The Balance of Fellowship

“Then came Paul to Derbe and Lystra.”

Lystra? Really?

This was the very place where Paul had been stoned and left for dead. In Acts 14, the healing of a man lame from birth sparked a near riot as the apostle stopped an attempt by a priest of Zeus to gin up a pagan party complete with a bull roast.

Paul had been dragged out of that town and pummeled. After such an episode, would you be willing to return? He had to, because the Word did its work.

In the midst of that chaos in Lystra, a family of faith took shape. That family included a grandmother, mother, and a boy – one Timothy, a young man who would become of the most significant disciples involved in Paul’s many years of ministry.

Read how Paul described this guy:  “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also” (2 Timothy 1:5).

Our New Testaments contain two letters that Paul addressed to Timothy. The second one stands as one of Paul’s last communications before he was beheaded by Roman authorities in the late 60s.

Timothy could be described as something of a Samaritan. His father was a Greek – this wasn’t an ethnic designation, it simply meant that he was an educated Gentile. Luke, the writer of Acts, was labeled as Greek, also. And Paul circumcised Timothy because of the number of Jews they encountered in their ministry to the region of Asia Minor.

Leadership Dynamics

What I really want to emphasize in talking about Timothy and Paul is the manner of relationship that comes to exist between leaders and followers of Christ. These things can often get distorted and tortured.

For the church, spiritual leadership remains a vital principle to understand. The apostle Paul clearly recognized this and he took great care to communicate the things he had learned to the younger men who worked with him. Paul’s pastoral epistles – 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus – contain practical and spiritual instructions that will always ring true. He clearly wanted these men to understand the elements that go along with being a pastor.

In looking at Paul’s writings, an interesting picture comes into focus. That is this: Paul related to Timothy on more than one level. Theirs was a relationship crafted by God in the midst of triumphs and tribulations and it grew into something very precious to both of them.

Paul related to Timothy on more than one level. Theirs was a relationship crafted by God in the midst of triumphs and tribulations and it grew into something very precious to both of them. Share on X

The spiritual, “father-son” relationship between these two saints is made clear by Paul, who addresses Timothy as his “son” in the faith in the opening sentences of the epistles of 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy. The tone of these epistles carries great similarities with that of the book of Proverbs.

Paul’s experiences prompted him to provide counsel on a range of issues including warnings about legalistic teachers, details regarding ministerial qualifications and the role of women in the church, and poignant charges to stay faithful and true to the great calling that Timothy was drawn to by the Spirit of God.

The words reveal Paul’s tender heart toward this younger minister. He “fathered” Timothy with love and kindness, but also with firm conviction. We sense from these communications compassion, not suppression. Paul was not interested in keeping Timothy tied to him.

His desire was to set up Timothy to succeed as his own man. And really isn’t that the role of any father?

People have taken issue with this principle of fathers in the faith. Problems do develop when this vertical relationship becomes overemphasized and misused.

Face it, men are sinners and possess natures that lust for power and control. Carnality can stir up possessiveness and jealousy. These attitudes make men think that they are owed undue allegiance from the ones they have taught and developed.

A dangerous sense of ownership can take root. The result is great deception and great disappointment. Men fail, and the blind do sometimes try to lead the blind. Men who become entangled on carnal levels take each other down the way drowning men sometimes pull down those trying to save them.

Jesus Christ made it very clear that he who is greatest among us will be the servant of all. The servant has no standing in the household. He ministers to the needs of the Master to the point of washing feet in the way that the Master did (see John 13). That is his reasonable service. And any spiritual father is really called to serve a spiritual son with his experience and edification.

Diversity in Connection

We see in 1 Thessalonians 3:2 that Paul made reference to Timothy in three other ways. In this verse, Timothy is called “our brother, and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the Gospel of Christ.”

It is important to relate to members of the Body of Christ in more than one way. The vertical relationship that perhaps is established in a table of organization within a ministry or a church should not be allowed to eradicate the horizontal connections that we have as brothers, ministers, and fellow laborers.

Leaders are necessary. Hard decisions have to be made and someone has to make them. The training process for the inexperienced pastor should involve godly men who have faced the tests of ministry.

Still, the fact remains that we are all also joined to the Body of Christ as members in particular. There are no small members. Even our little toes are vital for the maintenance of balance when we run and walk. We move together from grace to grace, from faith to faith, and from glory to glory.

If we are careful to keep our relationships pure and godly on all levels, then the potential for God’s work is without limitation. We can look up to people without putting them on pedestals, and we can share our experiences and skills without looking down in a spirit of condescension.

How?

By also keeping in our hearts the reality that we are really brothers and sisters in the fellowship of Life and Light that was given to us by Christ. We each carry the same call to serve as fellow workers in the fields that are white and ready to harvest.

Jesus made it clear to the disciples that the love we share among us is the key to others wanting to be one with us.

“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

This is the real key to church growth and sustenance.