Life and Doctrine
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
1 Timothy is a letter from one pastor to another written for the good of the entire church. If we could sum up all of Paul’s instructions for Timothy, back then, and for every pastor since, 1 Timothy 4:16 would provide us with the essence of what a faithful pastor must do: “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” Watch your life and watch your doctrine because it’s a matter of life and death. Pastors in the church must watch their life and doctrine so that the people of the church would watch theirs as well. This is significant, because we’re all being watched! People watch pastors. Children watch parents. Co-workers watch fellow employees. Our neighbors watch us all. What do they see when they see us? What should they see when they see us? Lives marked by godliness and gospel truth. The church ought to be a gathering of people who look like, love like, and live like Jesus Christ. But, the church cannot grow in Christ, be like Christ, or reflect the beauty of Christ to the watching world apart from the gospel which makes us who we are. Apart from this truth, the church ceases to be the church. Apart from this truth, we have no message of life to offer our neighbors. But according to this truth, we “have our hope set on the living God” and live lives now that increasingly take the shape of the lives we’ll be living in “the life to come” (1 Tim 4:8, 10).