Being Trained in the Words (1 Timothy 4:6b)

You think a lot about what effect your ministry has on your people. For the next few moments, let’s ask a different question: What effect is your ministry having on you?

Today we’ll see that when you focus on putting God’s word before God’s people, it doesn’t just affect them; it affects you too. 1 Timothy 4:6 says, “If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine you have followed.”

When you dedicate yourself to preparing and presenting God’s word to your people, not only will God be pleased, but you will be “being trained”. In Greek, this is the prefix “in” snapped onto the word “feed” or “nourish”. The idea is that you will be in a state of continual nourishment. As you give the word, you get the word and your ministry to your people becomes a feeding tube for your own soul.   

Notice what will be nourishing you. It’s “the words.” I love how concrete this is. Some Christians build their lives on sensations, impressions, and experiences. But that is sandy stuff. We build our lives on the rock of God’s words.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house of the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:24-27)

We have specific things God has said through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. These things have been committed to writing for us to read, study, learn, and obey. As we put these words before our people in our sermons, lessons, counseling sessions, conversations, and every other way we can think of, these words nourish our souls. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

We deal with words. Not our words or the words of man, but with “the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.” It’s the words God gave through the prophets and the words he was giving through the apostles during Timothy’s time that our people need and that nourish us.

As Timothy studied and conveyed these words, they would soak into his bloodstream, strengthening and transforming him. It’s the same way for pastors today.

Think back to when you first began to truly study God’s words. I bet your experience was like mine. When I was eighteen and my pastor asked me to teach the middle school Sunday school class, it changed my life. I was already a growing Christian, but I had never concentrated on studying God’s word like that. It was spiritual creatine and my growth exploded.

There are a lot of challenges to being a pastor, but there are also a lot of blessings, and this is one of the highest blessings of them all. We get to be nourished in the words of the faith as a byproduct of our daily work.

So, back to our original question: What effect is your ministry having on you? Are you being drained by distractions or are you being trained by putting the words of faith before the brothers? Is your soul being nourished by the words of the good doctrine that you have followed?

If you are spiritually frail, it might be because you’ve gotten distracted from your primary task. In all your desire to be a good pastor, you can accidentally trade your birthright for a pot of People-pleaser Stew, scrambling every day to keep up with your to-do list and never quite getting your Bible opened all the way.

There are many demands on a pastor; but remember, your most important work is to “devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (4:13) and “labor in preaching and teaching” (5:17).