Date:   08/01/2010

Text:   1 Timothy 4:6-10

Title:   An Excessive Culture

Theme:

Introduction:

  Some highlights from recent Twitter: Lois, you sure are gnarly looing but I still love you. Oh no there she goes! RIP Lois. Very dramatic! Lois goes out like the Diva she is… She went in dignity, no need for crash cart, a dramatic exit to say the least.

This is about Lois, the corpse flower, in the Museum of Natural Science . During the last few weeks, about 65K Houstonians found themselves obsessed by the blooming and dying of this particular rare flower. They patiently waited in line to see and smell this flower. Others followed the story via the news media. About a month ago, there was about 700 million people followed closely the World Cup Soccer. Such occasional and seasonal obsession is certainly understandable.

I think of different kinds of obsessions, or excessiveness in our culture. I like Lucy of the Peanuts cartoon strip because of her healthy dosage of self-confidence. For a different reason, I also like Garfield the cat for his excessive self-confidence. When Mel Gibson’s screaming and berating of his wife and others surfaced a few weeks ago, a columnist in Houston Chronicle wrote that this is all about Mel Gibson’s excessive self-confidence. Come to think of it, we certainly have plenty of this around us.

  There is Lindsay Lohan’s excessive self-love; or a.k.a, being spoiled. Many other entertainment celebrities exhibit an excessive love of one’s physical body; dying to show them off in one form or the other. The politicians demonstrated an extra dose of self-confidence in their campaign speeches and promises, each claiming that he/she is the only who can rescue the country or the state from economic recession. It is a culture full of excesses.

  Now, let’s bring it closer to home. Some of us may be obsessed with our health. It is important that we take care of our physical health. There are times we may be overdoing it. Our bodies may have become our gods. Several months ago, I heard this in an office conversation, “We claim to love God, want to be near Him, and want to be with Him. But the way we take care of our bodies, is really saying that we don’t want to see him so soon.” Well, you know that the point is that there needs to be a proper balance.

Some may be excessive in our studies and professions. At the onset, I want to clarify that it is important that as students, we are to do our best to study well. As an employee or with our profession, we are to do our best. However, very often this ‘best’ can turn into an obsession. During the student years, all we know is study. We put aside relationship with others, including God. Then this can continue into our career years. I still remember an encounter with a professor in a well-known university over 16 years ago. While visiting his lab, he said, “when I was young, I spent all my time in my academic pursuit. I went to the best universities and research labs around the world. Now, I have all the research grants, graduate students and post docs I need. But I also realized that during those years, I have neglected my family, especially my wife. Now that I have achieved all that I have wanted in my career; I want to spend time with my wife. Yet, she has shown no interest and is not responding to me. What do you think I can do?” About the same time, within a month or two, a college friend confided in me about his marriage. He too, was a professor and his story was almost verbatim of the earlier one I heard. In our pursuit of excellence or success, whether it was study or career, we were obsessed with them. On the altar of success, we have sacrificed our families.

There is another area that I feel we need to address: Parenting. Tim Keller in his book, ‘The Counterfeit gods” wrote this story. Anna was desperate to have children. She eventually married and gave birth to two children. She had an overpowering drive to give her children a perfect life. Her overprotectiveness, fears and anxieties, and her need to control every detail of her children’s lives made the family miserable. This certainly is not the norm. We all want the best for our children. The best and the safest car seat, the best room, the best education and the best schools. We want them to have the best spouse, according to our standards. Very often, parents would even decide for their children what professions they should go into. Our entire life centers on the children. We can’t bring the child to church because church activities are not compatible to the child’s eating and sleeping schedule. In this and many other churches, there is a common phenomenon; that once a child is born, don’t expect to see the parents for 6 months to one year in church. Parents may take the infant to shopping, but not to church. Because of children, everything has been put on hold, including our relationship with God. Such parenting is slightly excessive. Our study, health, career, relationship and family have become gods. In Tim Keller’s words, these are the counterfeit gods.

By now, some of you may be asking, what has this to do with today’s text? In vs.7a, “ Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths,….” It is apparent that in Ephesus , many believers found themselves entangled in endless discussions about certain genealogies. This was an issue in the early Christian church. Both here and in other letters, Paul urged the believers and leaders to stay away from these endless and meaningless discussions. Some of them were excessively involved in such discussions, they were obsessed with them. So Paul tells Timothy and the church to have nothing to do with such topics. Don't be obsessed by them.

Now, if Timothy and the early church would have nothing to do with such genealogies, what did they need to do? What should they be occupied with? What is truly important in life? Vs.7b, “… Rather train yourself for godliness. ” Don’t be preoccupied with the myths and genealogy, but focus on godliness. What is godliness? We often equate godliness with do’s and don’ts. When we see a person not smoking, not drinking, not dancing, but going to church every Sunday, plus Friday evenings, leading Bible studies or teaching Sunday School, saying grace before meals, we say, wow he/she is a godly person.

In the biblical context, a godly person is simply a person who is being obedient to God in every aspect of life. Abraham was a godly person and this is how he was described. “ because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” (Genesis 26:5) Abraham was godly because he obeyed God. Put yourself in this situation. You are in the construction business in a certain country. It is common practice that in order to get a contract, you need to give substantial gifts to the persons in charge of the project. Many companies just accept that as an item in their business expensive. To you, this is bribery, period. If you don’t, eventually you may be booted out of that market. In order to survive, what would you do? I know of a new Christian who when facing this situation, stood firm and refused to yield to the tremendous pressure around him. Godliness is not keeping a list of do’s and don’ts, but being obedient to God in all areas of life. This is what God wants us to be; men and women who pursue godliness.

I would like to look at this from 3 perspectives. First, why is this important? Why should we pursue godliness? Vs. 8b, “ godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” Godliness is important because it has present and eternal value. Our study and career will come and go. You cannot bring them with you into the grave. Parenting is important, that we do our best to bring up our children to be godly men and women. But if we are obsessed with our children, what will we do or become when our children are grown up and leave home? We have seen parents refusing to let go of their adult children. They want to have a tight reign over when they should date and with whom. The parents’ identity were tied to whether or not their adult child would listen to them. This is very unhealthy. The importance for godliness will never cease, even when physical parenting has seemed to cease.

Secondly, godliness is acquired. Vs.7 and 8 used the word, ‘train’. We’re to train ourselves to be godly. The Greek word translated ‘train’ is ‘gym’. It is used to describe how athletes trained themselves for competition. Godliness does not happen overnight, nor does it happen by osmosis. No matter how long or how often you come to church, it will not make you a godly person..

A runner will spend 10,000 hours training so he could run 100 meters in 10 seconds or less. I think of my first year in college: after almost 2800 hours of intensive Japanese study, it enabled many of us foreign students to speak Japanese and understand most of the lectures in Japanese.

Here, Paul is not saying that physical exercise is not important. It is a matter of priority. To acquire godliness requires discipline and effort on our part..

Thirdly, the diet of godliness. When we train our bodies, we pay attention to our diet; what to eat and what to avoid. The same is with training in godliness. In vs.6, “being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.” This diet for godliness includes God’s word and good doctrine.

  This means that if we are to be godly, we must know God’s word. By knowing God’s word then we know what is right and wrong. When we are familiar with God’s word, then we’ll learn to set priorities and be a diligent student; a loyal employee or a good employer. When we study God’s word, then we’ll also know what it means to be a good and faithful parent and what a good marriage is all about. When we know God’s word, we’ll also know what is good for our children. At the end of the day, it is not whether our children go to the best school, own the best computers or other gadgets, but what kind of person they are.

  Personal discipline of Bible study is important. It was said that Ruth Graham, wife of Billy Graham, when she was a student at Wheaton College , would get up at 4 every morning to read the Bible. I am not advocating that we all get up this early to read God’s word. Yet, we all need to do our best to make reading the Bible a priority in life. There are the BSF, and recently, there is also a Cantonese Bible study group, similar to BSF, which started in Houston few months ago. These and Sunday School, and other Bible study groups are great opportunities for us to study the Word. .

  Besides studying the word, Paul also mentioned good doctrine. When we bring together different portions of God’s word under different topics or categories or folders, they are called doctrine. From a careful study of the Word and reading books such as ‘Doctrine’ by Mark Driscol, will help us to know and understand the doctrine of trinity, God’s plan of redemption, man’s sinfulness, God’s unconditional love, Jesus Christ’s atonement, the irresistible grace of God and His power to persevere us in our Christian growth. Careful and repeated reading of the Westminster or Heidelberg catechisms are instrumental in our becoming godly men and women.

Conclusion:

  Lois, the corpse flower, bloomed and eventually went dormant. We will have to wait for another year to experience its smell. The World cup soccer has also come and gone and we’ll have to wait for 4 more years. For that matter, studies, career, and even parenting will one day cease. If these are the things we pursue, what will we become once they are gone?

Is there something we are obsessed with at this moment in life? You see, the scripture tells us that godliness has its value both now and in eternity. Godliness is to be that big umbrella, under which we pursue our study and career. Under the umbrella of godliness, we develop relationships with people around us. Under the umbrella of godliness, we become adults, parents and spouses that walk closely with the Lord.