Praise God!

For a true, authentic, and genuine born-again Christian — for a true follower of Jesus Christ — the word of God is the Bread of Life, a Bread that he/she does not dare to try to live a day without! No way! (Matthew 4:4)

Listen to what Jesus said about this Bread of Life, the Word of God:

“Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35 NASB

So I won’t go hungry and thirsty if I feed on this Bread, praise God! What about you?

Woops! I got carried away, back to what I was saying.

So, I was studying 1 Timothy 6 and the whole chapter warmed and filled my heart with the grace of God. This part in particular thrilled my soul with excitement. Listen:

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.” 1 Timothy 6:6-11 NIV

Just notice the flow!

It’s just breathtaking!

Paul writes to the young man, the young pastor, Timothy. Most Bible scholars are saying that Paul was around 70 years old when he wrote this letter and Timothy was around 30. So, this can be seen as the message of a father pouring out his heart to his son.

After he told him how many young men had hurt themselves and fallen away from the faith trying to pursue the dream to be “wealthy, healthy and famous,” Paul said to Timothy,

“But you, man of God” – Wow!

Did you see that?

Paul is letting Timothy know that he must be TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY different from the other men because he is standing on solid ground, sound doctrines, that Timothy received from Paul, his spiritual father.

“But you, man of God,” means that the aforementioned character traits may mark the lives of the men around you, but they should not mark yours because you are “a man of God.” His “man of God” characters are not revealed by, for example, saying to a young woman, “LORD of hosts said to me to tell you that you should marry the next man who asks you to marry him.”

Nah!

The man of God is identified by this: he always pursues “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.”

The man of God cannot pursue these virtues and at the same time stand on the pulpit saying, “Jesus died on the cross so I can be healthy, wealthy and famous.”

Rather, he always stands behind the pulpit and says, “Jesus died on the cross so that I the sinner will be healed from my sin nature. And I am standing here to tell you that you, too, will be healed if you believe in Jesus Christ. My message is nothing but Jesus Christ. I am a nobody but I stand here to tell you about Somebody who can save you from your sin and eternal death.”

What a striking difference!

The life and ministry motto of Timothy’s spiritual dad, Paul, was: “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2 NASB

And his father passing along to Timothy the same motto to follow after. So, he warned Timothy not to see himself like others who were friends of this world. He wanted him to know that he is DIFFERENT, that he is the enemy of this world but a friend of God. (James 4:4)

“But you, man of God!”

Wow!

And, do you know that this message is also written to you and me who profess to know and believe in Jesus Christ? Yes, it is!

And if so, “But you, man of God” is the message that should ring in our hearts all day and all night long. When we think of doing something that is against our confession, the Holy Spirit whispers into our ears, “But you, man[woman] of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.”

So, this is my message today to someone who has been missing the path, who is drifting away from the Truth, Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life:

“But you, man of god,” you don’t belong to this world but to the world that is yet to come. You are passing through this world. This is not your world. Come back to Christ and start all over again, pursing “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.”

Don’t say, “I can’t,” because you can. You have everything you need to pursue these; Holy Spirit lives in you, all God’s promises are yours, God’s anointing is on you and the Bread of Life, the Word, Jesus Christ is in you and with you, He promised to never leave nor forsake you. ///

P. S. Please watch this amazing sermon given by Pastor John MacArthur this past Sunday titled “Why the world rejects God’s word.” I so love to hear the Gospel when it is preached by Reformers! It totally melts my heart! https://youtu.be/G4HkMphUO3c