Key Verse: 1 Timothy 6:11 “But you o man of God, flee these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.” Every time I reread 1 Timothy this verse always convicts my heart. It is a verse that is easy to understand, yet it is very difficult to fully live out the profound truth of this verse. Paul here is reminding his son in the faith, Timothy, that there are certain things he must flee. In the context, the most specific thing Paul wants Timothy to flee is greed. He has just reminded him of our the love of money leads to a multitude of sins. But there are also several characteristics that Paul wants Timothy and us to pursue in our daily lives. First he says that we are to chase after righteousness. Righteousness is right living in the eyes of God. We should pursue to live the life that brings God the most honor. Next and closely related to righteousness is godliness. This is living like Jesus. Our lord Jesus perfectly displayed to us what’s it looks like to live a godly life. We must pursue this! Third we are to pursue faith. Each day in this life we are faced with situations that will require us to have more faith in God. Instead of letting difficult circumstances diminish our faith, our faith must grow in the face of trials! Next, we are to pursue love. This undoubtedly refers to loving both God and our neighbor. We should seek to love God and our fellow man more each day. We are to also pursue patience. We need to have patience in this life. Without patience we are certain to make poor decisions and also create a lot of enemies for ourselves. Finally, we must chase after gentleness. This means we are to be gentle to others even when they hateful to us. The reason this verse constantly convicts me is because I believe that we can always do better in at least one of these areas. We need to make it a normal practice to examine what we are pursuing and make sure that it is God honoring. What do you need to do a better job pursing today!?
