1 Timothy 6:11 “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.”

This list of virtues is the alternative to loving money. They seem to work in pairs. First “righteousness and godliness.” Sometimes Paul uses “righteousness” to refer to our guilt-free condition after God has forgiven our sins. He sees us as sinless for Jesus’ sake. It’s not really something to pursue. It is something he gave us as a gift. Here he is referring to behavior that actually lines up with what our Lord says is good and avoids what he says is bad. Telling a child, “you’re a great athlete or musician,” moves them to want to become that more and more. God telling us, “You’re my righteous, holy child” makes us want to match that description with our way of life more and more.

“Godliness” is very similar. The Greek word behind it describes “good religion,” “piety,” a lifestyle that is interested in honoring God more than pleasing myself. Together with “righteousness” Paul is saying to us, “You want to know what to do with your life other than obsessing about money? Why don’t you occupy yourself with learning what God says is good, really make it a fascination and a study, and pursue that?”
Next come “faith and love.” Paul is not suggesting that Timothy has yet to come to faith. But in as much as faith is trust in the God who saves us, it is something to deepen and grow our entire lives. The more we trust and love God, the less we will trust our “stuff” to take care of us and make us happy.

So how do we “pursue” these things, and make them stronger? What if it were your boyfriend or girlfriend, you husband or wife? How would you build the trust and love then? I believe you would spend time together. You would communicate. You would talk some, but you would also listen. You would do things for each other, find ways to express your love. It is much the same in this case. Faith and love grow when we spend time with God, listen to him, pray and serve him to express our love, yes, but especially see his love expressed to us in the way that he has served us. Where is that going to happen? When our nose is in a Bible, and our bottoms are sitting in church.

The last pair Paul urges us to pursue are “endurance and gentleness.” Doing things God’s way comes with its own set of challenges. It introduces us to all kinds of challenging people. We don’t have to go looking for trouble. If we are pursuing a life in line with his commands because we trust what he has to say and want to show real love to him and others, not just float along with the tides of popular opinion, then trouble will find us. People will criticize us, like they criticized Jesus, like they criticized his apostles. Timothy understood by now that where Paul preached the gospel, some mob of people who didn’t like it eventually drove him out of town. That’s an opportunity to become more and more patient, and a chance to learn how to treat others with gentleness.