Start of a new week, and a very good start! We study two verses today, great that you are here again.

Here is the text I'm reading:

1 Timothy 6:13-14, “In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying to Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ...”

Interesting points:
1. In these verses Paul powerfully exerts his spiritual authority over Timothy, charging him to fight the good fight in pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness (Verses 11 and 12). These verses contain the first half of a sentence that is packed with several details to drive home the importance of what Paul is commanding Timothy to do.

2. The sentence starts out with the phrase “In the sight of…” meaning that Paul is directing Timothy, in view of witnesses, to keep his commands about taking his spiritual leadership seriously by avoiding greed and false doctrine by living righteously in and through God. The witnesses to his charge are no less than God, the giver of life, and His son Jesus whose “good confession” relayed to Pilate that He was both the Messiah and King; basically, our Savior and the One that will serve as our Advocate on Judgement Day.

3. The importance of a spiritual leader/overseer/pastor living righteously cannot be understated. Paul captures this important point by saying that Timothy must keep this command “without spot or blame”. At first this may seem a tall order, but Paul does not expect Timothy to be perfect; rather, that he would commit to submitting to the Lord with all humility, turning from sin, and serving empowered, renewed and cleansed through the Holy Spirit’s ongoing transformative work. This transformation will be complete in the day of Christ Jesus (His reappearing).

Application.
Brothers, we’ve seen time and time again in 1 Timothy where the bar is set very high. In the case of a leader – and we all are in some capacity – living out that which we believe is critical to our example and witness. The high bar should not become a seed for discouragement but a reassurance that the Holy Spirit’s transformative work and Jesus’ blood sacrifice (which covers our shortcomings) will one day see us able to meet it!

When we fall short, we ought to dust ourselves off, take stock of what happened and turn to God earnestly knowing that He delights in us as much as fathers delight in seeing their babies strive to stand up and walk after falling down time after time. The difference is that we are not able to achieve perfection on our own, but by God’s good grace, He strengthens us, makes us wiser and hones our character so that we are no longer the men we were when we first came to Him… and also that much closer to the bar then when we first started following Him!
Stay encouraged and confident that God isn’t done working on us!