Seventh Day Baptist
Christian Education Council
PO BOX 1678
Janesville, WI 53547
—1 Timothy 1:1-5
by: Susan Bond.
My husband says of someone with admirable character, "He commands respect." I notice that he doesn't demand it but commands it. Thus, he gains it not with forceful words but with strength of character.
In today's passage, the word command, used three times, conveys verbal force. But the strength of the command is not so much in the word's meaning as in who issued it and why. Paul, under orders from a commander who was also his Savior and Hope, exhorted Timothy to give a command with one goal in mind: love. This goal reflects the nature of the original Commander.