To catch up on our adventure through 1 Timothy, click here and read from the bottom post up.
"If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed."
What is it that Timothy is to point out to the brothers? That they don't need to be held captive by the artificial rules and regulations with which false teachers would bind them (vv. 1-5).
One of the primary jobs of a spiritual leader is to free the captive. And not only are unsaved people captive, but many believers are under artificial chains of their own making. The spiritual leader can find great satisfaction in helping people discover this and break free. It constitutes being "a good minister of Jesus Christ." Because you have been set free by "the truths of the faith" and by "the good teaching that you have followed," you have a privilege (and an obligation) to go and set others free (see also 2 Timothy 2:2).
By the way, a better word for the phrase "brought up" might be "nourished." We're not just talking here about the fact that you were brought up this way years ago. But it means you are daily being nourished by the Word of God and prayer. Do you have nothing to share but what you've learned from the Master in the past? Or are you daily being nourished by Him?
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