AN APPEAL TO YOUTH
A. C. Craig
There would hardly be anywhere, I suppose, dear brethren, in Scripture such a concentration of exhortation, of injunction, as you will find in these five verses. There are eight different injunctions; two of them negative, six of them positive.
They bear on two things, progress and salvation. I want to speak mainly about progress—“that thy progress may be manifest to all”. I want to speak to the youth—“Let no one despise thy youth”—and to bring forward Timothy as an illustration, to whom Paul is clearly addressing these things. We are in a time when there is a great call upon the youth; a great call upon their time, and upon their exercises, their energy.
So Paul here is appealing to Timothy, not only appealing, but there are certain injunctions that are worked out in view of his progress. You know, dear younger brethren, it would be the delight of the brethren, your local brethren, to see you making progress. It would be a great grief if you were halted or stunted, if your progress stopped or ceased; that would be a sorrow to the brethren. What a cheer to them it would be to see you progressing, and too that your progress may come out and be manifest to all, that is what the brethren are looking for. You could even get a degree; this epistle speaks about obtaining a degree; that your progress may become such that you get a degree, and “a good degree” it says (1 Timothy 3: 13). There are different kinds of degrees in Scripture; there are high degrees and low degrees, and then there are people of second degrees; but this epistle speaks about “a good degree”. Some here might remember Mr. Alex Newlands of Edinburgh, I heard him once say that Phoebe obtained two degrees. The first one was—now remember these things you younger people—SOTC, that was the first degree she took; the second one was SOM. The first one was, Servant of the Church; she was servant of the church—what a degree that is to have! The other was, SOM—Succourer of Many. You will find these things after her name in Romans 16. You have to read the King James version to find these degrees; but you can have a good degree, and that would greatly cheer the local brethren to see you making progress to that extent.
So, “Let no one despise thy youth”. That is not that Timothy went around telling everybody that no one should despise him; it would come out in his behaviour, come out in his conduct; he would be such in good conduct that his youth would not be despised, but rather commended. You might think sometimes that your youth is a disadvantage, well, your youth can be such that you can adorn it. Paul says also, “but be a model of the believers”. Not a ‘model to them’, but ‘a model of them’; be a sample of them. That is very important. Think of what a choice thought it is, what a privilege. Suppose someone is needed, for instance, to set out what the believers were. It is a good question too, What are the believers? Suppose someone was needed to illustrate what the believers were. Could you be useful? Could you be used as such, as a sample of the believers? Who are the believers? Well, the believers are those who are here, who have a direct link with Christ; they are united to Him. That is the idea of a believer in John’s gospel; it is not just something assented to by our minds, but you have a vital link with Him. Believers are people here who are different from others, unbelievers for instance. Believers are those who have a direct link with God, with Christ, with heaven; they are heavenly people. Now could you be taken for a sample of the believers, as I said, in a situation where someone was needed to be a model of them? Could you be that?
Timothy could be that, as I hope to show. That is what Paul is saying “be a model of the believers”.
Then Paul runs over these things, “in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity”. These five things are like the five senses; the whole man and his whole faculties are coming into expression. He is taken over completely, so to speak, by the truth. Ah, you younger people, we want you to listen to Paul’s injunctions about progress. That is what Paul is working up to, progress, “that thy progress may be manifest”. It is a very vital thing that we do not allow anything to interfere with it. For instance, you do not waste your time.
There are two things, I suppose, for your progress to proceed and come to something real and substantial. These two things would be; that you do not waste your time, and that you work; in one word, you are not an idler. You have got to commit yourself. You go back over your history, one’s own history, and you see how little progress there has been, and do you know the reason for it? Because you have been an idler; you have wasted the time and not been prepared to work. Be like Timothy. For instance, the first mention of Timothy in Scripture is almost as if he was a model of the believers. He was only young, but it says he had a good testimony of the brethren in Lystra and Iconium, Acts 16: 2. He had a good testimony of them; that is a wonderful thing. What do the brethren think about you? You will bear perhaps with me as I bring forward these injunctions. What do the brethren think about you? Are you a cheer to them? Can they speak well of you? Timothy had a good testimony of the brethren in Lystra and Iconium. Are we a sorrow to the brethren? are we a concern to them? are we a worry to them? Timothy had a good testimony of his local brethren, and Paul took him on; that is the first mention of Timothy in Scripture. Of course he was a youth then; it speaks about his youth here. One thing about Timothy is that you get a full profile of him, so to speak, in Scripture.
You get his childhood mentioned. Paul says, “from a child thou hast known the sacred letters” (2 Timothy 3: 15), that is like the ABC up on the wall there, the ABC of the Hebrew alphabet. Think of Timothy’s mother and grandmother instructing him in the sacred letters.
You know, dear young people, aim not to be an idler. Be prepared to work; that is, you work over the Scriptures and the ministry, and you pray over them. You are prepared to work and work hard, the older ones too. There is not one idle letter in Scripture, “thou hast known the sacred letters”. Are you prepared to go over the Scriptures, counting on the help of the Spirit?
That would be my encouragement to every one of us here today, especially the younger brethren, that we work and we value the sacred letters. It says then, “which are able to make thee wise unto salvation”—progress and salvation.
Psalm 119 is a long psalm. I remember I took upon me when I was young to read through the Psalms, and I read three psalms every day. When I came to Psalm 119 it happened to be I had to read it in the morning; it just meant that I had to get up early to read it. Unless we are prepared to work and commit ourselves there will be very little progress. It is an alphabetical psalm, the ABC’s are there in that psalm; there are twenty-two sections to it, eight verses in each section, and each section has the heading of one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
That is very instructive; Scripture gives you that idea of the ABC’s; they are sacred letters. You read that psalm through and you get instruction for young men in it, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his path?” and so on (Psalm 119: 9). All this is instructive. You learn the ABC’s; Timothy learnt them; do not be afraid to work, to work hard, and your progress will come out. Make progress!
Another interesting section of Scripture about the alphabet is the woman of worth in Proverbs 31, which is very, very interesting. There are twenty-two verses dealing with the woman of worth, and each begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It just means that that woman is an expression of the whole alphabet. The Spirit intends that the assembly in her working capacity might be a complete representation of the truth of the alphabet, everything covered; that woman covers everything. So you pore over that, you pray over it, and you find yourself gaining help and gaining confidence. All this would help us, help you, and help me, to be “a model of the believers”. There is something substantial here as I pore over the sacred letters; there is something substantial coming about, our progress ensuing.
Then Paul says, “give thyself to reading”. There are four references in these five verses to “thyself”. You say, Timothy might have objected to it, saying, ‘Paul, you are pressing the thing’. Why should he not? These are days, beloved younger people, when we cannot afford to be casual or indifferent. Paul warned about not being negligent—it is “Let no one”, and “but be”, then “give thyself”. These are very pungent things, very pungent ministry, you say.
Paul is concerned about Timothy and how things are going to proceed with him, as the brethren are about you. Your local brethren are concerned about you; your father and mother, and the local brethren, are concerned about you, that you might be making progress; not going back, not stunted or standing still, but going forward.
“Give thyself to reading”. That is most important; reading aloud, reading it to others maybe; reading for yourself; but you have got to work; that is the whole thing. ‘Give thyself to
reading, to exhortation, to teaching’. Then, “Be not negligent”; you are amazed at Paul’s insistence. It is quite possible in these days for the ministers, and I am filling out that position at the moment, to be in a way apologetic. I think a minister should be able to assess the atmosphere, and the conditions that are surrounding the younger people; he should have a true assessment of that, and what the effect of that might be upon the younger people, and see to it that the ministry is such that the younger people are fortified; not to be a minister of appeasement—anything that just glosses over the real conditions will not help. I think the matter of this kind of ministry that Paul is bringing before Timothy, and insisting on, is essential in view of progress coming to light.
So he says, “Be not negligent”. We have got to work, work, every one of us. As I said, you look back over your own history, the time that you lost, the ground that you lost. I say to you in your youth, listen to what Paul is saying to Timothy. He was such a brother, such a young man, was Timothy, that Paul could send him anywhere. You know, in six of Paul’s epistles he associates Timothy with him in the address. He could send him to Corinth; he could send him to Thessalonica; and he was at Troas. Paul could send him; he was a young man, but he had made such progress that Paul could bring him forward, and he certainly obtained a good degree. I commend that to you; you aspire for that; you set out for getting a good degree.
When Paul said about him in Philippians, “For I have no one like-minded who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on” (2 Timothy 2: 20), that was certainly a good degree. Yes, ‘professor’ Paul, capped him there I am sure with such glory—no one like-minded to care with genuine feeling how the saints got on. Fancy your local brethren being able to say that about you—he, and she, are fine; they care for the saints; they serve the saints. How wonderful that is! Timothy was such a young man.
Then he says, “Occupy thyself with these things; be wholly in them”. Well, now, I prayed to the Lord about this meeting, and this word, and I said, ‘All these injunctions, Lord; there is not much meat about this subject’. He said to me, ‘Refer to the ram of consecration’. Ah! the ram of consecration. That is it, beloved brethren, dear younger people, if we are to progress, the secret of progress is consecration. As I said, not to be an idler, but to be consecrated, and consecration means your hands are full, both of your hands filled with your Bible or the ministry. People say, ‘But young people cannot always be reading the ministry’. Why not?
What have you got in your hands?—a tennis racket? a cricket bat? Are your hands full? Ah, you are to be consecrated; the ram of consecration was very choice. In this epistle Timothy is under a charge; there is a charge in this epistle, the charge of the house of God. Here is the great object, that your progress may be in relation to the house of God. “This charge my child Timotheus, I commit to thee” (1 Timothy l: l8)—that is Levitical service, and in Numbers 8 the Levites were brought forward, and presented before Jehovah, and then they were presented before Aaron, and taken on by Aaron—in view of the service of the house of God.
But behind the Levites is the priest. So in Leviticus 8 you have the priests brought forward with the ram of consecration, and they lay their hands on the ram of consecration, which, as you know, would be the Lord Jesus in His devotedness to the will of God; especially in Mark, which gives you the ram of consecration, you would get the readiness of the Lord Jesus in the service. Oh, He was not an idler! This scripture, “Occupy thyself with these things; be wholly in them”, takes you back to Luke 2, where He said to His parents, “did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?” (Luke 2: 49)—twelve years of age; you think of the preciousness of that! But in Mark’s gospel you get the ram of consecration. In Mark there is no time lost. If Mark were giving an address he would tell the younger people, ‘You know’, he would say, ‘I was an idler; I lost time; I did not work’. That is why, I think, he takes up the devotedness of Christ as the great Servant and presents Him in such devotion, such committal; that is the ram of consecration; so feed on Him, feed on Christ. Read Mark’s gospel and see how the Lord acts. That is one of the characteristic ideas in Mark’s gospel, how things are done, not just the facts themselves, but how things are done. So we feed on the ram of consecration at the door of the tent of meeting; you build up a constitution, and you build yourself up in relation to what is for God’s pleasure.
That is the priestly idea, and that is the background to the Levitical service. That is the background to this epistle, where the house of God is to be maintained, and Timothy is under charge to maintain it. You accept that in your youth, that things are committed to you; you know they are not optional; there is this injunction that things have to be done; there is obligation attached to it; but behind all that is the priesthood, what you are for the divine pleasure. So, “Occupy thyself with these things; be wholly in them”. You think of Jesus at twelve years old, “did ye not know?”—Oh, what a committal! Twelve years of age, and it says He went down with them to Nazareth, “and he was in subjection to them” (Luke 2: 51).
That was until He was thirty; from twelve He was subject to them until He was thirty, until He came out into public service. What an example! He is a Model for the believers; Timothy might be a model of the believers; but Jesus is the Model for all of us. You think of that subjection.
You think of the youth of today, think of the insubjection; think of the lawlessness; think of all that is in the world. Be different! Be such that you may be a model of the believers, that you can be taken as such at any time. Joseph took those five of his brothers and he presented them before Pharaoh. He would say to Pharaoh, What do you think of those men? You think of heaven coming in at any given time and taking you and saying, Look at that; that is a sample of heaven’s work, a sample of My people who are on the earth. Those five men were a sample of Joseph’s own work, as if he were saying to Pharaoh, I am glorified in them.
Think of your being taken as a sample to set out at any time what the saints are in their being called of God, and in separation down here. You can be a sample of that. The Lord is the great Model to us all in subjection—beautiful! You go on to the time when all will be placed in subjection, when God will be all in all. It had its beginning, so to speak, in His manhood here, from twelve to thirty, when He was in subjection to His parents. How old are you? Are you twenty-five? Are you subject? Think of Him, subject to His father and mother, and to that age. What an example!
“Occupy thyself with these things”—give yourself to them—“be wholly in them”, all your time, all your energy. Oh, you say, young people need some recreation; so they do; Paul would allow that I suppose, but he says it profits a little, but piety. Oh, piety is “profitable for everything”. Is that not fine now, to progress in piety? and you must be pious before you are spiritual. That is true, you must be pious before you are spiritual.
Then it says, “continue in them”. That brings up the way Timothy went on, in spite of certain disadvantages he had. He did not seem to be too well; he had a poor stomach according to what Paul says, and he had various illnesses, but he continued on and he finished well. He is much mentioned, there is nobody, I think, of Paul’s sons, the three of them, mentioned so much in Paul’s writings as Timothy; even Hebrews has a reference to him, “Know that our brother Timotheus is set at liberty”, Hebrews 13: 23. He must have been put in prison at some time, but he continued; that is the idea. So if we want to make progress, you younger people, this is it. We need to work; we need to commit ourselves; we need to be industrious, that our progress may be manifest to all. But then too to continue, and that works out for salvation, but I had not much to say about that—“continue in them; for, doing this, thou shalt save both thyself and those that hear thee”. What an influence for good! You may think. Well, if I have this line of things before me and I give myself wholly to it, what will others think about me?
They might laugh at me—‘Look at So-and-so, he or she is pious and spiritual’. Why, you will be an influence for good! Save yourself “and those that hear thee”.
All this is very encouraging, but it means, dear younger people, that we commit ourselves when we are young. Be an example of Christ, the true ram of consecration, and think of Mark’s gospel, think how quickly things are done. Mark, after he was recovered, lost no time; things done in Mark’s gospel are all done straightway, and he is brief about matters, brief and concise. You see, that is the gain of the sacred letters, of learning how to do things. See how you get it in Mark’s gospel, he comes quickly to the point, even as to the Supper; Mark just presents it as “this is my body”, and it is the same thing with the cup,
“This is my blood, that of the new covenant”. Mark had no preamble; he never loses any time; he never lost any time after he was recovered. It all finishes up with that young man sitting on the right in the sepulchre. The women go to the sepulchre and the stone had been taken away. They look in, and there is that young man sitting there, clothed in white. This matter of “in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity”; here is this young man sitting on the right clothed in white. I think that represents the sum total, so to speak. Progress has been made throughout the gospel as feeding upon Christ, so there is the young man sitting there, and he is able to influence others; he is able to say to the women, “Be not alarmed. Ye seek Jesus the crucified one. He is risen, he is not here”, Mark 16: 6. Is that not beautiful? He has risen first. Matthew says, “He is not here” (Matthew 28: 6), but Mark says, “He is risen”, then he says, “he is not here”.
That is how Mark puts things. I think he had come through; he had got the gain of being associated with Timothy, that is the idea. Because Paul would have Timothy bring Mark with him; he was one of Timothy’s associates, and Timothy was an influence for good. Paul knew that; he was such an influence for good that he says. Bring Mark with yourself, and I think the gain of it is seen in that young man sitting on the right—it is a great thing to sit on the right, to be on the right side; be on that side, not on the side of the world, but the side of power, the side of influence, the side of salvation; that is the idea. That young man would represent that, and be able, as I said, to influence others.
So I trust these remarks, dear younger people, might be an encouragement to you, and give you some sort of clue too as to how progress is to be achieved and continued. And it means, as I said, that we do not waste time, that we are prepared for hard work; and may it be too that you will qualify for a good degree. May God bless the word.
Address at St.Albans
24 October 1987