A MODEL
Doug Welch
The great idea of a model I believe to be a principle in the house of God. When we think of a model, we would turn our hearts and our minds to the supreme Model, the Lord Jesus. He says in Matthew 11, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me ... for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light", (vv 29,30). What fulness there is in Christ as a model! He suffered for us, "for Christ also has suffered for you, leaving you a model that ye should follow in his steps" (1 Peter 2: 21), Christ supremely the testimony in every sense of the world, "suffered for you, leaving you a model that ye should follow in his steps".
The primary thought in mind has to do with the family in John's epistle, the graded positions of growth found there. We would consider the Lord Jesus as the supreme Model in the way that we are set in growth. We are all children and we know forgiveness; we know Him who has forgiven us. Some are fathers and "have known him that is from the beginning" (v 13); young men in whom the word of God abides (v 14) and "who have overcome the wicked one"; little children who "have the unction from the holy one, and ye know all things" (v 20). These great sensibilities are found in little children, those who not only know their Saviour but they know things inwardly, based on the experiences that come before them.
In the father, perhaps the thought of a model would be for the believers. I read the verse as to a young man, Timothy, perhaps not so young in age as we think of the beloved young brethren here in the meeting, but he was nevertheless referred to as a young man and, as Paul's child, he was to be "a model of the believers". The fathers, I think, at least the impression I have - have come that way through experience and discipline, perhaps referring back in my mind to Jacob. As he fled from Esau, the first experience he had was with Jehovah who was above him and the place was Beth-el, and Jehovah said, "I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac", Gen 28: 13. So the father would be one who would have experience with God and he would relate also to what has gone before him: "I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac". A father would be one like Jacob who would return to Beth-el and who would as it were, gather up his children in finality and bring them to the land of Goshen. You might say a father would be an example for the believer. In 1 Peter 5 verse 2 - the brethren might recall the scripture - he says "shepherd the flock of God" speaking to the elders; Peter as a fellow-elder impressing us that we live in a day when there is not much that is great. These are not the days of the apostles, not a day to seek great things for ourselves, but we can certainly listen to the scripture, especially the fathers, I would say, and shepherd the flock of God. "Not as lording it", it says in the scripture in 1 Peter 5 verse 3, "over your possessions, but being models for the flock". What a wonderful thing, beloved ones, as we sit together - and we are together, the greatness of the assembly, the greatness of the testimony, supremely in Christ, but yet descriptively worked out family-wise - that persons can be models! Think of that scripture again in Matthew 11. The Lord would tum His eyes to the Father and He would say, "I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes" (v 25). And then as the apostle would write to the Thessalonians, young believers, and say that they were models to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia", 1 Thess 1: 7. Dear young believer, you have a place in the testimony and it is important to lay hold of these scriptures for the Lord needs you. The Lord needs each one of us to "strengthen the things that remain, which are about to die", Rev 3: 2. Let us strengthen them!
But I want to say a word to these young men. We have all been young, even if we are a little older. Some of us as to our spiritual growth perhaps are still in that phase, but we would want to keep moving. Considering Timothy as a young man, he was to be an example of a believer. Whatever was put into his hand, he would want to be an example of that, and work it out in the light of Paul's ministry. That is a wonderful thing. If we were to read together the beginning of 2 Timothy, there is something very precious there. Paul says concerning Timothy, I remember your tears (chap 1: 4). The young man Timothy, if we can use that suggestively, was in a right state to continue in the things that he learned because he felt the condition of things: "remembering the tears". And then, if you go on in 2 Timothy: "Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord" (chap 1: 8); "take thy share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (chap 2: 3). A good soldier has one thing before him. He is not diverted from that. There may be diversions but he is not really diverted from it. A good soldier is one who can go on and endure things because he has his eye on his commander, he rallies around his leader.
And so Timothy was to prove certain things. He was to prove himself a workman because he valued the scriptures. He was one we could relate to, who overcame the world: "For all that has been begotten of God gets the victory over the world; and this is the victory which has gotten the victory over the world, our faith", 1 John 5: 4. I am not sure that that is the operative, active element of faith (although I would include it in it), but to young brethren here, "our faith" is what has been given to us: "our faith", not my faith, nor your faith necessarily, although I would say that would be included, but "our faith": the whole body of the truth once delivered to the saints (see Jude 3). What a legacy we have, young brethren, and the Lord, as it were, is ready to take you from the crossway and have you and me fill that out as an example of a believer , "a model of the believers, in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Till I come ..." You see, it is worked out in the light of Paul's ministry. The very greatest thing that God ever had in mind is worked out now at the present time in testimony, the very greatest things.
And so, beloved ones, we have these things in our hand and we have the legacy of the truth as it has been opened out and developed. And it says, "Till I come, give thyself to reading, to exhortation, to teaching". Reading is a great thing. I do not want to be negative here, but I think in Revelation it says something concerning those who love and make a lie. As I said, there could be diversions, but a good soldier is not diverted and these things that we might take up extraneously and get our minds occupied with, let us bear in mind where they come from. If we are honest, we have all had some of these kinds of diversions, but the very fact that we see fathers in the room - and I am not leaving mothers out either - is the very proof that as young men they had one thing in mind before them. They were good soldiers and they made it through.
I would just say concerning motherhood before I sit down that there is an extremely important need in the testimony for its continuance and its completion at the highest level, and it will be completed at the highest level, and that is, desiring a man-child. The sisters in the room know the scriptures better than I do concerning Hannah. She made a request and her great desire was to see a man-child come forth, to see the features of Christ come out in these young men and these young women. The younger ones of us in this room need to take account of that: there have been sisters, the subjective element in the assembly, that have made requests and they have continued in prayer and they want to see a man child after the supreme Model of the Lord Jesus Himself.
Well, beloved brethren, may we just be helped in this idea of a model, not to pretend or anything like that, but to see that it is all there, to go in for it and not be diverted, for His Name's sake.
GRANGEMOUTH
3 November 1998