Hang in There!

This Sunday we begin with the apostle Paul encouraging Timothy to lead the Ephesian church as he moved on to Macedonia. Paul is not abandoning Timothy; rather, he writes to him with encouragement and instruction to help deal with a difficult situation that Paul had previously warned the elders to watch out for. I might imagine Timothy's response to be possibly like my own: "Great. Big problem here. Oh, but I have the repair manual. Wait, what happened to the elders watching out? Oh yeah, some were teaching about the law, falsely."

Deep in his heart, Paul knew Timothy had it in him through the Holy Spirit to take on this ministry for Christ, by correcting the same errors and heresy that might have crept in and already did damage at the church of Colossae. Right belief and right behavior is essential to the Church by holding firm to the life-changing message of Christ, and avoiding endless worthless questions, irrelevant discussions and speculations that distract us from the central message of the gospel, the person and work of Jesus Christ.

This is also a challenge for the Church and its leaders to not quit, but hang in there, in Jesus' name.