Are you giving a good confession? I’m not talking here about confessing your sins to God, or talking to a priest or some other minister about the things you have done wrong and are struggling with. This is the confession of your faith by both word and the way you live your life or your actions, of what you believe. In our Scripture today from the first letter Paul wrote to Timothy, he wanted to make sure that the young man was continuing to give a good confession. Timothy was Paul’s frequent companion on his missionary journeys, and the one he was instructing to be a church leader. Let’s take a look at what Paul taught.
As our Scripture opens, Paul wanted Timothy to make sure that he wasn’t falling into some of the sins he had mentioned earlier in the chapter, such as envy, strife, arguing, and a selfish love of money. Rather, believers should be pursuing righteous living, love, patience, and other virtues (vs. 11). As we live out our Christian lives day by day, we need to remember that the unsaved, those of the world, are constantly watching us. Some are eager to see us slip up. Others want to see if the faith we talk about and profess is really genuine.
As believers, we are also called to fight the good fight of faith (vs. 12). This isn’t a fight with fists. Paul wasn’t telling Timothy to go out and clobber those who don’t believe, or those who oppose or mock him. There is a spiritual battle we are engaged in, as Satan, the enemy of our souls, is actively trying to destroy the Christian Faith, and the faith that every believer has. This is a spiritual conflict with Satan’s kingdom of darkness in which all true believers are involved in. Every attack by Satan against believers is to destroy or seriously weaken our faith. He wants to push our faith from Jesus and on to other things, whether they are material possessions, ourselves, or other people.
This is where Paul told Timothy, and us as well, to look at the confession, the testimony and witness we are giving. As believers we need to be unreservedly committed to Jesus. This will lead to spiritual victory and eternal hope. We need to be obeying Jesus, standing firm for Him, and representing Him well in the world so others will believe in Him and be saved. Christians should have an active faith, obeying God with courage, and doing what we know is right. Live a life, and minister with a heavenly and eternal perspective.
Paul then reminded Timothy that Jesus gave a good confession in front of Pontius Pilate (vs. 13). The confession of Jesus before Pontius Pilate was a bold confession of the truth. Jesus didn’t back down out of fear. He knew that Pilate had the authority to let Him go free, and was even wavering and thinking of opposing the Jewish religious leaders, and setting Him free. However, Jesus didn’t compromise the truth and say things that might lead Pilate to let Him go. Instead, Jesus gave a good confession of faith, even with the sentence of death before His eyes.
We are instructed to keep God’s Word without spot and blameless (vs. 14). We must not compromise the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Paul then reminds us of exactly who we worship (vs. 15-16). God is absolutely sovereign, and omnipotently rules everything and everywhere. Only He is worthy of worship. God is a Spirit and invisible. He is unapproachable, as sinful man has never seen, nor can he ever see, God’s full glory (Exodus 33:20).
In the final verses of this passage, the Apostle Paul warned Timothy against having a desire for money and to be rich, and for those who do have riches to not be proud (vs. 17-19). This is an important warning for us, as well. We are to shun a love for money and striving for material wealth, with all of its resulting woes, and instead to conform to God’s will in one’s thinking and acting. One can be rich in this world and not in the other. It is very difficult to have great wealth without trusting in it. We need to remember that God is our Source, not money! We need to use our money to take the Gospel to the world, and thus lay up treasure in heaven, and not here on earth (Matthew 6:19-21).
In closing, God’s Word reminds us that we can follow the Lord or we can follow other things. We can’t follow both. We must make a choice. If you choose to follow the Lord, give that good confession with your life, your words, and your actions.
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