1 Timothy 1:18-20 -- Leadership lessons

To catch up on our adventure through 1 Timothy, click here and read from the bottom post up.

1 Timothy 1:18-20 (NIV):

"Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme."

Some leadership lessons from this paragraph:

1. Follow wherever God leads (v. 18).

You may not have much direction. You may not have a prophecy you can go by. But you can discover your strengths and how God's gifted you and match them up with a need and your passion...and serve. Many times God only gives us enough light to take the very next step and no farther. Take that step of faith!

2. Learn God's Word and follow it! (And teach it!)

Following/teaching false doctrine can result in:

1. losing the good fight (v.18)
2. searing your conscience (v. 19)
3. shipwrecking your faith (v. 19)

That's why it's so important to avoid false doctrine and to prevent people from teaching it in the church. The best way to keep far from it is to learn God's Word well and obey it.

3. Better to correct (or, as a last resort, remove) a divisive person from the organization and risk losing a friend, than to leave him be and risk losing the entire organization.

This happens way more than you might think. Because some leaders tend to be leary of rocking the boat and offending anybody, they lose it all. We need to be more concerned about the long-term health of the organization than we are about offending one or two people in it. Deal with the problem people. Don't ignore them, hoping they'll go away. They won't!