1Timothy 1:19 - 19 holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. In this passage the Apostle Paul is charging his "son in the faith" Timothy to keep sharing the gospel and keep offering the grace of God to those who are lost. He charges him to "hold on to the faith" and also to hold on to a good conscience. Conscience (def) - an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior. Paul, in charging Timothy to keep the faith, is in fact holding him to the commitment he made in his life to follow Christ and proclaim the gospel. "Holding him to it" means that the commitment Timothy made must be followed through and completed. In writing these words to Timothy, Paul also brings up that some have rejected "following through" with their commitments and have been shipwrecked. Important facts about being shipwrecked. First, you need to have a ship. Second, you need to sail on the water. Third, you need to lose your way and tip the ship over and wreck it.
What is our ship? It is our faith in Jesus Christ. It is "who we are." I hear Christian people and others sometimes speak about our faith as though it were some religious belief that is just like any other religious belief. WRONG!! Our faith is built around a relationship with the Son of God. That faith is strengthened when we develop that relationship through ongoing instructions and admonitions from the Lord. So we have a great ship and it is ready to go.
What is our water? Life itself is the sea on which our ship travels. Once again, that life is based on the incredible relationship we have with Jesus Christ. Our inner voice changes at the time of salvation and our life is bouyed on the sea of life. Not just to be floating around aimlessly moving from port to port but with direction. Our sea has purpose and it is formed from living water, not a dead sea.
How do we lose our way and wreck? We just float around and have no care about where we go and before long we hit the shore and wreck. The ship becomes useless at that point and the water no longer keeps us afloat, but actually drowns us. The ship was so sea worthy and the water was so crystal clear, but lo, the ship wrecks because it lost it's way or it's compass. Compass (def) - an instrument containing a magnetized pointer that shows the direction of magnetic north and bearings from it.
Paul goes on charging Timothy, telling him that all of this is in regard to the faith. An amazing thing about shipwrecks. Many of them are carrying cargo that is worth a lot, but that cargo goes down with it. In verse 20 Paul tells of two who were shipwrecked and what happened to them. verse 20 - 20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander,whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. Paul's patience had worn out and he let those two go because they had abandoned the faith and shipwrecked. All of our lives are important to God and when we don't use them for His glory all the gifts he gives us go down with the ship. Which brings to mind the very advice that Paul was giving to Timothy, and what it means for us today.
There are many who have shipwrecked in their faith and God's direction is no longer in their compass readings. They have turned their lives over to the world and their faith is on the rocks of the shore. Paul's advice to us would be keep on keeping on with our faith and live for Jesus in good conscience. To do this will cause us to draw closer and closer to Jesus and become more and more focused on compass settings that give us direction toward Godliness. No shipwrecks in our future. Just clear sailing to glory. For those who have fallen away....they are handed over to the one that led them to the rocks and the eventual shipwreck. So be it. Their lives became a living blasphemy to the faith and those lives were not productive anymore.
The question is "where are you?" Are you holding on to the faith and living in good conscience? Or are you approaching the rocks and a terrible shipwreck? Time to evaluate your life and commitment and get in line with the direction Paul was giving Timothy. In today's world we hate absolutes don't we? We always want to have an "out." Paul's example was to get on with it our get out of the way. One way or the other, "we are moving forward." That lines up with Paul's words in Ephesians 5:16 where Paul says, "making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." Life is short....Live for God! NOW!
The Pilgrimage continues....
David Warren
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