The Place to Be #89

II Timothy 2:22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24 And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

We return here to Paul's biggest concern for the church at Ephesus and the challenges Timothy had before him: false teachers.   Timothy was to personally beware himself that he not fall into the same lifestyle as they led: a path of self-service and spiritual speculations.  His focus was to be on right relationships with God and His people, deeper faith in understanding God, His Word, and seeing how God works, and how to love those who were so challenging.  He was not expected to do this alone, but to join with others who were sincerely and humbly seeking God's will and glory.  This meant not getting caught up in divisive arguments, but speaking and preaching the truth.  The goal was not to destroy the false teachers, but to turn them back to the truth and see them join him and other true believers in doing God's will together.