuring up by human and cultural standards the what Paul is talking about then is that Nobody despises it is not that he Ignores it This is a truth this is a reality that could be found by Timothy within the church he said that this should not happen but he does not say that only this should not happen period no one despises your youth he says what Timóteo should do on the contrary in the opposite so that he would then receive or have there the respect of the people who would be shepherded by him by him and these people should not then measure him with cultural standards and humans first Paul commands Timothy to be a model or pattern the word that is type type even a type you you need to be a type an example you need to be a role model this word caused outside the bible out of the biblical context here as used in the new testament to talk about marks that were generated by blows you took or many times this same word was used by those who they were modeling something that would take shape maybe because of the Impact maybe because of the pressure that was exerted So this word is also being used here and this is probably what it means other times the word of God shows something very similar that has to do with this same principle .
Exodus 25 40 When Moses is talking about making things and the Tabernacle itself you read the following see after that do everything according to the model that was shown to you on the mount there was a pattern to which that Tabernacle that would come to be built there in the desert should be So made molded you can't create anything you don't invent the wheel you fashion according to the mold according to the principle for established Amos 5:26 says yes you took your king cute that your image and your star God that you made for yourselves here the word being applied to the making of images and as we know idolatry always leads us to make a God even if in the heart according to our own preferences and according to our own criteria so it's that kind of situation what is Paul referring to when he says he should be a role model he should be a type or he should be a pattern for those of the Church of Ephesus in other words I show you should be someone who would provide enough godly impact to model the other members of the church if this word was even used to model something it is probably referring to this word has value it is semantic it can mean several things depending on the context but here what seems to be indicating is that Paul is saying to him so that he then provides the impact throughout his life to the point of modeling his brothers to the point of exerting that influence on them obviously Timothy was someone who in turn would also have been deeply impacted by the gospel if he couldn't also invent the wheel if he couldn't he even though it was a mold that would be copied by this one he simply should have been affected before he should have been modeled and the model that impacted him leaving marks on him was the gospel of Jesus Christ Jesus Christ and Paul then speaks of five areas in which Timothy should be role model the church he says first that he should be a role model or an example a pattern through word through speech the way he talked the way he counseled the encouragement he provided gave in the ways he would act or react in his talks about the ways of responding not only in the content but in the very way of speaking Paulo is saying that Timothy should be a model including speech in speech and here we would already have work for the rest of our lives and so would he Because in fact it is like that but he is saying you must be like that no one should despise your youth It's true but you must be an example a pattern in the way you speak and what you say in the way you react when you speak including another area is the area of conduct or the procedure of his attitudes since what is said is useless if it is not confirmed by what is done he could speak very well to give good words at the ideal time but if that was not demonstrated in his own life that would be hypocrisy so he does not I could undo with one hand what they did with the other what is said is useless when not confirmed by what is done you lose credibility you even lose authority as we say in today's culture you have no morals to say what you say and Timothy has to be careful with this Timothy has to be careful with this too and he also talks about love after all Paul himself writes in another letter that love is the bond of perfection bond of perfection in which we humbly serve one another remember -if the tonic Paul often uses this word love talking about horizontal love or brotherly love showing that it is this love that is demonstrated by service by sacrifice by putting the other before you by having the other as superior to you is not that he is it is that you consider him that way and treat him as if he were that way Even if he is a pastor then he should act with a love of humbly serving others teach This Love in your church Another area in which Timothy should be a model is in faith since in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value but faith that works by love here You have one more of the pairs that Paul usually uses in his letters faith and love usually appear together because he is saying here in Galatians he says that Galatians 5 6 says that faith works by love for the Romans He said that everything you do that is not by faith is a sin even though it is a sure thing if you do not do it by faith it is sin so he is saying you must be that standard also in your confidence in your belief in the way you exercise your faith and finally he talks about the example in purity This is in the life of holiness he has already spoken about the way of speaking he has already spoken about how to act about the love he should exercise and here he is saying that he should have purity having a righteous conduct straight good at all times without any kind of contamination you know what pure means is that there is no contamination or that contaminations are removed from there and he as a sinner too that he was he needed to purify himself or be an example in purity he should show the continuous purification of his life to his congregation yes he should serve leading them to do this well but he himself should pull the queue after all Christ himself does this Jesus Christ said Come Follow Me It wasn't just following behind as in a queue it's Come Follow Me really following a model they saw so much what Jesus says in John 13 when he washes the feet of the disciples I I gave you an example for you to do the same and it was not the occasion when Jesus was washing his friends' feet so you really see the same pattern here being passed on through Paul to Timothy and that has everything to do with church life and that also has to do with us so brothers in church life better saying of Ephesus the positive example of love of Timothy the believers could see in Timothy as not only see in Timothy but they should think and act according to what they saw in his pastor even if he was young the lack of experience this is important has everything to do with what he said at the beginning the lack of experience his age would then be compensated for by godly behavior Is there a way to compensate for age or young age or even the little life experience just because you were born years later There is a way you can compensate for the lack of experience and Paul is saying this through your godly behavior that seeks to please God through which you can earn respect and consideration from others is through the conduct through the conduct the attitudes that many times we conquer people's respect without saying a word that calls to complain so maybe you or yourself respect someone precisely because of the conduct regardless of age dependent on anything else just for the conduct from this person although this text brothers if addressed primarily to a minister of the word it is clear to you you know that although it is addressed primarily to the minister of the word the principle contained here is obviously up to all believers and especially the younger ones those younger ones and in your relationship with your brothers, we usually remember Nobody despises your youth period but we don't consider what we should do on our part although he Says nobody considers it like wanting to get everyone He looks at Timóteo and talks about you you there is something to do that is even related to the fact that you are younger so it was not an excuse it was not a license that Paul was giving to Timothy and not to us but because of that brothers we can use then This principle that we see here in the life of Timothy being expressed to Timothy from Paul so that we understand the value and impact that the godly example on our part even if you are very young the godly impact the value of the example in your life or through your life can be of great benefit to your church, no one is speaking of gifts here, nobody is talking about anything that exceeds what every believer should already do . position or we don't have any a very specific function this does not exempt us from living with a good language with a good behavior living in love in faith and in purity these things are things of a believer what Paul is saying here you have to be an example you you have to position yourself you have to be seen that way you need to provide that example you need to position yourself in a way that influences you and positively your brothers understand young people Paul says to Timothy what Paul says to Timothy is not it does not go beyond what everyone we must do so you may not even be old enough in the eyes of others mainly logical relative age you know it is always related to who you are comparing but if you are born again Look at the language of maturity or Childhood or being born again but if you are born again you have the necessary qualities to overcome any lack Including the lack of age and experience the precondition the prerequisite for you to become an example is that you are born again Point You do not need more You shouldn't even run after it, you won't achieve a lot of other things being born again is enough for us to go then ours to our brothers with one as an example to be followed consider even more brothers the one who is called in the Bible the ancient of days he doesn't treat you with contempt the eternal god the ancient of days he doesn't look at you with disdain we know that because he sent his son too our older brother we are always young in this story no matter how old we are we have in this story our relationship with God we have we are dealing with a father he is ancient of days he is the eternal God and Jesus Christ was sent in our favor as a demonstration of acceptance and love on the part of God as he is our brother older and if you were then already accepted by him if you were sought by this father you should not feel diminished in your church context by the simple fact that you are younger you should not what is missing for someone who has already been accepted by the eternal and gracious sovereign God who sends his son on our behalf to die in our place to accept us and to adopt us This is the language of the Gospel Why do you think you need to get older to get what you want maybe inside of your of your church if Christ has already done this has already demonstrated this then brothers the usefulness of your service in the Christian life in the church where you are It is not reserved for when you are 50 or older perhaps using the categories here of Paul from the days of Paulo Timothy is not reserved for there you cannot condition Timothy could not condition your service to the church because of your age because you could because the church should condition your usefulness because of your age because you do not see Paul speaking like that look what I can tell you that when you're older you'll understand Timothy So you'll have to wait, you have to do it Wait a minute and then later they'll elect you pastor or something and not even Paul himself being older than Timothy he despises him and he never diminishes even if he was younger he was a pastor he already had the responsibilities he already had the capabilities for that in those days if you were born again like I said Christ is the one who lives in you who is going to be seen so remember Paulo we are afraid to say this and I regret that we are afraid to say this I understand the reason but we are afraid to say thirst my imitators as I am of Christ it is because we focus a lot on thirst my imitators you need to know that you can say that to your friend you should be able to say that to your friend to your brother I know about my imitators Because I already belong to Christ But that's arrogance so Paulo was a hell of an arrogant guy he already delivers in my region, right Timóteo was not despised Timothy was not one not called to do what I saw in Paul including because I saw Jesus Christ in Paul if you are born again Christ lives in you then brothers by the power of the Spirit in us through us we can bless and be benefited and benefit our brothers in the way we We act, regardless of age, all this so that you reflect that what the Ancient of Days our God and peace has already done for you, you do for others what you have already received from God I remember that in a church where I was a member a while ago, I remember that when we dealt with young people there was a lot of resistance, at least in that group, in helping to take care of the UPA and the children. coming to take care of us but we don't do that but of course we complain when we are despised why don't we do what we ourselves were once the target of what we were once the target of the love of God that didn't consider Our condition our age doesn't matter he came to us through Christ by the power of the Spirit just like Paul to Timothy We need to be Frank then with ourselves and also with other people about the difficulties in surmountable Paul is not talking Let it go forget it It's just bullshit you don't have value that for him he's dealing with a real problem and he doesn't overlook this problem and he doesn't overlook this problem that can happen in the context in which the young pastor is going to pastor older people or in which you who are older young people will serve people who are older but more experienced he does not despise or make light of it he needs to say that the church as a whole needs to walk in step in the same tone are you prepared to deal with these things with these difficulties because we know that unfortunately some people take the last consequences some criteria and despise others we know that there are several types of discrimination and contempt sometimes it is financial sometimes it is social sometimes it is even the faith itself but here Paul is talking about a type of contempt that Maybe it can be ignored sometimes or Left So that even if it works, it's not really that it's contempt with age discrimination with regard to age now it's not for you to be proud and talk, you see, they said so you have to respect that there you already broke from love broke from Faith broke from proceeding broke from talking there you are You're playing against your own team of course not the love part even involves humility But are you prepared to deal with difficulties like these in your relationship with your brothers or do you think they will accept it or will they understand it right away are you willing to consider that despite being younger than other people you were placed there by God so that you can benefit your brother that you are helping in the Christian walk then that one doesn't recognize it even if he doesn't understand it that's why he doesn't realize it You can't condition your service either you can regret it You can pray you can talk to your brother but you shouldn't not do something just because someone else You do something wrong with yourself you have done it to others yet you yourself despise someone Sometimes we can do this maybe even as a reflection of what we ourselves receive at the other end the way in which Paulo guided Timothy to face possible he didn't say that's right there's nothing to do and that has to be swallowed Ah, if only there were pastors who were always older Paulo isn't regretting that he never said Timothy when you're a mature more you'll see things like me you will If you understand me, you've heard these phrases.
You'll understand. You 'd understand . command addressed to Timothy had the whole church as hearers and it was the whole church that was an object of Paul's exhortation the younger ones in the case represented by Timothy and possibly the older members of Timothy's church This means that the oldest and most experienced should not be among them, in fact the despisers Paulo is not taking any chances, he is playing in the dark Possibly this already happened there sometimes this can happen this contempt can happen due to arrogance other times it could be that the most old people speak Ah, there is no hope in this youth that's why I use contempt he won't say that's why he despises But it may be that he acts like that It may be that many times it's arrogance even thinking that the criterion of age He gave all the wisdom that it is possible to have and that you then have nothing to contribute just listening to this could be a reflection of arrogance It could be hopelessness or it could be frustration even though he has tried several times and had some illusions with some young people even if they didn't have one good conduct in love proceed in purity may be you have to understand this you have to understand all these situations and love your brothers this does not make the older better just because they are older Just more responsible to provide godly help when Paul wrote the letter to Timóteo he says older women teach the younger ones to love their husbands we already see that loving has to do with learning, it's not something that arises You need to learn to love someone and Paulo is telling Tito that women more The old women should be responsible for the older ones, including teaching and teaching them and helping them Mari her husband so at other times Paulo reminds that the elders are actually more responsible and should actually serve the dynamics of the church be older be more new should be service in the love of Christ the faith that works by love so my dear ones do not despise the youth whether your own or someone else's If you are older remember that you must not also despise the youth of your church provide the all these newer encouragement help you will always have the newest one for you to encourage and help so that you don't get intimidated And furthermore mainly as we see in the text make yourself show yourself as a model what form that has an impact can be stronger it can be less strong it can be for a long time it can be for a short time modeling and impacting the lives of your brothers and sisters in the context of your church don't despise yourself don't despise don't despise anyone Live like a model Live like that model of example the godly example Paul is referring to here may God bless you in your church where you are the church in the church where you are working provide yourselves like this show yourselves do this please do this please and for the love of God for the love of God and his church regardless of what you may receive before or after the way you stand let's pray thank you God for your word Reminds us Lord of Necessity that we have to consider usefulness our usefulness after all After all, the Lord has placed us among those who believe .
