Timothy was a born in what is modern Turkey of a Greek father and a Jewish Christian mother (Acts 16:1). From childhood Timothy had been taught the Old Testament 2Tim 3:15. In Acts 16, Paul invited Timothy to become his assistant and circumcised him so that his Greek ancestry would not be a problem when they preached among the Jews. Timothy is a co-author or an assistant to Paul when he wrote six of his letters to the churches, that is 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, 1, 2 Thessalonians and Philemon, as well as being the recipient of 1, 2Timothy.
In 2Timothy 3:15, Paul writes to Timothy "Do your best to present yourself to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth".
We have noted before that Paul has had a close relationship with the Philippian church and did his best to nurture this church. But Like Jesus, the strength and continuity of his ministry was working very closely and mentoring a few disciples then sending them off to carry on the work after himself. Timothy is one of those inner circle disciples in Paul's ministry. What makes Timothy stand out?
He is selfless. Timothy is the epitome of the passage we talked about earlier of humility and self denial. Paul says that unlike everyone else, Timothy looks out to the interests of Jesus Christ. Can that be said of you?
Timothy has proven his character: his track record is good; he is consistent, faithful and dependable. Paul actually sends him to other churches in other Epistles, certain that he had a reliable representative and pastor for these churches, without blemish or guile.
He has served with me in the work of the gospel: Timothy works, not for Paul but with Paul in serving God. Our goal in serving is not that men may notice and praise us. It is that we may lead others to experience the goodness of God. There is an Old Testament story that amplifies this, in 2 Kings 7:5-11. Israel had been besieged by an invading army and everyone was starving. Four leppers went out to the enemy camp and found that the enemy had scattered in fright. They ate and hid some provisions to themselves, and then said to each other "we are not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves". The gospel is like that, good news that we cannot keep to ourselves. We have to share it so that others may have life. The motivation for serving is that others may also experience the goodness of God that we have experienced. Timothy is like that.
Though the goal is not to be praised by men, we do notice that Paul takes time to highly commend Timothy the Philippian Church. This gives confidence to Timothy and makes his word credible to the church.
Consider: Here is a passage that was true of Timothy. Is it true of you? "For Christ’s love compels us, since we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died…that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again”.
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