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Here's the question and answer from Tuesday:
What kind of people does the author of 2 Thessalonians warn them against, in the name of Jesus Christ? (2 Thess 3)
2 Thessalonians 3:6 6 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.

And from Wednesday:
What does “ascribe” mean? What is to be ascribed to God? (Ps 96)
"ascribe" is "to attribute or think of as belonging, as a quality or characteristic;" “They ascribed courage to me for something I did out of sheer panic.” Psalm 96:7-8 7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. 8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts.

And here's the question of the day:
Who shares a common destiny, according to Ecclesiastes 9?

And here's the reflection of the day:
This letter to Timothy is known as a Pauline (of or belonging to Paul) pastoral epistle. It is traditionally thought to be a letter from Paul to Timothy, his young protege, who seems to have been left behind in Ephesus while Paul moved on to Macedonia.

This letter is intended to reassure Timothy, who may be a little anxious at being on his own, while his mentor has kept on the move. Timothy is stationed in Ephesus for a distinct purpose, which Paul cites in verse 3: ". . . stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies."

At this point in history, Christianity is still taking shape. Paul has been there and preached, but the doctrine and the beliefs are not yet totally formed. If anything, Christianity was probably seen as an upstart, rebellious religious movement worthy only of suspicion. Traditionally we ascribe veracity and veneration to those religions with long and storied traditions. But this particular Jesus movement, which came to be known as Christianity, was in its infancy stages and its form and function were still quite amorphous and loose.

It is actually one of many religious options available to people. There were even other "Jesus sects" that sounded an awful lot like Christianity but varied in one way or another--their pick of the litter, one might say. People had their choice of religious groups to join.

Hmm. . . . Does history seem to be repeating itself here?

Generations later, Christianity is more fully formed in terms of its beliefs and doctrines. But those beliefs and doctrines are still shifting, aren't they? From the left to the right, conservatives to liberals, you can find a "Christian" church to match just about any set of beliefs--which is a wonderful testament to the motley crue which makes up the Body of Christ.

But. . . that brings us back to Timothy, marooned in Ephesus, left to defend the faith, trying to prevent and even correct the "false doctrines" of the would-be "teachers of the law."

We're not all called to be Paul, but I think there is a little bit of Timothy inside each one of us. And it is up to us to know our faith--to know that "sound doctrine conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God" (verses 10-11) which has been entrusted to us. And it is up to us to defend the faith against the "lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious" (verse 9).

Hello! I'm actually on vacation this week, but that's no reason to stop reading the YOB and blogging, right? I thought so. Here we go. . .

Here's the question and answer from yesterday:
Sun, Mar 1: What must a Nazirite abstain from eating and drinking? (Num 6)
Numbers 6:3-4 3 he must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or from other fermented drink. He must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins. 4 As long as he is a Nazirite, he must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins.

And here's the question of the day:
Mon, Mar 2: What group came to do their work at the Tent of Meeting under the supervision of Aaron and his sons? (Num 8)

And here's the reflection of the day:

We're going to Acts today, Acts 16 to be exact. It occurs to me that seeing a map of all the places Paul is traveling might be helpful to us. So I found this:

I'll add some other maps for the other missionary journeys in another post. Paul actually goes on three separate missionary journeys, with various accompanying people.

In Acts 16, we meet Timothy for the first time, Paul's partner on this journey. Timothy is a young man from a slightly complicated background. He actually is a perfect example of all of the hullabaloo that just happened at the Jerusalem Council about circumcision. So Timothy becomes a test case. Paul decides, if Timothy's going with him, that he needs to be circumcised "because of the Jews."

So, the spotlight is on Timothy. And he proves to be a good find and, in time, becomes one of the major leaders in the churches that Paul establishes. He is mentioned in several of Paul's letters and is the implied recipient of 1 and 2 Timothy, two of the so-called pastoral letters. (And, among the most important resources for organizing and nurturing a congregation.)

Timothy represents the variety of backgrounds found in Paul's day. Timothy is an uncircumcised believer, the son of a Jewish mother and a Greek father. His identity is Jewish through his mother, but he is the product of a mixed marriage; his birthright as a Jew is uncertain. He had not yet been circumcised--presumably because his Gentile father prevented Timothy from becoming fully Jewish.

So, Paul's decision to circumcise Timothy "because of the Jews who were in those places" (v 3) should be understood as their shared desire to continue good working relations between faithful Jews and Gentiles in the churches he is building. It is Paul's desire to keep the Jewish heritage alive in the new Christian faith so that other Jews, hearing the good news and believing, would be willing to convert.

Timothy is not the most obvious candidate as a missionary partner with Paul. It could be that Paul is less interested in his "religious credentials" and more interested in his mixed background, a very pragmatic solution to some very real problems he'll be facing. Timothy is one who handles the "being Greek" and "being Jewish" tension well, a tension that fills Paul's churches.

Maybe this passage has something to say to us about where we look for leaders in the church. Maybe we need to look for leaders whose personal histories and instincts that are well suited for the tasks at hand--kind of along the lines of the "Nazirite vows" I talked about in yesterday's post.

Just a thought. . .
Allison