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Timothy: A Simple & Complete Instruction

“Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4:16).

This is simple and complete. Your life and doctrine includes what you are and what you teach, what you do and what you say. There really isn’t anything else. The instruction is to watch these two areas closely and keep on living and teaching properly. The result is salvation for yourself and those you teach.

In the preceding paragraph, Paul amplifies this living and teaching. “Set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” That is the living.

“Until I come devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.” That is the teaching.


Join the #keepthefeast Bible Reading Challenge here. This post coordinates with today's reading.
Written 1980.

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