Chuck Anderson

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity . (1Timothy 5:1-2) Everyone faces, at various times in our lives, a moment when we need to say difficult things to people. If you know me, I imagine you’re picking your jaw up off the floor, because you know confrontation is about my least favorite thing in the world. I would be willing to wager that confrontation is low on your list as well. But we cannot get away from these kinds of conversations. As my wife wisely says, a healthy church is built on the relationships that are formed amid a thousand difficult but loving conversations. Anecdotally though, I know that many, many relationships between churches and their ministers—indeed between friends and even families—have been brought to an untimely end because of ugly confrontations. Since we can’t get away from confrontations, let’s learn how to have them. Let’s look over ...

For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe . (1Timothy 4:10) Here on my blog recently, I’ve been trying to write a little every day about my Daily Bible Reading. I am doing this writing project in an effort to meditate more on the Scripture, learn a little for myself, and hopefully say something useful. So I’ve been writing about one or more verses that jump out at me as I read. And as a reformed and baptist Christian, this one definitely stands out. If you know anything about reformed Christianity, you may have heard about the doctrine of election—God saves and justifies those whom he has chosen. So that’s why this verse is so arresting. How is it true that God is the Savior of all? And what does this mean for Timothy’s ministry?