“O MAN OF GOD”
A. J. E. Welch
The way in which Paul addresses Timothy as “man of God” has often drawn my mind to this scripture. It seems to bring out so much for us in the kind of day which these two letters have in mind. We recognise the divine authority of the word in what this epistle to Timothy presents, but with that authority there is immense depth of appeal. You feel that the beloved writer is continually seeking to get right into Timothy’s soul, to secure that man in total committal to interests so glorious and so precious.
It must have struck Timothy that the one who was to him a father spiritually should say, “O man of God”. It would awaken Timothy to the place he had in Paul’s affectionate regard, and raise with Timothy a challenge as to the use of such a term concerning him; the challenge, in the skill of the beloved writer, the skill of the Spirit, was of course intended. The term is not used of very many. It is used of Moses; it is used of Elijah; it is used of Elisha, and in the last two cases particularly it seems to become prominent in relation to circumstances of widespread public breakdown. The man of God is one that can then be called upon to bring in the touch of God Himself in grace, but in power. Think of the remarkable exploits of Elisha particularly; for example, he brought a young lad to life. That was a mighty working of divine power in a day of widespread public brokenness. A man of God was equal to that. Paul’s concern as to Timothy was that he should be equal, as equipped, of God, for the circumstances which he faced in the testimony. You seem to discern, running right through both of these letters, the fatherly and affectionate touch of Paul; yet there is always the urgent touch that would brook no interference, no delay, no slackness, in pursuing the testimony to which such glory attaches.
Many of his injunctions to Timothy are very forceful, and yet the fatherly touch is there; it is to help Timothy, in the stimulation that divine love delights to give, to come forward in the full expression of what God had committed into his hand.
Now Timothy had been long with Paul. He knew him well. I doubt not he had heard him pray, had heard him speak of his concern for the saints in the various places where he knew them—and there were many such places—and he proved to be, as Philippians tells us, “like-minded” with Paul. Now that is the first point of vital import as to Timothy. He was like-minded with Paul. Paul writes at a time when he has to say, “I have no one like-minded …” (Philippians 2: 20), but then he calls attention to Timothy. Now I ask myself, am I like-minded with Paul? A very penetrating question—am I like-minded with Paul? Paul would be thinking of interests standing related to the Man in the glory who had appeared to him on the Damascus road. What a touch he had had from Christ up there in the glory in which He appeared to him! He was constantly moving under the precious impulse of that experience of his.
Are we getting impulses from Christ? It may not be in the outstanding circumstances in which Saul of Tarsus first had an impulse from Christ, but do we know what it is to get impressions from Jesus, directing us, guiding us, stimulating us, nourishing us, strengthening us for His interests? What are our relations with Christ? I believe that is a key question in the midst of the challenges of the present time—what our love for Christ is, where we are in our relations with Him. I have thought a lot of late of Mary (Luke 10: 39), who sat at the feet of Jesus “listening to his word”. Whatever He said, Mary would attend to it. Do we know that place? It is open to us.
There is no hindrance to our being, in the way suggested there, at the feet of Jesus. Do we know that place? It is a very, very precious place, a very, very fruitful place in which to be, to get communications definitely and in love from Jesus Himself.
Now all this would enter into the history of Paul as Timothy knew it. Therefore, what a touch of moral power enters into every injunction of Paul to Timothy. He was an apostle, certainly.
That must be guarded. That is according to God, that he had apostolic authority; but I ask you to see the weight of fatherly appeal that enters into these letters, which have such practical application, to this present time. Think of this wonderful time of reviving, of what God wrought around 1830! I speak of it quite practically because it was undoubtedly of God, and things that are of God we are free to speak of on such occasions. The truth was unfolded, and saints were recovered to it and established in it; conflicts came, and attacks of the enemy, thank God, were overcome; the testimony went on, and the Lord showed His hand to be in it.
This went on, but alas other things intruded, great griefs came in; matters came into view which were altogether distinct in character from that which God had begun with. We have had to face them and judge them. It is of God that we should face them, and judge them. I do not particularise; it is not for us on such an occasion to particularise, but things have come in which have challenged the course of what was of God in life among His beloved people.
What, therefore, shall we do? The Spirit helps us to get back to the pure spring of that wonderful work of God which, began about one-hundred-and-fifty years ago. The matter is such a challenging one that we could not do it without divine help, but the Spirit helps us to get through the matter to taste the pure springs, the choice, refreshing springs full of Christ, full of the glory of Christ, full of the greatness of the work of Christ, and full of the assembly as the great answer to the heart of Christ. These are stupendous and glorious matters which have been opened out in the Spirit’s power. Let us get back to them, dear brethren, and let us keep in them, and let us provide something in our own day, so different as it is, that would measure up in some sense to this word, “O man of God”.
Are we ready? Are we ready to go on with God in a dark day? Are we ready to be, in some sense, His resource in a dark day? Think of Elijah and Elisha and Moses! How God used them! They were always under His hand to be used. I believe there is something about this word, “O man of God” bringing great appeal to bear. Timothy would never claim such a title in any official sense or in any sense of claim. He knew his beloved spiritual father Paul too well to venture any such claim, but the word “O man of God” is to stir Timothy and stimulate him, to bring the urgency of the position to bear on him in a day of grave and increasing departure. The question is real, dear brethren, whether we shall stand for Christ in love for Him in the midst of a day of continually increasing departure’. Our love is being tested. Our loyalty to Christ is being tested. He loves to test it to bring out its true quality and its true value; there is to be something to answer to the man of God.
This is not without its feminine counterparts. We have women in the Old Testament singularly used in the defence of what is precious to God. Think of a woman like Abigail, and of others that would come to our minds, persons that just stood true to God, so that God could come in and exercise His power. The expression “man of God”, I understand, includes that; that there is in some sense a vessel of divine power that God can use in the furtherance of what is of Himself. How precious to be in God’s hand! It is not to make anything of us, but to make everything of Him and of Christ and of the Spirit.
So Paul warns us against the love of money. The Spirit warns us from time to time in such letters as these of outstanding perils, and this is one of them. I do not elaborate upon it, but it impresses me, as being in this passage, as one of great moment at the present time. He says, “But thou, O man of God, flee these things …”, flee them; do not tamper with them, do not investigate them; flee them, because they can do nothing but damage to what is so precious to Christ. “Flee these things”. It is not only the love of money, of course; he mentions several things, but he says, “But thou, O man of God, flee these things”. There are usually things arising in our pathways that we need to flee from, things that present themselves, perhaps very plausibly, not perhaps seemingly very important things, and yet as they gain our attention we see that God is not in them. “Flee these things”.
Beloved brethren, it is a time of decisiveness on our part in loyalty to Christ; not for putting off decisions, not for temporising and allowing things to continue perhaps in view of dealing with them later. No—it is a time for decisiveness, and for definiteness in loyalty and love for Christ to come into expression. “Flee these things, and pursue righteousness, piety, faith, love, endurance, meekness of spirit”. What lovely features these are, so consistent with what came out in Jesus; lovely features! We are to pursue them. That is the positive, energetic side, which the apostle never fails to bring forward. We are to pursue “righteousness, (first, as always in these letters) piety, faith, love, endurance, meekness of spirit”. Endurance tests us, but we are to pursue it. It will show the moral fibre of the person; it will show that he is, indeed, a man of God in some sense of the word.
Who of us would not in such times of growing heartlessness disclose our true colours in loyalty and allegiance to Himself? “Strive earnestly in the good conflict of faith”, earnestly—you see there is to be no half-measure; “earnestly”, he says. He puts in that word under the touch of the Spirit to bring Timothy up to the full standard; let us be found, dear brethren, measuring up in these days to the full standard. The full standard, of course, is Christ, but let us measure up in some sense to the standard as he suggests it a little later, “Christ Jesus who witnessed before Pontius Pilate the good confession”; the Model of everything in witness, as in everything else, is in Jesus; but we are to conform to the full standard, to rise to the height of what God has committed to His saints, to rise to the height of what God has brought about in recovering His saints to what is precious to Himself.
There is a great field of holy and fruitful activity before us here, leading to what the beloved apostle finishes with, that is, this glorious doxology, “to whom be honour and eternal might, Amen”. The greatness of God shines out. Lovely, is it not? When you go over the truth, the greatness of God shines out as you speak of these things, as you speak of His activities, as you speak of His saints. You see the glory of God shining out, producing an answer for Himself in life.
Truly it is a wonderful system of things, to which God has called us. May we each, from the youngest to the oldest, have a full part in it as having some sense of what is found in the “man of God”, for His name’s sake.
Address in Melbourne
12 August 1978