speculation vs stewardship

Controversial speculations rather than advancing God's work.

Questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith.

Sitting around, discussing and disputing... rather than moving into action.

I Timothy 1 makes it really clear that when we are speculating, we aren't stewarding.

Speculating can look a lot of different ways; I think often it comes from a place of desiring to reconcile inconsistencies within ourselves or in others. We seek to justify ourselves through our words and ideas rather than through the saving blood of Jesus. Self-discovery is really trendy right now, but it is just that - self. When we attempt to understand our lives outside of the frame of God's plan, we will never arrive. And when we trust our own intellect to guide us into who we should be or what we should be doing... that's speculating. And speculation, by its very definition, is really risky. If we're not measuring up or wanting to fully obey a certain command in Scripture, it feels much easier to us sometimes I think to just talk about it. We confess how it's hard for us, we cross-link through Scripture to fully flesh out the topic, hoping that somewhere, some other verse maybe justifies our actions a little bit more. Especially post-pandemic, we curl up in self-protection and arm ourselves with Biblical words to justify it, craving control, hoping to be able to just comfortably return to a life we want to live... rather than seeking out how God wants to change us and move us and grow us going forward. We try to go back instead of look ahead. We are spending a lot of time trying to purify and perfect the flesh we love and so desire to protect, rather than giving up that flesh and allowing God to completely and utterly turn us inside out... heart, mind, and soul. We aren't stewarding.

I started studying I and II Timothy, specifically in order to understand how to best steward what God has given me. He has entrusted each of us with the "gospel of the glory of the blessed God" (vs 11). Both letters to Timothy use that word "entrust" many times. We've been given a deposit to guard - but that doesn't mean just sitting on it. A deposit implies that there will be multiplication - interest accrued, something growing. It is impossible for the kingdom to grow if we are just sitting around, debating and discussing with one another, within the safety of our closed Christian circles. It was astounding to me how many times through these two letters it's mentioned to avoid endless and pointless and fruitless discussion. I'll try to list them all here:

• "nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies" (I Tim 1:4)

• "wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers without understanding what they are saying" (1:7)

• "lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling" (2:8)

• "have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths" (4:6)

• they learn to be idlers, gossips, busybodies, saying what they should not (5:13)

• "he has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words... which produce... constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain" (6:4)

• "avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called "knowledge" (6:20)

• "Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, and only ruins the hearers" (II Tim 2:14)

• "But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene" (2:16-17)

• "Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies, you know that they breed quarrels" (2:23)

• "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth" (3:7)

And the last of them all, "for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths" (4:4)

That is a lot of instruction to avoid unfruitful discussion. Furthermore, wherever it says "knowledge" in the ESV, KJV uses "oppositions of science, falsely so called" and that word "science" is most definitely present in vocabulary today that tries to justify a lot of things.

So how do we push each other toward godliness, instead of just sitting around arguing about the meaning and implications of godly (or ungodly) words or ideas? The song "God of Justice" just keeps playing through my mind. We used to sing it under the viaduct on Thursday nights after ISU Bible study, pleading for God to fill us up here, and then send us back out, onto campus, into the workplace, more filled and therefore ready to GIVE.

Fill us up, send us out

Fill us up, send us out

Fill us up, send us out

Fill us up, send us out

God of Justice, Saviour to all

Came to rescue the weak and the poor

Came to serve and not be served

And Jesus, You have called us

Freely we've received now freely we will give

We must go, live to feed the hungry

Stand beside the broken, we must go

Stepping forward keep us from just singing

Move us into action, we must go

Fill us up, send us out

To act justly everyday

Loving mercy in every way

Walking humbly before You God

You have shown us what You require

Freely we've received now freely we will give

We must go, live to feed the hungry

Stand beside the broken, we must go

Stepping forward keep us from just singing

Move us into action, we must go

Fill us up, send us out

Fill us up, send us out

Fill us up, send us out Lord

We MUST be moving into action... seeking change in our hearts instead of struggling over and over again with the same sin, seeking to serve others outside of us rather than to just sing, standing beside the broken and stepping forward.

As a reminder, like I mentioned earlier, we've been entrusted (I Timothy 1:11, I Timothy 1:18, I Timothy 6:20, II Timothy 1:3, II Timothy 1:12, II Timothy 1:14, II Timothy 2:2), with a deposit of significant price.

What are we doing with it?

Are we looking at it? Talking about it? Reveling in it? Consuming it? Or are we taking it and using it to win souls by the strength of the Lord, for the growth of the Kingdom?

Rather than re-type the entire books of I and II Timothy here, I'll just summarize by saying they give a lot of very specific instructions on what we should be doing with what we've got. And right at the very beginning of I Timothy 1, Paul makes it very very simple for us by telling us what the goal is: "The aim of our charge is LOVE that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith". Love for Jesus, that motivates and makes possible every single other action, suggested by Paul in his letters to Timothy, that we should take. Works rather than faith? Absolutely not. Works tumbling out and spilling over out of deep faith and love for the Lord? Absolutely.

"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, for God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord... but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began." (I Timothy 1:8-9)

Guard the deposit. Fan the flame. Run the race, looking unto Jesus.