"so that everyone may see your progress"
I have been thinking about the way that Paul urges Timothy to let people see him making progress. I put it like that because progress is a double edged sword.
They sometimes advise people that when they go overseas to serve, not to learn the language in the place where they will settle and minister. That way you can make all your worst mistakes somewhere where you will not be staying anyway!
I can see the sense of that. Believe me I can.
But I can also see the sense of the wonderful chap we met from central France who went to serve there in his forties and learned his French where he was going to serve. "There I was", he said, "forty years old and with the vocabulary of a two year old. It's wonderful really - everyone who sees me coming smiles." He's the man who asked the lady in the hardware shop for the son of a fusebox. He doesn't do that now, and they can see his progress.
We don't like letting people see our progress, because it implies that at any time there is progress to be made; that we are not perfect; that we are not yet mature. Hmmm. How much do we want pastors, and how much do we want gurus? Pastors are sinners who need to make progress. Gurus are "living saints" you can idolise. Gurus are "enlightened", they have "arrived".
But Timothy is to make evident progress.
People often say that Timothy was a young man. Well yes - but he can't have been ALL that young by the time Paul wrote 1 Timothy, can he?
We are learning our French here in Bordeaux. That means that from time to time, usually in public prayer, we get into a life sentence - a sentence that we can't get out of grammatically. It means that from tiem to time we use the wrong phrase or pronunciation. It means we use words we just read in the Bible, but that aren't in common usage and nobody knows them. But it also means that people see our progress. And they see that we care about the gospel in this country SO MUCH that we are prepared to spend a year of our lives just learning the language!
Incidentally, French people really appreciate it when you try. It's wonderful really! All you have to do is either invert, or use the correct command form, with the pronoun tagged onto the verb, and people compliment you on your French. It does you good, I can tell you.
They sometimes advise people that when they go overseas to serve, not to learn the language in the place where they will settle and minister. That way you can make all your worst mistakes somewhere where you will not be staying anyway!
I can see the sense of that. Believe me I can.
But I can also see the sense of the wonderful chap we met from central France who went to serve there in his forties and learned his French where he was going to serve. "There I was", he said, "forty years old and with the vocabulary of a two year old. It's wonderful really - everyone who sees me coming smiles." He's the man who asked the lady in the hardware shop for the son of a fusebox. He doesn't do that now, and they can see his progress.
We don't like letting people see our progress, because it implies that at any time there is progress to be made; that we are not perfect; that we are not yet mature. Hmmm. How much do we want pastors, and how much do we want gurus? Pastors are sinners who need to make progress. Gurus are "living saints" you can idolise. Gurus are "enlightened", they have "arrived".
But Timothy is to make evident progress.
People often say that Timothy was a young man. Well yes - but he can't have been ALL that young by the time Paul wrote 1 Timothy, can he?
We are learning our French here in Bordeaux. That means that from time to time, usually in public prayer, we get into a life sentence - a sentence that we can't get out of grammatically. It means that from tiem to time we use the wrong phrase or pronunciation. It means we use words we just read in the Bible, but that aren't in common usage and nobody knows them. But it also means that people see our progress. And they see that we care about the gospel in this country SO MUCH that we are prepared to spend a year of our lives just learning the language!
Incidentally, French people really appreciate it when you try. It's wonderful really! All you have to do is either invert, or use the correct command form, with the pronoun tagged onto the verb, and people compliment you on your French. It does you good, I can tell you.
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