The Holy Spirit speaks the same words of promise, hope and expectation to you and me today. Though he doesn’t phrase it this way, in a very real sense Paul was calling his young associate to live up to his name: Timothy. No matter what your or my name is, when we think in those terms about what Paul was saying, his letter addresses something that is true of all of us.
“Timothy”—A Prophecy for Your Life
The name Timothy is derived from two Greek words: timao, which means “to honor” or “to establish worth”; and theos, or “God.” Wrapped up in Timothy’s name is a tremendous prophecy about every human life. While society places a dollar value on people when it determines things like wages and life insurance, a sense of worth derived from that can be very deceptive, because it is based upon a human calculation. Dollar value has little to do with real value.
Timao has to do with the true worth of a person’s life based upon what God has invested in each one of us. And once our real value begins to be perceived, that changes the way we view any of the “its” that face us. There comes a new sense of esteem. It isn’t self-esteem, but the esteem of being honored by God. Not that He is marveled by how amazing we are, but that the living God, knowing what He has invested in us, will not dishonor what He has designed.
Consider the Price That Was Paid for Us
There’s another idea wrapped up in timao—the idea of penalty. While that may seem peculiar when we are talking about esteem and worth, as it was used in the ancient court systems, the concept is obvious: Timao had to do with the exacting of a punishment relative to a committed crime, i.e., the violation was worth a particular degree of penalty.
This insight prompts a countering concept—truth that refuses the doubt born of any residing sense that we are still living “penalized” for our past. In contrast to that, God’s Word summons our reviewing the enormous, intrinsic worth He has invested in you and me. Not only did He place His worth in us when He designed us, but He was also willing to pay an incredible price to redeem us from the penalty of our sin.
Think of it! Your life and mine must be worth much more than “IT,” otherwise God would not have paid so great a price to redeem us! Don’t let your doubts, fears or the spirit of condemnation dispute or dishonor the value and worth God has confirmed regarding you. YES! We were sinners! YES! We were helplessly lost! YES! We had not self-strength or self-worth to recover ourselves. BUT …
BUT God gave His priceless Gift—Jesus—and in Him announced a worth—He was valuable enough to spend His life for us!
BUT God made a timeless life—YOU—and He refused to see that eternally lost. So He devised a plan to recover your value for His eternal purposes and to enjoy His eternal fellowship.
Dear one, God thinks you’re worth so very, very much! Don’t let “IT” argue against that. Hear His Holy Spirit speak the truth over and over again to us—to draw us to the recognition that if God has put such purpose in us, then there is no power or lie that ought to be allowed to challenge that!
“Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners,” Paul writes in his letter, “of whom I am chief” (1 Tim. 1:15). Every thoughtful, sensitive soul has, at one time or another, felt guilty for their sins and bad about themselves as Paul did. Sin is a violation of what we were designed to be in the eyes of Father God.