Capture the Flag was a popular night game at some the youth camps we directed years ago.  Two or more teams each have a flag and the objective is to capture the other team’s flag, located at the team’s “base” (or hidden or even buried somewhere in the territory), and bring it safely back to their own base. 

Enemy players can be “tagged” by players when out of their home territory and, depending on the rules, they may be out of the game, become members of the opposite team, be sent back to their own territory, be frozen in place, or be sent to “jail” until freed by a member of their own team.  As you can imagine, this was a game of strategy and cunningness.  Who would capture the flags of their opponents and be deemed the winners?  Only the tenacious, clever, and wise won.

I think of this camp activity, played in the darkness of night, as I read Paul’s commanding advice to Timothy, a young leader who is holding the “fort” at Ephesus.  In the final words of his first letter to Timothy, he tells Timothy what to avoid that will cause troubles in the ministry of helping others believe and follow Jesus.  Read as we learn how to guard the “flag” of the true message of salvation while avoiding the enemy’s tricks to “tag” us out in our efforts to do what God says in Jesus Name. 

1 Timothy 6, The Message

 ^1-2 Whoever is a slave must make the best of it, giving respect to his master so that outsiders don’t blame God and our teaching for his behavior. Slaves with Christian masters all the more so—their masters are really their beloved brothers!

The Lust for Money

^2-5 These are the things I want you to teach and preach. If you have leaders there who teach otherwise, who refuse the solid words of our Master Jesus and this godly instruction, tag them for what they are: ignorant windbags who infect the air with germs of envy, controversy, bad-mouthing, suspicious rumors. Eventually there’s an epidemic of backstabbing, and truth is but a distant memory. They think religion is a way to make a fast buck.

^6-8 A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that’s enough.

^9-10 But if it’s only money these leaders are after, they’ll self-destruct in no time. Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after.

Running Hard

^11-12 But you, Timothy, man of God: Run for your life from all this. Pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to, the life you so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses.

^13-16 I’m charging you before the life-giving God and before Christ, who took his stand before Pontius Pilate and didn’t give an inch: Keep this command to the letter, and don’t slack off. Our Master, Jesus Christ, is on his way. He’ll show up right on time, his arrival guaranteed by the Blessed and Undisputed Ruler, High King, High God. He’s the only one death can’t touch, his light so bright no one can get close. He’s never been seen by human eyes—human eyes can’t take him in! Honor to him, and eternal rule! Oh, yes.

^17-19 Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.

^20-21 And oh, my dear Timothy, guard the treasure you were given! Guard it with your life. Avoid the talk-show religion and the practiced confusion of the so-called experts. People caught up in a lot of talk can miss the whole point of faith.

Overwhelming grace keep you!

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” –Jesus, Matthew 6:19-21, NIV

What do we think about most?  That becomes the treasure we seek to store.

Who do we listen to most often and are influenced so greatly that we begin to say the same words as we do what they say?  What treasures are they leading us to store?

I grew up in Oklahoma but now live in Indiana.  When I am around a person from Oklahoma, I catch myself falling back into the cadence and accented voice of my native language.  (“Y’all” for instance, is the first phrase that pops out!)  We naturally begin to be like the person we are with most often.  Who we hang with and listen to influences our treasure hunt.

You have heard it said by the world— “the heart wants what the heart wants.”  But Jesus says unto us, what is in our hearts will flow freely into what we do and how we relate to others. If we are storing up hate, greed, bitterness, envy, and jealousy as treasures to seek and to store in the center of our being—our hearts—then these same traits of darkness will spill out into our walk and talk and harm us as well as others in the process.  These “treasures” are exactly what the opposing enemy of God wants us to seek—and we fall it when dabbling in the darkness with the enemy who seeks to capture our flag of freedom in Christ! 

Avoid the behaviors of the Enemy, says Paul to his young ministry protégé, Timothy.  Instead guard the rich treasures of all God has given to us and wants to grow in us—beginning with your salvation through Jesus, His Son!  Store up all the riches of His unconditional love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; that becomes our response to who we are in Christ as we grow in our relationship with Him!  (See Galatians 5) Riches in God’s will can introduce a person to life that is real and ministry that is lasting.

The more we hang on the words of Jesus; the more we become like him in every way by God helping us by His Spirit living in us!  “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. –Jesus, Matthew 6:24, NIV We can’t have it both ways as these traits are in constant conflict with each other.  Why?  If wealth makes a person proud, then he understands neither himself nor his wealth. We are not owners; we are stewards. God is the owner.

The influencers in Timothy’s world—

It was customary in the Roman oppressed world to acknowledge regularly, “Caesar is Lord!” Of course, Christians would say “Jesus Christ is Lord!” Paul exclaims here that only God has “honor and everlasting power.” If Timothy was going to fight the good fight of faith, he had to decide that Jesus Christ alone was worthy of worship and complete devotion.  Today we must decide daily who we will worship.  We decide who will influence our lives—treasures of greed or treasures of grace.  We learn that grace wins every time.  May God’s overwhelming grace lead us throughout this day—even now.

Lord,

Thank you for bringing our minds to the importance of treasure seeking and treasure storing that enriches our lives depending on who we want to be like.  Lord, I want to know you more so I can become more like you and less like the world.  I believe in you. I trust you with my life for you are Life eternal.  I know whom I have believed and I know you are able to teach me.  Thank you for your love, mercy, and grace.

In Jesus Name, Amen