Making Christianity Attractive to Others!

Doing Good for the Sake of the Gospel

2 You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.2 Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. 3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. 6 Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. 7 In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8 and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. 9 Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, 10 and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

Today Paul teaches Timothy how apply sound doctrine to the issues facing the early church. As a sidenote the slavery Paul talks about here is much different than the slavery we have seen in our cultural history, which still goes on today in much of the world.  Paul wanted masters to treat their slaves fairly, and slaves needed to honor and work hard for their master. It was mutually beneficial relationship.  

The challenges in following Christ would be different for men and women and the young and old, so Paul teaches Timothy to address and focus on certain things respectively.  The difference in instruction to men and women reflect the different roles of men and women in Paul's day, and should not be seen as stereotypical for today.  The key thing is not that men serve women, or women serve men but that they serve one another in love. See Ephesians 5 and 6 where Paul teaches essentially the same concepts to the church at Ephesus. The key thing for Paul is the love shown in the Christian community that would draw people to it. 

If you look at each imperative he gives to each of these groups and then you take the opposite behavior you will see how these behaviors would affect how the early Christian community would be seen by others.  I.e. drunkenness, sexual immorality, angry, unfaithful. Guess what? These issues have not changed in 2,000 years.  It is important Paul is not teaching "legalism".  Paul is not saying you have to behave this way in order to become a Christian. He is calling for these behaviors because they are Christians.   

I believe we would do well to copy the admonitions Paul gave to Timothy 2,000 years ago so our churches will be effective and we will lead lives that draw people to our Savior!