“But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.” (1 Timothy 6:11)

Jesus has come to reach out to everyone in the world. Paul describes what reaching out to the world looks like. “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26-27) We are different from each other, and yet we all come to a relationship with Jesus Christ by faith. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” (Romans 1:16-17)

Once we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we flee from sin and begin to pursue the ways of God. Paul encourages his student Timothy to pursue these ways, which include “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.” (1 Timothy 6:11) We as children of God should pursue the same.

We are to pursue righteousness, which comes through Jesus’ giving to us His righteousness. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) While we have new life in Jesus Christ, we still have our sin nature. With the sin nature, we must make a conscious effort to pursue righteousness. Akin to righteousness, we are also to pursue godliness. Here we must seek the very character of God Himself. This pursuit looks to our hope of eternity with Him while we represent Him in life here.  Paul makes a comparison to our physical development. “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8) Then looking ahead to when we will see Jesus, he tells us we will be like Him. “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)

In our pursuit, we are also to seek both faith and love. To pursue faith is to seek to please God. “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) This is followed with a challenge to pursue love. The more we love, the more we become like Him. “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.” (1 John 4:16-17)

We continue our pursuit through a desire to pursue. Along with this desire, we are also to endure. God, from the beginning, has endured our sin as He prepared to send Jesus to open the way for us to come back to God through redemption and forgiveness. He pursued us through the cross in order for us to have life through the resurrection. When we respond to His pursuit we come by faith into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Now we pursue Him and grow in that relationship. We will go through all kinds of trials as we live our lives. Through all the trials we are to continue to pursue our relationship with God as He recreates us in the image of Jesus Christ. Who one day we will be like Him. “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)

The challenge gives us one more item to pursue: gentleness. The way of Jesus is gentleness. Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29) Paul would tell us, “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” (Philippians 4:5) While we walk with the Living Word of God, let us pursue His ways every day of our lives.

In the Love of Jesus,

Michael Block