TUESDAY January 9th
When we came to an end of the devotions for 2023, I finished by high-lighting some of the verses from the various letters Paul had written, ending with 1 Timothy 3:16 ‘Great indeed we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh’.
I want to go to his letters to Timothy again and this time to 2 Timothy 1:3-7 which I will consider through the rest of this week.
‘I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.’
Remember that we are looking at the life and the ministry of Paul, seeking to learn from him and from the example he has given to us as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He starts in these verses with the words ‘I thank God whom I serve’. He links his devotion and service to God with that of his ancestors, who pre-Calvary would have been devoted to everything that was required of them as Jews who worshipped the God of their fathers. For Paul, this devotion had now been for want of a better way of putting it, transferred across to his devotion toward God as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he served God with a clear conscience—as I read this I thought about the man Paul when he was still called Saul, making his way to Damascus, he would have said at the time that he was God-fearing, yet he hated Jesus and those who followed him! But the power of the gospel had changed him, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that he did not have a clear conscience as he was making his way to destroy the Christians, he was actively fighting against God and against the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, but his encounter with Jesus changed him, he started over afresh and the wonderful news concerning the gospel is that once our sin had been forgiven we had a brand new start, our conscience was cleaned and cleared, and despite whatever we may have done we had the opportunity to start all over again with a clean slate, we began to serve God with a clear conscience.
As you read this devotion today, can you say that you stand before God with a clear conscience, what about our daily service for him, do we serve him as we ought? Are we living in such a way that we truly can say that we serve God with a clear conscience.
One hymn writer penned these words, the hymnal only has his or her initials E.H.H. but it reflects the desire of his or her heart towards being devoted to God with a clear conscience:
Nothing between, Lord, nothing between;
Let me thy glory see,
Draw my soul close to thee,
Then speak in love to me—
Nothing between, Nothing between.