A Passionate Pursuit...

Reading from 1 Timothy 6 this morning,

“But you, man of God, flee from all this (love of money and evil), and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith.” (Timothy 6:11-12)

There is absolutely nothing passive about this. To aggressively flee from the desires of this world and passionately pursue the character of God in our lives is far from passive. Conversely, to take the path of least resistance, accepting our circumstances, and attempting to fulfill our own personal desires like the rest of the world – that’s passive. That’s status quo, commonplace, nothing new, same old - same old, mundane, life as we know it.

What an absurd lie this world tells us. Maybe one day we’ll grow up and perhaps get a job that might pay the bills and could possibly fund our happiness. It’s production for the sake of consumption. And every day we long to be free from where we’re at, and though we think that we’re absolutely free to choose, we find we’re only prisoners of our past choices.

Some of us end up finding religion, and whatever it is, it calls for us to restrain our passions that we might become better people. This isn’t what Jesus called us to though. While religions like Buddhism may center around the annihilation of desire, Jesus calls us to an acceleration of passion. One where we become so passionately in love with God and people that He loves, that they are worth fighting and living, and dying for.

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it (Matthew 25:16).

Jesus says here that to join him on the adventure of truly living we must die to the life that we have lived. No small task, as we’ve spent our entire lives living this way and so has everyone else around us. To choose Jesus is not easy but difficult. The way is paved with uncertainty and risk, yet it is right and leads to life to the fullest.

At the end of the chapter, Paul encourages Timothy that giving really is the highest level of living, and that in doing so we “may take hold of the life that is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:19).

What is life? It’s receiving the awesome Love of God and spending our days passionately giving as much of it away as we can. .