In our last devotion, we received a positive command to devote ourselves to the work of pastoral ministry. Today’s verse states it negatively. It’ll help you to keep both the positive and negative in mind.
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given to you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. (1 Timothy 4:13-14)
Pastor, devote yourself to the regular work of exposing your people to God’s word, exhorting them to respond, and teaching them to understand (v.13). If you fail to devote yourself in this way, you will, by default, neglect the gift you have been given.
Timothy needed to hear this because he was young and serving in a difficult church setting full of exhausting challenges. You might need to hear this because you’re in the same boat. Or maybe you’re a seasoned pastor nearing retirement and you’re tempted to coast to the finish. Either way and in between, this passage is for you this week.
Passive pastors drift from their gift.
The Gift You Have
Timothy’s capacity and power to serve as Paul’s apostolic delegate was a gift. He didn’t generate it; he received it. God gave all this to Timothy to steward. And so it is with us.
Think of where you would be apart from God’s mercy and grace toward you through Jesus Christ. You would be a dead-in-your-trespasses enemy headed for eternal destruction. But God, through Jesus Christ, redeemed you. He reconciled you to himself. He forgave you, gave you new life, filled you with the Holy Spirit, placed you in your local church, and empowered you to serve as their pastor.
Apart from God’s grace you would be swimming ever downward in an ocean of ever thickening black sin. But instead, he has reached down into that ocean, grabbed hold of you, pulled up all the way up, washed you off, clothed you in Jesus’ righteousness, and placed you behind the pulpit of his church.
As good of a Christian and pastor as you may be, it’s all a gift from God. As fruitful and successful as your ministry may become, you didn’t achieve it on your own and then offer it to God. God gave it to you.
Consider what a gift it is that God has allowed and empowered you to serve as pastor of your church. Even if your church is painfully difficult right now, this is true. Timothy’s church was no picnic either (it was more of a false teacher convention than a picnic).
You get to regularly cultivate faith and obedience to Christ among his precious people for whom he died. You get to give them God’s word. You get to join them in some of the most sensitive and profound times of their lives as an under shepherd of the Good Shepherd. You get to baptize them when they come to faith. You get to serve them the elements of the Lord’s Supper. You get to see to it that they grow. You get to help them apply God’s truths in their daily lives, which has ripple effects for God’s glory and God’s kingdom you’ll never fully even know.
Your work isn’t merely a series of weekly tasks and obligations. It is a gift. Both the opportunity and the ability come from God with a bow on it.
Furthermore, think about how it came about.
Prophecy and Hands
Paul refers to the process in which Timothy came to be recognized, affirmed, and placed into his ministry role. It was “by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands” on him.
We read about the prophetic aspect of this in 1:18. “This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare.”
We read about the laying on of hands in 1 Timothy 1:6. “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”
Timothy’s process of recognition and installation seems to have followed Barnabas and Paul’s process in Acts 13:2-3. “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.”
Think back to your path into pastoral ministry. You might not use the term prophecy for it, but the Holy Spirit certainly indicated through other respected Christians that you were fit for ministry and should pursue it.*
The apostle Paul did not lay hands on you, but in your ordination, elder-qualified men did. In so doing, they publicly demonstrated their belief in God’s gifting upon you for pastoral ministry.
Don’t let all this make you prideful or anything (remember, it’s a gift); but also don’t take it lightly that God’s people saw in you God’s gifting and agreed together that you should serve as a pastor.
God has set you apart for your ministry, so pursue devotion and flee neglect.
You don’t have to overtly rebel against God to neglect your ministry. All it takes is a lack of devotion to it. All it takes is the allowance of distraction. Soon, if you’re not careful, you will have drifted into a passive, weak, minimal approach to the glorious gift you’ve been given.
I know many of you serve bivocationally, and you probably never feel like you’re giving your church the attention it needs. When you’re pastoring, you’re likely thinking about your full-time job. And when you’re working your full-time job, you’re probably thinking about your church. You feel pulled in opposing directions.
I don’t want to burden you or make you feel guilty. I’m just saying, on the hard days, when there’s opposition and confusion and tension in your church, remember how you got here. And on those days in which you’re tired and all you want to do is watch reels on your phone, remember the gift you’ve been given and get to work.
And for those of you who have served faithfully for decades, thank you for your example. Keep going and finish strong.
*Note that in Paul’s instructions to Timothy and Titus about installing elders in the church, he never mentions the need for prophecy to be part of the process. He simply puts forward a straightforward list of qualifications to look for. The Holy Spirit works through regular means like this. Pastors identifying pastoral qualifications in future pastors and entrusting ministry to them is supernatural guidance.
A podcast to build up App Region pastors.
For more information about the App Region, visit theappregion.org.
And always feel free to get in touch: matt@theappregion.org.
Pastor, honoring widows is an important part of your assignment. Make sure you're giving proper attention to them this week.