Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 116 · April 26
Let No Man Despise
“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.”
In the room where the decisions get made you are the youngest, and you have learned to speak second, quieter, with a qualifier at the front of the sentence.
Paul has left Timothy in Ephesus and is writing to him about a job going badly. The Greek word behind youth covers more ground than a teenager; in that world a man could be called young well into his thirties, and Timothy had been travelling with Paul for years. Whatever his age, he was being looked past, and Paul had seen it coming. He wrote to Corinth about the same man: Let no man therefore despise him: but conduct him forth in peace.
The instruction is strange for the problem. Nothing about credentials, nothing about standing his ground. Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Six areas, and only the first two are visible from a platform. Alongside it: Neglect not the gift that is in thee. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Profiting there is a word for progress other people can watch happening. He is told to become undeniable slowly.
The six are worth reading one at a time. You are welcome to start with whichever of them the last month has made you least able to claim. Paul leaves the question of who respects you with everyone except Timothy.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 116 is The Father Knows (Luke 12:30-31).