Man of God Top 10 – #1 Love

The #1 thing that describes a man of God is love.  I’m sure you saw this coming, how could you not.  Love is everywhere in the Bible.  We are told that God is love and that we are made in the image of God, that we are to try to live our life like Jesus (who is God), so how could love not be one of the most important things for a man of God.

I come back to 1 Timothy 6:11 “But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.”  Pursue love.  In other words do everything in love.  Because if we do everything in love how can you go wrong? (Yes, I realize that statement is not entirely accurate or true but you get the idea)

When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was he replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  this is the first and greatest commandment.  And second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the law and the Prophets and on these two commandments.”

Love with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  God deserves this kind of love because he is God.  There is nothing that he hasn’t done or won’t do for the goodness of mankind, including punishing us, because he loves us.  We, men of God, should live each day with an awe inspiring view of God and the love that he has for us.  We should do everything with love in our hearts.  Loving our neighbor, co-worker, friend, family, complete stranger, orphan, widow, everyone just as Christ loved us.

And here is a kicker for you.  If you truly love someone would you not want them to know the God that you know, the God that loves them, the God that saves them?  How can you love someone and not share the Gospel with them?  It is all well and good to say that you love someone, to do everything in love, but what are you doing to show God’s love (and yours) for the people that you interact with?  The greatest thing that you can do in love is to share the gospel!

There you go men.  Love.  Do it!

Man of God Top 10 – #8 Fight

There is something about men that makes us think that we can solve problems with our fists.  While I don’t think that this is exactly the best method, God does tell us to fight.  Not our fellow man, but to “Fight the good fight of faith.” 1 Timothy 6:12

A strong man of God is in a fight everyday.  Not a physical one that may result in a black eye or bloody nose, but a spiritual fight that can influence eternity.  I am talking about spiritual warfare, and it is real.  Satan is out there everyday fighting against God and against God’s people.  The last thing that he wants is for the men of God to step up and start fighting the good fight of faith because he knows that he will lose.  We know that the end of the battle has already been determined, our side wins!  But in the process there will be many casualties.  There are no innocent bystanders in this fight.  Everyone has to make a decision; with God, or against God; there is no middle ground.

As men of God we need to stand on the front lines and show the world that we are not afraid to fight for God.  Show that we are not afraid to get a little beat up for what we know is right.

I know that I would be willing to fight anyone who threatened my family, and I’m sure you would do the same.  But will you take the same stance when someone is threatening God, threatening the church?  These threats come in many forms but they all work to undermine God’s message, to turn people away from faith.

We know that no one can harm God (obviously!) but they can harm his children.  Go out and fight the good fight of faith today.  Fight for God’s children as though they were your own.  Go out and be a strong man of God!

Man of God Top 10 – #10 Flee from the World

What is a man of God?

God gives us an outline of what he wants us to be, and what he wants us to focus on as men of God.  I will try (in hopefully not to clumsy a way) to show you what this plan is for us.  I guarantee that I will not do justice to God’s desires for us and I will not be able to include all that God wants for men of God, but I will hopefully get you started.  If you want to know all God want for you; pray, get in the Word, and listen!

#10 – Men of God flee from the things of the world.

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

Here Paul is writing to Timothy, and to all Christian men, to build him up so that he can be strong and equipped to help the church, to lead, and to be a strong man of God.  This verse is directed at men of God and the first thing it tells us is to “…flee from all this…” (we’ll get to the pursuing part later, just be patient!).

Obviously we have to back up a little, flee from what?  In verses 3-10 Paul talks about men’s pursuit of money and false doctrine.  We all know the verse “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” 1 Tim 6:10.  We all know that there are more important things to life than getting more money.  But the world tells us that our life would be so much better if we just had [fill in the blank].  If we had more money, a bigger house, a nicer car, a boat, went on more vacations, whatever the thing is we need it because our life is not complete without it.  1 Tim 6:9 says it pretty clearly, “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.”  Sounds fun huh.  Flee.

Another thing God tells us to flee from is sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:16).  On the surface this seems like a no-brainer.  Of course we would avoid immorality (sexual or otherwise), what man wouldn’t?  But again, the world steps in and bombards us with sexual images, slogans, and innuendos.  Sex sells just about everything these days and we run the real risk each day of becoming immune and numb to the fact that what we see in magazines and billboards encourages us towards sexually immoral thoughts and those can lead to actions.  Flee.

Flee from idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:14).  Again, easy right!?  We don’t generally make it a habit to bow down to a golden calf statue on our way out the door to work.  Our idols are much more subtle; money, cars, our job, our body, drugs…  Sometimes it is hard to see that we have put something like this on a pedestal, that we have put it before God.  Step back and look at the things that you spend your time in pursuit of.  Have you made an idol of something without realizing it?  Flee.

This all comes back to fleeing from the things of the world.  I’m not trying to say that you should lock yourself in your house or give away all your possessions and find a cave somewhere and live off the grid!  We have to be in the world but not of it (easier said than done, I know).  We have to be that light in the middle of a fallen city (wherever you live) that people see and can come to.  Don’t get distracted by the things that the world says are important, cool, or necessary.  Flee.  Focus on God (that’s where the pursuit part comes in later…), and the more you have your focus on the things of God, the less important and enticing the things of the world will seem.