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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadWilliam Burkitt Notes and Observations - 1 Timothy 4:15 - 4:15
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He exhorted him to read the scriptures before, now to meditate upon what he read.
Where note, That if those who were inspired, and divinely qualified, must yet read, meditate, study hard, and employ their whole time to fit themselves for the ministerial work, what shall we think of the ignorance and impudence of our lay-preachers, who, without any such divine qualification, or without any call or commission, without giving themselves wholly to these things, dare presume to teach the scriptures, when they never understood them; nay, can hardly read them!
Meditate on these things, and give thyself wholly to them. Be in them, says the original, lay out thy whole strength and time in studying God's will, and making known thy people's duty.
Three things are here explicitly condemned in persons set apart for the holy function.
1. Sloth and negligence; it is a painful service we are engaged in, and woe unto us if we be slothful in business, if we be sparing of our pains for fear of shortening our days, and hastening our end; verily the lamp of our lives can never burn out better than in lighting others to heaven.
2. Worldly-mindedness, 1Pe_5:2 feed the flock, but not for filthy lucre: the spiritual man must not so mind earthly things as to make them his principal aim and scope; for if so, he will act accordingly, and defeat all the ends of his ministry. The apostles had no settled maintenance, but their subsistence to seek: yet were wholly in these things. How much should we be so now, who have our maintenance, but their subsistence to seek: yet were wholly in these things. How much should we be so now, who have our maintenance legally secured! How should we seek the kingdom of God, and the welfare of our people's souls, seeing all other things are added to us, in measure, though not in excess!
3. Incumbrance by worldly business: he that must give himself wholly to these things, what leisure can he find for magistracy, for managing law-suits, for farming of lands, and for secular concerns: we cannot make a business of two things so widely different from each other.
Can we be spiritual persons, and yet mere seculars in our thoughts and care?
Well therefore might St. Paul say to Timothy, But thou, O man of God, flee these things, 1Ti_6:11
Observe lastly, The reason which the apostle subjoins why he would have Timothy do all this: That his profiting may appear to all men; he must read, meditate, pray, and study, that he may improve and profit himself; though he was inspired, yet he must rely upon the Spirit's assistance without his own endeavors: and his improvement by study must appear not barely to himself, but to others, to his people as well as himself, yea, to all persons; his growth and improvement by study and exercise must be so conspicuous, that all his flock may bear witness to it, and bless God for it. Meditate on these things, and give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear unto all men.