Saturday. I Timothy 6:17-21
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
20 Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge,
21 which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith. Grace be with you.
January 5, 2008 at 3:02 pm
so this is sayin to me to tell the rich folks that they dont need to be greed and only think about what they make and all that jive but they n eed to be generous with what theyve been givin and help those who might not have as mcuh as them…..and that we need to not be sucked in to what people think is truth and listen to their beliefs as truth
January 5, 2008 at 4:19 pm
To me it is talking about how we need to be proud of what we have it might not be alot of it might be little but we need to not be so rude or putting it in peoples faces like we are so much better than them, but be willing to chare them or give them away especially when someone is in need of something. That this way you will recieve treasure later on in life. But we need to be careful to turn away from people talking about false things that if we dont’ we will be drawn away from faith.
January 5, 2008 at 9:38 pm
I like that this passage emphasizes putting our hope only in God. We talked a little bit about this tonight when we were speaking about healings, that maybe our faith is not as great as those who have less than us.
Something I want to point out here is our perspective when it comes to reading scripture. When we read this passage we may think of rich people as those with a big house, nice cars, lots of money… but when people in third world countries read this, they might even see lower class people in America as the rich. When you guys read scripture think about how others might view this, people in different countries, different races etc. It might broaden your perspective on its meaning. Scripture is meant for all people, all ages, all races, everyone.
January 5, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Sara, good point on wealth being a matter of perspective.
This passage covers two topics.
1. Those who are rich (as Sara pointed out, we’re pretty much all rich) need to learn how to handle what they have. This means not being greedy, but willing to give to those in need. It also means not being arrogant, meaning we need to realize that our possessions don’t have any impact on our character or coolness.
I think teenagers in our culture need to be really careful about this. Make sure you guard yourself from thoughts like, “he doesn’t have a new cell phone/Xbox 360/whatever, what a loser.” Or, “I can’t believe she is still wearing that, growdy.” Yeah that’s right, I said growdy.
2. Paul charges Timmy to guard his own faith and protect those he was overseeing. “Opposing ideas” means any idea or preaching that is different from the true gospel of Christ.
January 5, 2008 at 10:51 pm
verse 17….
we can focus on things that we love or lust after in the world because in the end its all going to be gone and people are gonna wish they would have had a relationship with Christ.
When people start to love money and other possessions they become cold hearted and bitter.
So we need to have our hope in Christ because He is our only hope in this world.
January 5, 2008 at 11:44 pm
The message to the young pastor to guard that which has been entrusted to your career is so powerful to me. Whether in ministry, or in the family that God has given to me, I have so much responsibility to guard my heart. My decisions and my battles will flow down to those that I am the gatekeeper for.
When we choose the temporal pleasure of sin, we are not just being selfish for ourselves. We are creating battles and hardships for those we are supposed to be raising up and protecting.
You guys who are not married yet, remember that the choices that you make and the strongholds that you build now will affect your spouses and kids in the years to come.
January 6, 2008 at 12:57 am
stay away from opposing ideas that are falsy called knowledge—reading this and reading what is listed above I thought about the prosperity message that is being taught across America…its been so widely accepted and well its false knowledge…a bit of truth that is twisted for man’s personal agenda…