A Final Plea

I Timothy 6:20-21

Many times when a business person turns a successful business over to someone else to run. They are trusting the new manager to keep the business successful. Two young men bought an interest in a plumbing company I worked for. Both had worked there for several years and believed they knew how to make the business succeed.

A year later the original owner was forced to take back the company because it was so far in debt, and they had not made their payments. They owed more after a year in business than the original sale price. They had made some major changes, on the advice of an accountant, but had ignored the principles that made the business successful in the first place. Had they kept doing things the original way, at least until they understood why they mattered, the business would probably have succeeded.

A new pastor coming into a church faces a similar situation. If he wishes to make the church succeed, he needs to understand what has made it what it is. To be a truly successful church, it must be based entirely on the word of God. It cannot rest on the pastors, or anyone else’s standards. All too often different standards and doctrines are adopted because they appear to promise more and quicker results. This is the reason for Paul’s plea.

“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.” (I Timothy 6:20-21)

In I Corinthians 2:1-4 Paul talks about his decision as to how he would approach the church in Corinth. “And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”

Replacing God’s word with anything else, regardless how good or logical or spiritual it may seem, focuses our attention away from Christ. The goal is to prepare people for heaven. John 14:6 states, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Any teaching or practice which distracts from faith in Christ reduces the success of the church. The success of the church is entrusted to the leaders. Following other doctrines and practices may make the church appear to be growing, when in fact it is like the church at Sardis, in Revelation 3:1-6, having a name of living, but being in fact, dead.

Losing that focus has destroyed many churches and Christians. Leaders must not lose it.