1 Timothy 1:18-20

Rachel Workman: 18 Timothy, my son, here are my instructions for you, based on the prophetic words spoken about you earlier. May they help you fight well in the Lord’s battles. 19 Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked. 20 Hymenaeus and Alexander are two examples. I threw them out and handed them over to Satan so they might learn not to blaspheme God.

I think verse 18 is interesting where it states "May they help you fight well in the Lord's battles." I think sometimes because we can't see it we forget that we are fighting a battle every day. If God were to remove the veil and we could see the battle we fight we would die of fright. I love verse 19. I've seen many shipwrecks in my life. I've been in some of them. And I see some coming in some of my loved ones lives. If I could get across one point to them it would be this. Never have an unclear conscience. It's very hard to live in this world and not live for this world. Keep your conscience clear and it's pretty easy. This world will continually hand you over to Satan. And that is not something I want even a small part of.

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Krista Cook:  We, too, have the Word (instructions) that we need in order to fight against the world.  We must keep our faith strong and our conscience clear from evil  so we don't become "shipwrecked".  Staying in the Word and true to the Word will help us stay the course.

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Mike Grimm:  ¹⁸ Timothy, my son, here are my instructions for you, based on the prophetic words spoken about you earlier. May they help you fight well in the Lord’s battles. Paul highly valued the gift of prophecy. Through prophecy important messages of warning and encouragement came to the church. Just as pastors are ordained and set apart for ministry in the church today, Timothy had been set apart for ministry when elders laid their hands on him (see 4:14). ¹⁹ Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked. We might have a good conscience but how can we hold on to it? Especially in the world we live in today. We must treasure our faith in Christ more than anything else. We must do what is right and not what feels good. We must never assume that something is OK with God. God does not have gray areas. It’s black and white. It’s right or wrong and our conscience will tell us, but we must listen and trust it. We may not like what “the right thing” is, but we must obey. This is the Big League now and we will be judged someday on our decisions. Every time we ignore our conscience we harden our heart a little more. It may seem like a lot at first, but over time it will diminish our capacity to recognize right from wrong. Soon you won’t even think twice about giving the finger to the old couple that cut you off leaving church, or telling 2 old women to shut the “F” up in church. Telling someone off will be a piece of cake. At this point it’s very difficult to get back on track with God. It would have been so much easier to stay on that track in the first place. However, if we walk WITH God, He will speak to us through our conscience. All humans have a conscience, which pure science can never explain. Our conscience is God the Holy Spirit, speaking quietly to each of us throughout our lives. Letting us know right from wrong. We need to recognize those gentle tugs so that we do what is right; whether we like it or not. It’s easier to draw close to God where you’re at right now than to plunge to rock bottom and start the ascent from there. I may not know a lot…but I do know some. ²⁰ Hymenaeus and Alexander are two examples. I threw them out and handed them over to Satan so they might learn not to blaspheme God. When we deliberately disobey God we must be stopped quickly and sternly so not to contaminate those surrounding us, whether it be the church congregation, home, family or the work place. This is where we need discipline. But in the same respect we must be willing to give it. But discipline must be dished out in a loving Christian way. We have to bring this person back to Christ. We must demonstrate love towards the offender while getting the point across to them. The definition of discipline includes these words: strengthening, purifying, training, correcting, perfecting. Avoid condemnation at all costs. I don’t know about you, but if somebody says to me “hey you #%$&# idiot, what the hell? You are so pi$$ing off God right now and he probably hates you. Stop getting angry and yelling at people or you’re going to hell”, it probably ain’t gonna work too well to bring me back around. In fact it will probably have the opposite effect. We must choose our words very carefully as I have found that it’s easier to walk away from God than to turn around and walk back. This is not our mission.