Let No Man Despise

Friend,

You may be the youngest in the room where decisions get made. You have learned to speak second and more quietly, and to put a "maybe" at the front of your sentences.

Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus to stop people teaching what they should not, and the work was hard going. The Greek word for "youth" covers more than the teenage years. In that world a man could be called young well into his thirties, and Timothy had already travelled with Paul for years. Whatever his age, people were looking past him. Paul had seen it happen before, because he once wrote to Corinth about the same man: "Let no man therefore despise him: but conduct him forth in peace."

Paul's answer is surprising. He says nothing about qualifications or standing his ground. He writes, "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." Conversation there means the way you live, and charity means love. Then he adds, "Neglect not the gift that is in thee," and "Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all." Profiting means progress that other people can watch happening. So Timothy was to earn respect slowly, by growing where people could see it.

So read them one at a time: word, way of life, love, faith and purity. Start with the one the last month has made you least able to claim, and ask God for growth there. Paul gives Timothy no way to make people respect him, because that part was never in his hands. His part was to grow, and so is yours, and the gift God has put in you is enough to grow from.

Yours on the same road,

a fellow learner

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 116 is The Father Knows (Luke 12:30-31).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two