His mother and
grandmother gave young Timothy the best they could—good solid Bible teaching and training to
walk in God’s paths. As an older teenager, his church family commended
him to Paul as a missionary apprentice. Timothy rose to the occasion, and in Asia Minor and throughout much of
the Empire we see his footsteps alongside Paul’s everywhere. Even as a
young adult, Timothy earned the Pauline epithet, “my true son” and “I have no
one else like him….” He represented Paul in many crises, even at Corinth. He
was a witness to Paul’s sufferings and persecutions, and probably had his own
share of them with Paul.
Timothy’s hardest
assignment was at the church of Ephesus. Paul had heard of trouble brewing there, so he sent Timothy as his
personal representative to fix the problems. Arriving there, Timothy had
the authority of the Apostle Paul himself, but the church did not recognize
Timothy’s authority. Instead, the fallen church leaders circumvented his authority
and undermined his leadership in every way. These
fallen church leaders even manipulated new converts to disrupt worship
services to thwart Timothy’s leadership.
Paul excommunicated two of the ringleaders (Hymenaeus and Alexander), but
they continued unabated.
Timothy became heart-sick and traveled to meet up with Paul to report on the problem. Timothy’s
great grief over the wayward church may be implied in 2 Tim 1:4, where
Paul recalls Timothy’s “many tears.” Paul assured him of his prayers and, steeling
Timothy’s resolve, he wrote, “God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of
power….” Instead of relieving Timothy, Paul sent
him back, saying, “stay there in Ephesus,” so that he could stop them from
teaching false doctrine (1 Tim 1:3).
As
experienced and mature as Timothy was, even he found ministry very difficult. Our
church leaders often face the same kinds of conflict and grief. We can hardly
bear such heavy burdens on our own. Because we wrestle not with flesh and blood,
but with the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil,
ministry is hard, heavy, burdensome, with much discouragement. No one in church
leadership goes long without shedding many tears.
Pray for your
church leaders. The apostle wrote, “Have confidence in your leaders and submit
to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an
account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would
be of no benefit to you (Heb 13: 17). Those words ring ever true for today's church.
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