Solemn Command

Greetings in Jesus name, welcome to this amazing new day. I hope that the Lord has been preparing your heart, preparing your mind, preparing your spirit this morning, this season to just grow in the revelation of what He is doing and what He has done and what He is about to do not just in your life, but in the world around us, in the church that we are placed in, in the family that God has blessed us with, in the workplace wherever we use our talents and our abilities – even over there we need to understand the heart and the mind of God for each and every sphere of our life. And today I want you to know that unless we are willing to surrender unless we are willing to obey unless we are willing to just heed the instruction that God gives, we cannot be fruitful in serving Him. You know Apostle Paul, every time he would write a letter, we have seen this pattern in the last few days of studying scripture how he would give commandments, he would command the church to behave in a certain way, he would command them to speak in a certain way, he would command the church to not do certain things but to do certain other things. Let’s see another such commandment that he would give in the letter to this guy called Timothy who was his spiritual son and also eventually the bishop of the church at Ephesus.

1 Timothy 5:21 “I solemnly command you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus and the highest angels to obey these instructions without taking sides or showing favouritism to anyone.”

This is Apostle Paul who is now speaking to his son in the Lord and at the same time, he knows that his son has a positional authority in the church at Ephesus and all the churches that he would be going to, all the other places that he would plant or pioneer a new ministry. And he is giving a command to this guy Timothy and he says, I am not giving this command just in the accord that I am your spiritual father, I am not saying this because you are my spiritual son, I am saying this in the presence of God. When we understand that our words are spoken in the presence of God and every word that comes out of our mouth has a sacred witness, now Paul is going to measure what He is going to say, he is saying this because God wants him to say this, He is saying this because he knows and understands that this is God’s will for his son Timothy. And that’s why he says, I am commanding you this in the presence of God, and not just God the Father, I am saying this in the presence of Jesus Christ, He is our model, He is our role model, He is the one who has walked on the earth, He is the one who has lived a life here as our high priest, as our example, as the author and the perfector of our faith and Paul says, this is not just a very external, far off, idealistic principle that I am giving you, I am telling you something that Jesus himself will testify and agree to, I am commanding you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus and the highest angels. So, if you are not going to obey, it is not just God the Father who is going to be upset with you, it is not just Jesus who is going to be upset with you, now you are going to be in the bad books of all the angels that are witnesses to the commandments that I am giving you. Can you imagine how serious are these instructions that Timothy is about to receive? And he says, I am commanding you in the presence of God the Father, in the presence of Christ Jesus and the highest angels that you have to obey these instructions. Now all these instructions that Paul was giving in this particular chapter before and after this scripture, was about relationships, it was about how to conduct himself, how to relate with other people and he says, you need to pay attention to make sure that you are obeying these instructions without taking sides or showing any favouritism to anybody. What Paul was trying to tell Timothy was that the ultimate judge in all of his relationships. all of his friendships, all of his ministry endeavours are going to be God himself so he cannot try to please people, he cannot try to make his choices or decisions based on what is comfortable to him or what is comfortable to the people around him, He cannot take sides, he cannot be partial to the people that he likes, he cannot just hang out with the ones that are good to him and just ignore the ones that are not very favourable to him, now he has to obey the instructions that Apostle Paul is giving with the fear of God, with reverence to Jesus Christ and understanding that angels, holy angels, highest angels are now witnessing everything that he is doing, now they are either going to help you or they are going to be driven away from you based on how you obey your spiritual father. Now check this out, Paul is not trying to teach him about the anointing or the power of the anointing or very important, highly spiritual topics, Paul is just teaching him about how to do relationships, how to honour elders and how to treat young people also respectfully. And Paul says this is very serious business, this is something that is going to require you to obey my instructions as it is without favouritism to anybody. Paul was expecting Timothy to meet the standards that he has kept for Timothy, make sure that he does not go to the left or to the right, that he will be faithful till the very end. This is something that we can also pray and ask God for today, “Lord give me the grace to do my relationships in a God-honouring way, obeying every instruction that I have received from my Pastors, my leaders, from my spiritual parents in the presence of God, in the presence of Jesus and in the presence of the highest angels that are now going to assist and help me to do this relationship well.” When we pray for that, we will receive the grace to walk in supernatural victory in every aspect of our relationships.

Prayer: Lord, just like Apostle Paul gave a commandment to Timothy that he will not take sides, that he will not show partiality, that he will not show favouritism, that he will do his relationships in a Godly manner. Lord, I release this grace that is hidden in this scripture upon all of your dear children to do the same in their own relationships, that they will speak and they will engage in friendships and conversations knowing that God is listening to them, that Jesus is a very present person in all of our relationships, that there are angels that are witnessing everything that we are doing. Help us to do it in a way that will bring glory and honour to you. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.