Stirring up the gift of God

I Timothy 4:14-16 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a
prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent
in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your
progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if
you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Forty years ago an enormous emphasis upon spiritual gifts came into the
professing church. It was the beginnings of the charismatic or renewal
movement. Perhaps that movement has reached burn-out with the appearance
of the phenomena associated with the Toronto Blessing laughter, swoonings,
animal noises and such claims as amalgam fillings being turned into gold. With
the new century upon us it may be possible to consider the real gifts of the
Spirit in the context of and in proportion to the whole Biblical message. We are
not to ignore this theme of the gifts, but the churchs emphasis must always be
placed upon the living God and his grace rather than the gifts given to man.
The verses before us provide a very important insight into this matter of the
spiritual gifts, and it would transform our church if we took seriously what Paul
says here. Let us start with this statement:
1. Every Christian Possesses Gifts of the Spirit.
Timothy had a gift from God. He believed in the Lord Jesus Christ through Gods
gift of saving faith and evangelical repentance, but he also had a charisma, a
gift of the grace of God. Not only was he a recipient of Gods grace in a general
sense, but he also possessed a specific gift. God had endowed him with the
ability of teaching and pastoring a church. He was able to exhort, and guide
Christians, and that gift was recognised by a congregation. They accepted his
leadership and listened to what he had to say, because behind him was the
power of God. He could say that the Spirit of God was upon him and had
anointed him to preach the gospel. That was his role in the Christian church, his
ability to exhort and warn. He was called to do the work of an evangelist, to
establish and build up churches, and in no way could his wit, theological
understanding, and man management skills be sufficient in the absence of a
divine aptitude and a spiritual endowment. His calling demanded a divine
enabling. This gift had made him apt to teach. It enabled him to inspire and
hold together a church. Timothy did have such a gift. We are saying that he had
more than saving grace. He possessed this particular charisma.
In these verses Paul reminds him that the gift had been given to him through a
prophetic message. There were apostles and prophets in the early church
whose gifts of teaching were miraculously heightened so that they could also
bring a direct word from the throne of Almighty God. There had been a specific
occasion when such an utterance confirmed to the church Timothys calling to
be a leader, and Timothys fears and questions were resolved. He knew a new
inward energy of soul when that prophecy was delivered. There had also been
something like that in Syrian Antioch where the Holy Spirit singled out Paul and
Barnabas for their service (Acts 13:1ff). Then, Paul also reminds Timothy, the
body of elders who represented the church identified themselves with this call
of God. They laid their hands on Timothy and so accompanied the word of
prophecy with their approval.

That had been Timothys experience. Now we all agree that every Christian has
gifts from God for serving the church, and that every Christian also has the fruit
of the Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit make us different from one another, and the
fruit of the Spirit make us the same as one another. The various gifts are like
the different members of the body; they enable us to serve one another and
receive ministry from one another. But the fruit of the Spirit make us like Christ.
Everyone of us has the same fruit, but different gifts of grace. We have to
reckon with this reality that each of us has our own place, and function, and
role, and responsibility in the church of God. None of us is superfluous, nor are
we redundant, nor useless. Everyone has his place in the body of Christ.
Everyone has a contribution to make in the church and in our congregations.
No one else in the assembly is able to make that contribution but you. It makes
your existence in the church of God meaningful and useful to that church.
We differ very much from the apostle Paul, and we differ from Timothy too.
Maybe that is not a problem to anyone here. The problem is that we feel
different from everyone else in the church. We can see gifts in everyone except
ourselves. God has left us out and we feel useless. Now that is a theological
impossibility. Every Christian is given the fruit of the indwelling Spirit and also
some of the divine charisma. We may not be evangelists, or teachers, or rulers
in the church but God has given us something distinctive and individual in the
service of his name and for the extension of his kingdom. And it is going to cost
us something it is a bit of a burden to have a charisma from God. Often we
wish we did not have this obligation. The burden does not get any lighter.
Sometimes we think, I wish I had a river to sail away on. Perhaps we feel it
must be because we are getting older, but it is not that, it is simply that the
burden is heavier.
The gift may be of intercession. It may be an ability to bring comfort and
encouragement to those who are despondent. It may be the gift of hospitality,
or energy and toil. It may be the gift of liberality in stewardship. It may be the
gift of care, a sympathetic ear. You are someone who sees the need and can
either address it or alert someone who can. There are many such gifts and they
give us a role in the church of God. If we are not exercising our gift then all the
church is weaker. There are needs not being met, burdens not being borne, the
weak are not being helped, and there is neglect in the fellowship, too few
people bearing too great a burden, while the others look on and find many easy
excuses for being spectators. They say to themselves that those other gifted
people actually enjoy going out of their homes, and praying in the prayer
meetings, and giving up an evening to look after the young people, while they
stay at home.
We have no right to do that. Though we may not have any official role in the
church there is none of us without a gift. You discover your gift by the leadings
of providence. Where has God put you, and what are you being asked to do,
and what are the needs of your church? If you are in Christ then he has given
you a gift. You have no right to say, I have no calling. I have nothing to offer. I
have no charisma. Because then you would be a useless member of the body
of Christ, and we can never be a useless member of the body. Physicians say
that there is a function even for the human bodys little toe, for the tonsils, and
even for the appendix. God has put them in the body and God has made every
Christian a member of the body of Christ.

2. The Gift May Be Neglected.

Do not neglect your gift. Then Paul points out this danger. The gift can
become well nigh useless. The gift may be languishing. It may be atrophied, or
even close to extinction. There are grounds to believe that as Paul looked at
Timothys life that was the judgment he was coming to. However great
Timothys own intelligence and character might have been, yet Gods gift was
in danger of flickering to a smoking flax. It is true for any follower of Jesus
Christ. It was true of Timothy, and it may be true of me, and it may be true of
you. Unless we take immediate and urgent action then the charisma which God
has given to us will disappear like a solitary hailstone slowly melts away.
The grace of God itself is never withdrawn from a believer. That grace means
we keep persevering in trusting in Christ as our only hope to the very end. We
keep attending the means of grace, and we keep enjoying the fellowship of
Christians more than the world. We live a moral life and are kept from blatant
sins, but are the gifts of grace which God gave us being used less and less, and
as a result our relationship to the life of the church becoming increasingly
irrelevant? It is a great peril, but it happens. Think of King Saul and how he
started with such promise, the blessed Spirit of God coming upon him and
overwhelming him. But how did he go on? Suspicious, envious, entertaining
murder in his heart, defying God the king was finally destroyed in a battle with
Gods enemies. Consider again Samson arising from Delilahs bed and thinking
to himself, Ill go out as before and shake myself free. But he did not know
that the LORD had left him (Judges 16:20). But we do not have to go back to
Old Testament days. Have there not been preachers we have known of even in
these past months of whom we may say, The Lord has left them? That is, God
has utterly taken away from them any enabling to speak his word, and they will
never preach again.
I tell you, the removal of gifts from Christians commonly happens, and there is
nothing more common than when this possibility is referred to that the very
people to whom it is happening fail to consider it. They believe it is happening
to others and not to themselves. Everyone of us must hear this and pause and
say to himself, Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I? Further, we must address the question
as to how this can happen. How is it possible for a Christian who has a
charisma can lose that charisma, and the gift be as extinct from his life as the
dinosaur is extinct on this planet? They used to be here but now all we see are
fossilised bones. So it is with many a church and many a Christian, just the
memory of what was there, but now dry bones in a valley.
I would suggest to you, first of all, that we may despise the gift of God. Paul
warns another church about despising a certain gift Do not treat prophecies
with contempt (I Thess. 5:20) and there is no reason why that may not
happen to other gifts of the Spirit. A man at the time of the apostles with a gift
of prophecy might have stood up in a meeting and announced a prophecy. It
would have been very common. The prophecies were basic and familiar, and as
time went by could be despised. So too we can despise such gifts of the Spirit
as teaching, and leadership, and stewardship, and praying. It is all so
fundamental and familiar. And I think it is worth pondering whether many
churches have not arrived at that situation where they are treating Gods gifts
with contempt. They want more extravagant and spontaneous displays to

replace them. Or they have become suspicious of any kind of initiative, and are
uneasy in the presence of any kind of leadership. Men do not want the risk and
pain of being exposed to searching, discriminating teaching. They do not want
to submit to leaders who will take them in directions they have made up their
mind not to go. They are despising the gifts of God. They are even looking back
in a patronising manner to what they once were, and once believed: Ah, they
say cynically, we thought we had all the answers then. They are treating
even what they used to love with contempt.
Again, secondly, we may quench the Spirit: Do not put out the Spirits fire
Paul tells a church (I Thess. 5:19). God has given us a particular gift and yet we
would rather it were quietly extinguished. We can no longer face up to the
responsibility of having it. It has become a positive embarrassment to us, and
so we cease to exercise it. It may be prayer, and we cease to pray in public or
even attend the Prayer Meeting. It may be pastoring a congregation but we are
not getting job satisfaction so we find work with the para-church. It may be that
we are an elder in the congregation in which we grew up, but at a time we are
most needed we decide to move away to a retirement home for elderly
Christians and we spend the next twenty years of our lives in little Bible Study
groups with other ancient escapees from the world of the local church.
Gifts of the Spirit allocated by God may also be sovereignly removed. Think of
Dafydd Morgan the powerful preacher here in Cardiganshire in the 1859 revival.
He had been deeply stirred by a meeting and he went to bed that night as
usual plain Dafydd Morgan. But, he said, When I woke the next morning I
realised I was a different man. I felt like a lion; I felt great power. For the next
two years he preached with true effectiveness and evangelistic success.
Peoples lives were changed, and many churches were built this chapel was
erected during that decade partly through that influence. Then, suddenly, the
lion became a lamb. One night I went to bed, said Dafydd Morgan, filled with
this power that had accompanied me for two years, but when I woke up the
next morning I was Dafydd Morgan once again. He remained a faithful
preacher for the remaining fifteen years of his life but no longer accompanied
by the remarkable energy of those two years. There have been other preachers
like W.P.Nicholson and Campbell Morgan who in the early years of their vocation
had awakening ministries, but in their latter decades were shadows of what
they had been. Although I concede to the sovereignty of the Spirit when and
through whom to work and bless I also know that the apostle exhorts us, Do
not put out the Spirits fire.
Again, thirdly, what Paul reminds Timothy of here, that we may neglect the gift.
In other words we sometimes imagine that a gift of grace that God has given to
us is going to look after itself and be self-perpetuating. So we do not look after
it. We neither exercise it nor take care of it. We fail to nourish and train it and
discipline it. We simply neglect it. We do not do this to our animals: we
remember their feeding times, and which tins of cat food the pussy prefers. We
do not do it to our plants. We give our neighbours a key when we go off on
vacation and we tell them which plants have to be watered each day and which
each week, and how they are to be moved into and out of the sun. We dont
neglect our cars. We make sure the oil is changed, and the tyres are inflated to
the right pressures. We dont neglect our minds. We do not think we shall pass
examinations unless we study, memorise, attend our classes, take notes and

read the assigned books. If we are musicians we do not neglect to practise and
rehearse six days a week. But our souls, we imagine, will take care of
themselves. We can stand before a group of people and can talk to them easily
and confidently. We enjoy the sensation and we do some good, but we do not
grow in our relationship with God. We rely on our gift, but we fail to nourish and
strengthen it. We neglect it by taking it for granted.
That is the danger Timothy was facing and many of us too, perhaps me most of
all. Christians may neglect the gift that God has given to them. What is Timothy
to do?
3. The Gift Should be Stirred Up.
The apostle tells him positively what his duty is in the next letter, 2 Timothy
1:6, fan into flame the gift of God which is in you. Dont neglect it, rather, fan
it into flame. Stir up the gift. It is in peril of vanishing and becoming as extinct
as the Great Auk in your life. Stir it up! Cause it to blaze forth in its glory again,
in all its potential for good in the body of Christ. Fan the flame! What could be
more relevant for all of us than this exhortation?
A century ago the writings of Max Eyth, an author who has long since been
forgotten, were all the rage. He was an engineer by profession, and his novels
usually centred upon the beginning of the industrial era. The title of one of
them was Professional Tragedy. In the story we meet with a young engineer
who one day, through a series of curious coincidences, is offered a very
important contract. The project consists of constructing a bridge over a river at
the very point where the river develops into an arm of the sea. The difficulty of
the enterprise is increased by the fact that the bridge will have to stand up to
the pressure of the in-going and out-going tides. Our modem technology didnt
exist at the time either!
The young engineer gets to work and builds a huge bridge. When it is
completed, there is an official opening with music, flag-waving and full press
coverage. The officials present at the ceremony are invited to cross the bridge
on a train. The young engineer is the talk of the whole country. His name is in
big letters in all the newspaper headlines. His reputation is made.
Soon afterwards, he opens a large architects office in London and marries a
rich woman. He has everything he wants in life. Yet, a strange secret, shared
only with his wife, clouds his life. One day in early autumn, he suddenly
disappears. That night, as the storm rages and the rain pours down, the young
man can be seen wrapped in his rain-coat, standing at the foot of his bridge. He
is afraid. He can literally feel the fury of the storm battering against the pillars
of the bridge. Again and again he goes over his calculations to reassure himself
that his pillars are solid enough and that he estimated the pressure of the wind
correctly. As soon as the storm is over, he goes back to London. Once again he
is the great celebrity, an important figure in the social life of the city. No one
can detect the hidden fears that are gnawing at him: Did I construct that
bridge properly? Is it solid enough? These agonizing questions torment the
young man day and night and darken every minute of his life.
Max Eyth goes on to describe in very striking language how one terribly stormy
night the engineer, overwhelmed with fear, once again goes to have a look at
his bridge. He sees a train about to cross it. He watches the red lights on the

last wagon intensely. And then, suddenly, he can see them no longer. The train,
he realizes, has just disappeared into the deep waters of the raging sea. The
bridge had collapsed in the middle!
When Wilhelm Busch read this novel for the first time, this thought went
through my mind: Actually, this is the story of every human being. Each and
every one of us is working on the construction of the bridge of our life. And
from time to time, during a sleepless night or after some traumatic experience,
fear takes hold of us: Have I built the bridge of my life properly? Is it solid
enough to resist the storms of life? Instinctively we know that something is
wrong: the bridge of our life is not quite perfect. (Jesus Our Destiny, p.142)
God saved us and gave us gifts. We once had potential. We had promise. We
were contenders. We were builders but now we are laid aside. We need to find
our first love and stir up the dormant gift within us. How can it be done? If we
are to have our own useful role in the church of God, and not be a useless
redundant member, and not be a parasite in the body of Christ there are
actions we have to take. He tells us about these in the remainder of our text. In
four ways the gift we have is to be fanned into flame
i] Be Diligent.
Be diligent in these matters, (v.15). As my father was a railwayman I
travelled by train everywhere when I was a boy. I went back and fore to school
on the train. When I first came to Aberystwyth for an interview at the University
in 1957 it was on a train that I came here. The train was pulled by a
locomotive, and two men were in charge of it, the driver and the fireman. The
firemans responsibility was to keep the fire that heated the boilers going. He
was diligent in shovelling in the coal throughout the journey, feeding the
flames, because the locomotive was a steam engine.
Paul is telling us that the Christian must be diligent in fanning into flame the
gift he has from God. Feed the gift with the word of God. Nothing will keep us
as burning and shining lights without the Scriptures. Weve got to fall in love
with the Bible, and learn to search it, and ransack it, and hunger and thirst for
the truth in the preaching of the gospel. You discuss it among yourselves, and
meditate upon it, and think about the Christian faith from every point of view.
When George Whitefield was first converted and began to preach he read the
Bible through upon his knees, and he read Matthew Henrys Commentary on
the Bible. He was diligent in keep the flames burning.
We are to be diligent in seeking the face of God. Our great concern is to be like
God, conformed more and more closely to him. The only way to secure that is
to be in fellowship with God, seeking his face at the throne of grace, seeking
out the companions and gatherings in which he has promised to be present. I
have him and enjoy him in the privileges of Christian faith and sonship, but I
want the same Christ more. I want him all. I am pressing on for the prize, the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst
after righteousness. There is this glorious simplicity shown in the state of mind
of these people. They are famished, they are parched, and absolutely starving.
They are quite desperate. If they are to survive there is something they must
have at all costs, and that is the righteousness of conformity to the image of

the Son of God. There is this diligent longing in the Christian soul for God and
his blessings.
Again we are to be diligent in maintaining the assurance of our salvation. You
think of a human child. One of his greatest needs is emotional security, and
that means unquestioning certainty that his parents love him. Just imagine a
child who is uncertain whether its parents love it. That child is in a difficult
situation emotionally and educationally. The child is not working in school: it is
not maturing: it is not getting on with other children; there is anti-social
behaviour, and what is the reason? It feels unloved, and so unwanted.
Now that is more important to stirring up the gift of God than we realise. We
must trust what God says about his measureless love for us, that he has
adopted us into his family, that everything is working for our good and that we
are going to a place he has prepared for us. We bask in the sunshine of his
favour. We are sure of our calling and election. I think it is devastating for the
spiritual life to doubt whether God loves us. Be diligent in maintaining the
certainty of your salvation.
Again, be diligent in seeking the blessing of God on all the means of grace,
because all the Bible study in the world, and all the preaching, and all of
Christian fellowship and every spiritual privilege we enjoy will avail us nothing
unless God blesses them.
ii] Be totally dedicated.
Give yourself wholly to them (v.15). It is a priority to you. It is the greatest
thing in your life. There is nothing for the Christian more important than
fanning into flame the gift God has given us. This is not something for which he
finds time in the midst of other preoccupations. His relationship with God
controls his life. It is what his life is built around. His greatest longing is to fit
himself for the service of God. This one thing I do, says the apostle. To me to
live is Christ, Paul says. He is giving himself wholly to this.
We have to look at ourselves and ask is it one thing that the years have done
to change our scale of values and sense of priorities. It is easy to find an
excuse for reducing our religious aspirations so that we are giving ourselves
just partly to them. We can blame any of a hundred limping Christians for why
we have become passengers, and why we are living out our beliefs with almost
a sense of cynicism, or as if it were something unreal, or something about
whose value we were not exactly sure. Now we are going to face the most
hopeless and appalling futures unless we give ourselves wholly to obeying God.
I am saying, lets get on with it, whatever God has given to us, and whatever
our role may be in the church of God, lets go for it. Let us discharge the
charisma with which weve been entrusted. Of course, very few of us are in
what is called full-time service yet for all of us our role in the body of Christ
ought to be a matter of urgent concern and a priority. Give yourself wholly to it,
with all your strength and all the power of your intellect, and all the experience
you possess, and all your physical strength, and all your common sense, and all
your wisdom. Put everything you have into fanning into flame this gift.
iii] Watch Your Life and Doctrine Closely.

Watch your life and doctrine closely (v.16). There are two areas that have to
be watched, yourself and your teaching. If there is neglect in either you will
grieve the Holy Spirit. No way can you stir up the gift of the Spirit without
watching both your life and doctrine closely. Watch your own life because of the
terrible responsibility of being the channel that brings Christ to men. A rusty
mug is no vessel to hold pure water. What is the first mark of an elder in the
church? That he be blameless (I Tim.3:1 and Titus 1:6). A man must be known
for his consistent and practical godliness. Paul is telling Timothy that
carelessness in his own personal life will result in some measure of shoddiness
in how he cares for the souls of the flock. Failure to watch your own life will
result in failure in watching over the lives of others. Watch the quality of your
own personal life, and your devotion to God, and closeness to him.
It may be that we are sometimes useless and parasitical not because of any
lack of gifts but because of the deterioration in our own personal character on a
moral and spiritual level. It is a calamitous thing to assume that because we
are gifted we can afford to neglect our souls, and can be less than vigilant in
our own spiritual condition. It is part of the tragedy of able men that for so long
their gifts can support and sustain them when all the life, and all the vitality,
and all their integrity is gone. Yet the gifts, by their sheer brilliance, can keep
the man going so long that his problem is obscured even from himself. We have
to remind ourselves that even if we are tremendously gifted we cannot afford
to neglect this self-watch. It applies to every kind of man. We cannot afford to
neglect our own souls and elementary religious duties prayer, searching the
Word, sitting with other people and listening to what they have to say. If we
neglect to watch ourselves we shall soon become redundant and useless and
parasitically in the church of Christ. Very soon we shall be liabilities to the
whole body of the Lord. If we want to stir up the gift then we have to watch
ourselves.
But we have to watch our teaching also, whether it is faithful to the Word that
God has taken such pains to give us. As Al Martin has said about watching our
doctrine, It is an awesome responsibility to stand between sinful man and a
holy God, declaring the counsel of his truth. To preach the law of God so that
we do not create a congregation of legalists this is no small task. To preach
the necessity of Gods people persevering in obedience and faith and holiness
and to insist that only he that overcomes shall inherit all things, yet to do so in
such a way that we do not create a pall of discouragement and despondency, is
no small task. To preach the glorious truth that God preserves his own and
whom he justifies he glorifies and to revel in that truth, and to comfort the
saints with the wonderful fact that his sheep are preserved and none shall
pluck them out of his hand, and yet so to preach it that we do not create a
presumptuous spirit, this is no task for the indolent. To preach the doctrine of
full assurance in such a way that we do not create fanaticism; to preach the
necessity of self-examination and yet not to create floundering doubters; to
preach divine sovereignty and yet not to create sinful apathy; and to preach
responsibility and yet not to create a climate of sinful activism; again I say this
is no task for the indolent. It means that we must throughout the entire extent
of our ministry take heed to our teaching (Al Martin, Take Heed to Your
Teaching, The Banner of Truth Magazine, no. 50, Sept.-Oct. 1967, p.2).
iv] Persevere in Them.

Persevere in them (v.16). There are two great principles taught in the Bible:
the first is that all that are savingly joined to the Lord Jesus are preserved by
his power for his everlasting kingdom. The second is that only those who
persevere in faith, holiness and obedience have any grounds to believe that
they are being preserved. We are to declare the truth that he that endureth to
the end the same shall be saved; to him who overcomes seven times
that phrase is repeated. Persevere, Timothy, though the Temple of Diana is
around the corner. Persevere though perilous times lie ahead. Persevere though
false teachers arise. God has purposed that you shall endure to the end. That is
the ground of your confidence. His power will keep you. His work of preserving
you will show itself as you are persevering.
Persevere particularly in exercising the gift God has given to you. Make special
provision for that. The problem is this, that it is so often tempting for us to
concentrate on what we imagine are the points of weakness in our Christian
lives. A man, for example, is a great teacher. Yet he may be lacking in some
other qualities and he may say to himself, I must work away at those other
areas because I can afford to neglect my strengths. Now that, surely, is not
true, because we cannot afford to neglect our own strength. Samson could not
afford to betray the secret of his strength to scheming Delilah. That was the
beginning of the end for him. That became the very area that the enemies of
his God attacked and by which he fell into declension and uselessness.
Timothy was a preacher. That did not stop Paul telling him in this chapter,
Command and teach these things Devote yourself to preaching and to
teaching. Timothy could say, Why keep on? That is what I do best. I dont
need to worry about my teaching. But Paul keeps on to Timothy about that
area of his life where his gift was the strongest. He says, Strengthen that gift.
Nourish it. Cherish it. Provide for it. Develop it. Build it up in every possible
way. That is what persevering in a gift means.
That applies to all of us. If our gift is man management, lets develop it. If our
gift is public prayer, lets develop it. If our gift is to serve, lets develop it. If our
gift is to give hospitality, lets develop it. If our gift is to administer Gods
church, lets develop it. Whatever it is, let nobody say, Well, I am strong in
that area and therefore I can afford to neglect it. You are strong in that area so
you must not neglect it. You are to persevere there. That is your calling and
that is where God wants you to lay out most of your strength. So persevere
there in developing this particular aptitude.
So those are the ways of stirring up the gift that God has given you, by
diligence, and wholehearted dedication, and watching yourself and your
teaching, and persevering with them.
4. The Results of Fanning into Flame the Gift of God will be Twofold: a Witness
to All, and Salvation to both You and Your Hearers.
Have you seen a fire with a tiny plume of smoke emerging from it? Or have you
seen a smoking flax? You know that it is at its end. It will soon be extinguished.
It is of no use and no threat to anyone. Then maybe you have seen someone
gently blowing on the dying embers, feeding it with some paper and some
kindling. Then there is a flame, and more twigs are put on that flame, and soon
there is a blaze. People gather around it. Pots and pans are brought out, and

soon there is the odour of food being cooked, and meat roasting. Everyone
sees the difference between a dying fire and a living flame.
That is Pauls observation here. The gift that was dying is stirred again, and one
consequence is this, that everyone may see your progress (v.15). There is
evident change and visible maturing in a mans bearing and manner. We are no
longer behaving like children, instead, as Paul says, speaking the truth in love,
we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ
(Ephs.4:16).
We stir the blaze and we are becoming true men of God. Others then can see
our progress. In other words, it is not enough to be thinking or claiming that
secretly and inwardly we are becoming more Christlike. To everyone who knows
us our words and actions are giving a very different message. Everyone should
be able to see the progress Christians make, the apostle says. In the world
there should be some tongue-wagging about you, some questions asked by
your family, some teasing about your religion from your friends, some goodnatured ribbing, or more serious hostility, or even persecution. This is the end,
so that everyone may see your progress. It is not enough that you are
singing, What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus
came into my heart. Other people are saying, Theres a change in Bill or Mary
since they started going to church.
What things we are looking for are that quiet authority and spiritual
enlightenment which every mature Christian displays. Let me remind you of
those great words of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. He begins by
describing the nature of the Christian life in the beatitudes, and then tells his
disciples that it is by living in that way they become the salt of the earth and
the light of the world. Then he exhorts them, let your light shine before men,
that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven
(Matt.5:16). And here Paul says to Timothy, that everyone may see your
progress. The world must come into contact with a wholly different person
from that which they normally meet. They see there is something different, and
that has an impact upon them. They become curious, and they are drawn to
you or there is a restraint on wild behaviour, bad language and criminality.
There is a beautiful example of this in a recent description of a what was a
potentially dangerous incident earlier this month in Addis Ababa. A group of
Englishmen were returning from a New Year vacation climbing Mount
Kiliminjaro in Tanzania and visiting Zanzibar. They had a four-hour stop-over in
Addis Ababa. Rather than hang around the transit lounge at Addis four of them
decided to see what they could of the capital by taxi. So they negotiated and
settled for $10 with a driver and off they went. He promised to take them to the
top of a hill overlooking the city, the Entoto.
From there they were able to look down on eucalyptus groves and the city with
its million smoking morning fires, but all too soon it was time to get back to the
airport and catch their flight to Heathrow. They were driving back to the airport
over a dreadful road in a little Nissan. There were huge pot-holes and ruts while
the grassy field adjacent to the road had a better surface. So the driver left the
road and drove on the field. Then the trouble started, as one of the four white
men sitting in the car described it, A soccer game was taking place on it, and I
could see that the players had tried to stop vehicles from spoiling their pitch by

placing rocks across the tracks. Our driver ignored them. Within seconds, as we
drove along the touchline, a crowd of soccer players was running at the car. He
stopped. A huge, wicked-looking yob lunged from the crowd and took a terrific
kick at the drivers-side wing, staving it in. We were surrounded. It was very
sudden.
Truth to tell, I was not very scared. One could sense at once that the African
mobs anger was with the African driver, not his white passengers. But when
the yob wrenched open our drivers door and pulled him out, we became
seriously alarmed for his safety. Maybe even his life? Such things have
happened. I asked myself whether jumping out and remonstrating with them
on his behalf would help, or only inflame things. By now the yob was preparing
to take a swing at the driver, urged on by his team-mates. What should we do?
The question was overtaken. Through the crowd walked another player,
slighter in build, unthreatening yet confident in demeanour. He put his arm on
the yobs shoulder, standing between the driver and his assailant. I had only
seconds to see him, yet could at once form an impression. This was a good
man. Something in his eyes, something in his face, said so. He spoke quietly to
the yob, firmly to our driver, then, putting an arm on the drivers shoulder,
moved him back toward his seat. The mob seemed to respect this decision and
drew back. Our terrified driver started the car.
Then and this was extraordinary the man said something gently to us, and
though we could not understand Amharic we knew what he had said: that we
should not be afraid. He leaned through the window and patted our driver on
the arm. In any age, in any civilisation, he would have been a good man His
goodness had about it that arresting quality which, I imagine, impressed those
who met Jesus I do recognise or recognised then a quality not easily
explained by the cruder forms of moral relativism There are good men, and
the quality they possess is not a matter of opinion (Finding Something of
Jesus in Addis Ababa, The Spectator, p,10, 29 January, 2000).
You understand? A man came out of a crowd and stamped his authority gently
and surely on an ugly situation defusing it. A hardened reporter watched it all
and was impressed by that man. We are asking this, whether you are that sort
of person. If not, why not? Doesnt the Holy Spirit, the third member of the
Godhead indwell you? Doesnt he? Dont you say that you are a Christian? Then
dont you have illimitable access to an indwelling Saviour? Dont you? Every
Christian does. Arent you tapping limitless resources of love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, self-control? Cant you say as
every Christian says, Of his fulness I am receiving. So you are to be this
grown-up, strong godly person that others see and know, having an influence
for Jesus Christ in your work, at home and in a soccer game. If you are not then
you cannot plead, My resources were insufficient. God will say, But I joined
you to my Son and I have indwelt you, and I never put you in a circumstance
when you cannot act in a Christlike manner. Then God will say, What of the
gifts I gave you? How did you use them? And you will be silent. If we are not
seeing in you the maturity demanded from your years of Christian profession
and the gifts with which you were entrusted then the reason lies in your life
and not in the sovereignty of God. Are you a believer? If you are, then are you a
growing believer?

You will be a witness to all, and, finally, you will save both yourself and those
who hear you. No parent can bear to think, Ah, well, I shall be saved anyway
however it goes with my children. No pastor can bear to think, Ah, well, I at
least shall be saved even if many of my hearers are lost. We can scarcely bear
to think of our own salvation without theirs. We cannot save ourselves and we
cannot save anyone else. Salvation is all of grace. But our God and Saviour
uses means the foolishness of the message of the gospel, preached faithfully
by his own servants, who pray for those who hear them, and whose lives are
beyond reproach. When a Christian so applies these means which God has
given to him then that Christian may believe that he is being saved as well as
his hearers. Stir up the gift! Be diligent in this matter! Give yourself wholly to it!
Watch your life and doctrine closely! Persevere in them!
Dont give up. You may feel your gift is small. You are just a smoking flax. But
your Saviour says he will not extinguish you.
Hell never quench the smoking flax,
But raise it to a flame;
The bruised reed he never breaks,
Nor scorns the meanest name.
You can change, if you but ask God to pity you. When you hear the words, It is
too late, then thats what the devil says. It is too good to be true. Such
words come from the pit. You can be made new. Everyone may see your
progress. God takes people out of ruts and they are saved, and others who
see them.
Then, let our humble faith address
His mercy and His power;
We shall obtain delivering grace
In the distressing hour.
20th January 2000 GEOFF THOMAS