“If you give these instructions to the believers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, as you feed yourself spiritually on the words of faith and of the true teaching which you have followed.” 1 Timothy 4:6, GNT

 

The first time we hear about Timothy is in Acts 16:1, but he probably became a Christian at an earlier date when Paul came to Lystra during his first missionary outreach. During the second outreach, Paul came to Lystra again where he found the young Timothy. He was the son of a Jewish woman who had converted to Christianity and a Greek father. A very close relationship developed between Paul and Timothy, and from that moment on, Timothy accompanied Paul on many of his visits to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Paul wrote three pastoral letters between the years 62 and 64 AD. Two letters were addressed to Timothy and another one to Titus. These letters are called pastoral letters because both Timothy and Titus were leaders and office bearers in their churches. The letters were meant to teach them about their ministry in the congregations where they served. Paul used these letters to emphasise the importance of the word to the leader of a congregation. In the second letter to Timothy, chapter 3 from verse 10, he stressed the importance the word of God in the ministry and he wrote about teaching people throughout. These teachings were all about the importance of the word. Although the Bible as we know it did not yet exist, the word that Paul talked about so much were all the teachings about God, Jesus and Holy Spirit.

 

Let us read the verse for today again. In this verse, Paul inspired the pastors to be busy with the preaching of the word at all times, for when they did that, they would also be fed by “… words of faith and of the true teaching which you have followed.” We do not have to be a minister or office bearer in the church to be busy spreading His word. As you spread the word, be assured that you will also be fed. The more I teach, the more my own hunger for His word will be satisfied.

 

Prayer: How can we ever thank you enough that you want to use us for spreading your word of salvation and, in doing so, being blessed by the word ourselves. Amen