Monday, August 12, 2013

SERVING GOD IN A DIVIDED HOME

Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother
was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek.” (Acts 16:1.)

Every purpose of God the Creator He intended to be achieved through marriage and the home which He ordained in the beginning. (Genesis 1:26-28; 2:18-24.)  From Adam, formed from the dust of the earth, and imbued with the breath of life, to Jesus “…his Son, born of a woman…” (Galatians 4:4), the Lord intended that children be born of parents who would nurture, protect, and train them to know God their Maker, and his purpose for their life. “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” (Psalm 127:1.) It is critically important that the husband (Lit. ‘house+binder’) and the wife (Lit. ‘weaver’)  work together and help one another in this God-appointed task. But often today such cooperation is not the case.  

It was not the case in the home in which Timothy was born and grew up. His mother was a Jewess and a Christian, but Timothy’s “father was a Greek.”  Hence, Timothy grew up in a family in pagan Lystra which was divided racially.  How, in first century society, did Eunice, a Jewish maiden, become acquainted with, and respond to the courtship of, an “uncircumcised Gentile”? How did she explain this to her Christian mother, Lois?

Eunice, a Christian, having married Timothy’s father is rearing her son in a home divided spiritually. Timothy’s father did not believe in Jesus, God’s Son, and likely worshipped in the temple of Zeus in Lystra.  He may well have been in the mob which stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city.  Paul had urged the crowd of pagan worshippers to turn from the emptiness of idolatry “to the living God who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them…They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead.”(Acts 14:8-20.  Cf. 2 Timothy 3:10-12.)

Consequently, in a family divided by race and spiritual faith, Timothy’s family must have often felt the strain of social strain. Reflect upon the differences probably evident in the pagan friends invited to the home by Timothy’s father, in contrast to the Christian among whom Eunice felt comfortable.

It is remarkable that Paul, from a Roman prison, writes about Timothy to the Philippian saints, “I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you.  I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.  But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me…” (2:19-23.)  Of all of Paul’s co-workers, the apostle commends young Timothy, saying, “…I have no one else like him…” – a young man reared in the stress of a marriage and home so evidently divided.  

What does this home, despite its evident differences and likely daily strain, teach us?  What of a practical nature may we learn to help our families live unto God despite today’s similar stresses and divisions?

1.  DEVOTED TO GOD’S WORD. Eunice likely learned early the added stress of seeking to rear her son to know and love Jehovah despite the father’s unbelief and perhaps, antagonism.  She must have loved her husband deeply, longing to share with him the hope of eternal life found in Christ Jesus.  Peter the apostle encouraged a wife in such circumstances¸ “Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without talk by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. (1 Peter 3:1, 2.)  Still, she accepted the opportunity and responsibility of loving and teaching her boy the Word of God.  Paul reminded Timothy in Paul’s final letter, “…continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:14-17.) Eunice began early to teach Timothy from the only inspired Scriptures she had – the Old Testament, which spoke of the Messiah-Priest-King-Savior to come - Jesus the Son of God.

It is to be lamented when a child knows how to program a smart-phone, or is expert in the names of athletes and TV personalities, but has no knowledge nor respect for the Word of his Maker.  Are we aware that by reading 3 chapters each week-day, and 5 chapters on Sundays we can read through the entire Bible in a year?  The entire Bible may be read by the average reader in about 80 hours…which would require less than 15 minutes each day!  With our child’s life and eternal hopes in our hands, can we excuse our/his ignorance of the words of eternal life?  Eunice carefully and prayerfully taught the son entrusted to her, likely with no help from her husband.  We must do the same.

2. DEEP, PERSONAL FAITH IN GOD. Timothy must have loved his father.  But it may be that the stress engendered by the divisions in his family contributed to his stomach problems “and frequent illnesses.”(1 Timothy 5:23.) Notwithstanding, he found in his maternal heritage a strength and quality lacking in his father’s example.  In Paul’s final letter to his “son in the faith”, the apostle was “reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother  Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.”(2 Timothy 1:5.)
The Hebrew word for “faith” literally means, ‘to lean on’. Growing up can be a challenge.  Life can be hard.  We do not succeed without inner strength.  “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”(Hebrews 11:6.)  From the lives and teaching of his mother and grandmother Timothy learned that there is a God, and it pays to serve Him. Such trust daily, and especially in times of pain and trouble, is anchored in God’s righteous character and faithful word. It serves as a shield to  “extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”  (Ephesians 6:16.)

Timothy observed the confidence in God and his Word he saw in lives of his mother and grandmother.  And, our children know where our trust is – in position, wealth, fame, education, power, or,  in the eternal, faithful God.

3.  TRAINED TO SERVE GOD.    On the Paul’s second missionary journey he heard when the “brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of” Timothy.  So, he asked Timothy to join him and Silas in taking the gospel to untaught regions. He circumcised him (since the Jews who knew Timothy knew his Gentile father would not have done so.) (Acts 16:1-3.)  Thus began for the young apprentice a life of service unto Jesus his Savior. Churches were strengthened in the faith and grew  daily in numbers.” (vs. 4, 5.)  We could well wonder as to his father’s reaction upon learning of his son’s leaving to join Paul and Silas in such labors – including traveling into Europe to share the message of life in Jesus with our barbarian European ancestors. Eunice had trained her son well.  Life may well have many interests.  But God’s gift of eternal life to each of his children has the purpose of enabling others to be taught the way of salvation found in Christ Jesus. Timothy was faithful in his life’s task, even when in Philippi – the first European city into which the team entered, the Roman authorities arrested Paul and Silas, brutally beat and imprisoned them.  We wonder what Timothy’s thoughts were the night after those violent events.  But God used them to begin the good church in Philippi. (Acts 16:6-40.)  After Paul was driven out of the city of Thessalonica by a mob shouting, “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here…”, he later sent Timothy (just a young man, Cf. 1 Timothy 4:12) back to Thessalonica.  This young man, when Paul could not return, was sent back to new saints who had “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God…to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials.”(1 Thessalonians 1:6-10;  3:1-5.) Eunice had done her work well, in readying him for a life of service and hope, despite its troubles and fears. Like the archer who sends his arrow far beyond where he can go, so this grandmother and mother released a beloved son to God and his task (Psalm 127:1-5).  Thus Paul would commend his labors in the gospel alongside his own, “as a son with his father”. So, today we too are influenced and blessed by the rearing of this godly servant – though it took place in a divided home.
           
Mary Elvira, born July 18, 1853, in time became a widowed mother in a little town. She taught her eight children to know God, as Eunice taught her son.   The Lord’s church began in that small village, in the heart, home, and family of that widow,. In time her firstborn daughter, Minnie Isabella, would marry a man named Bouldin, who was not a Christian.  He was a hard-working hill farmer, and a honorable man.  But he was not a Christian, and he had never been inside of a church gathering. Their first child was a daughter, named for her grandmother Mary, and taught by her mother as Eunice taught her son.  At age 12, Mary was baptized into Jesus.  Her father, Bouldin, became a Christian the same day.  He would in time become a shepherd in the Lord’s church. When Mary grew to years, she married a man named Frank, from a God-fearing family with roots in a Protestant denomination.  About the time their second child was born, Frank was immersed into the body of Christ  From Mary Elvira, the widow, have come in her offspring and lineage, four elders of the church, and seven preachers of the gospel.
                                                                       
MOM & DAD
How much is a godly mother worth?  One whose life is fashioned by the Lord.  
She whose love and faith enrich her children, planting in their hearts the sacred Word.
What the value of afaithful father? one whose life example daily sets.
He whose counsel daily grows more trusted; always giving much more than he gets.
Rich the child whose heart is gently molded in the way of truth by parents dear;
If his early training he remembers, what in life or death need he have fear?
Yet, perchance another’s home is different, furnished with the lavish things of earth;
But when Parents fail to train their children in the way of truth, what is such worth?
Fathers, we would well look to our duty, Mothers, do not fail to meet your test;
Later, when life’s sun has passed its zenith, children will rise up and call you blessed.
                                                                                                                  --Ted Kell
                                                                        +++++++
(NOTE:  Mary Elvira Wilson was the Great-Grandmother, Minnie Isabella Duvall the Grandmother, Mary Joyce Kell the Mother, and Frank Kell the Father of this writer.  Timothy would have had no knowledge of God had his mother and grandmother not taught him. And this writer is eternally indebted to God for the faithful women in my heritage who led their husbands and families to serve the Lord. )

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