Today, the world is suffering from war, famine, extreme weather, poverty, and discrimination. The world’s way of prosperity has such a different face on the other side. What is the believers’ hope in these times?
15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.
The two adjacent phrases of instruction are rich and interesting. ‘These matters’ refers back to devoting himself to his (or rather God’s) gift of advancing the gospel, i.e., fighting the good fight of revealing God’s desire. First, to be diligent in’ is translated in slightly different nuances: to ‘practise’ (ESV), and to ‘take pains (NASB)[1], but they all mean the action of putting them into practise, making it happen. More reading of the definitions of the original word, however, adds to the meaning the psychological side of being diligent and practising, such as in the description ‘to give painful attention to’. It gives insight into the essence of being diligent—it is not just about making your body busy with things to do, but conscious and painstaking adherence to God’s desire is equally emphasised.
Second, ‘to give yourself wholly’ to them is translated as ‘immerse yourself’ in them in the ESV and as ‘be absorbed in them’ in the NSAB. But these paraphrases are attempts to most effectively describe the original word, ‘be’. Be in them! So that you and your life of revealing God’s desire cannot be told apart! That must be how different translations arrived at ‘giving myself wholly’ or ‘being absorbed or immersed’.
Then one could not tell if it was your progress or the gospel’s progress. In fact, the only two other places where the same word occurs are ‘progress of the gospel’ (Phil 1:12) and ‘progress of faith’ (Phil 1:25). They are progress that takes place through believers!
16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Paul’s figure of speech that names two contrasting things not just to mean the two but to include everything in between, e.g., Jews and Gentiles, can be at work here too. Then ‘yourself’ (Timothy) and ‘your hearers’ would mean all people who would believe, i.e., ‘for all people’, for whom God has a desire that they come to know the truth and be saved!
Thank you, God, for the revelation of your word, which magnifies you and makes us so small. You are great. Your thoughts are so great that we cannot begin to contemplate them. But despite our smallness and limitedness, you delight in revealing your desire for all people through us! Let us immerse ourselves in your thoughts. Let us be absorbed in your love so that we may be truly diligent and continuously lead meaningful lives as your children and managers. Lord, the world suffers and groans! But your desire still stands. It is all the more necessary that we live as your agents and messengers. Use us and send us for your glory’s sake. Praise be to our great and almighty God.
[1] μελετάω (meletaō) ‘to meditate/plot’ (G3191) to plot, think about, meditate on; to give oneself wholly to, practice, cultivate, to care for; to bestow careful thought upon, to give painful attention to, be earnest in, meditate on, cultivate 1Tim. 4:15; to devise, plot Acts 4:25