| “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee” (1 Timothy 4:16). |
| We seem to have coined a new word in the last thirty or forty years — the word “prioritize.” It is a word that I did not hear when I was young. The word may have existed back then, but we never used it. Why is it so common today? It is because the pace of life has rapidly quickened during the last few years, and everything has become more complicated. As a result, we have to decide what is important in our lives, and as the saying goes, “Put first things first.” Sometimes it is hard to decide what is most important, for even as young people, there are many demands made on our time. We live in a busy world, and have to be careful how we use our time. |
| Suppose you had some large rocks, some smaller rocks, some pebbles, and some sand, and were told to put them all in a large jar. Would you start with the sand and the pebbles? No, you would start with the largest rocks, then add the smaller rocks, then the pebbles, and finally the sand. That way, they would all fit in. It is the same in our Christian lives; we must start with the most important things first. |
| Here in our verse we find some things that need to be put in their proper order. First of all, the Apostle Paul tells Timothy to pay attention to himself, and to the doctrine or teaching. This is most important, for we cannot be a help to someone else unless we have made sure that our own state of soul is right. The Lord Jesus told people when He was on earth, “And why beholdest thou the mote (a small speck of something) that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam (as in a large beam of wood) that is in thine own eye? … Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3-4). We must take care of our own Christian walk, and apply the teaching of the Word of God to ourselves, before we can help others with problems in their life. |
| Then we must “continue in them.” It is easy to get a rush of energy sometimes in spiritual things, but sometimes it is just human energy, not the energy of the Spirit of God. Human energy will never last, but if we really want to please the Lord, He will give us the strength and help to continue on without stopping. Godly consistency in our life is most important. James tells us that “a double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8). This is talking about a person who wants to please the Lord sometimes, but then decides to indulge his old sinful nature a bit too. This kind of Christian goes back and forth between doing the Lord’s will and doing his own will. It is hard to have confidence in someone like that. |
| Finally, if we have prioritized these things properly, we will not only save ourselves, but also others whom we may influence. This does not mean to save ourselves in the sense of our salvation from the penalty of our sins, but rather being saved from the power of sin in our Christian lives. It means being saved from a wasted life, and from the temptations in this world. We all have an effect on others; let us be an influence for good on other Christians! |
