As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk.  They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

1 Timothy 1:3 – 7

I would say that it looks like Paul is asking young Timothy to do something beyond his limits.  He was a young man, not educated like Paul, as far as we know and probably not looking for such demanding assignments.  The thriving Christian community in Ephesus was made up of both Jews and Gentiles, probably mostly Gentile. I think asking Timothy to be a peacemaker between these two groups was a good move on the part of Paul.  Timothy, a resident of Turkey himself with a Gentile father and a Jewish mother should be able to win the confidence of all and help in the healing process. If I can feel for Timothy, I believe that the prospect of living as a shepherd over this burgeoning multi-cultural church, probably the largest of its kind then, was overwhelming!

I have discovered that we as followers of Jesus are asked to do assignments or to do things that seem to be beyond us, because we are too young, too timid or just too weak.

Imagine my surprise in 1964 when, in light of Bishop Elam Stauffer’s leaving the field for retirement, the Tanzanian church did not feel ready to come to one mind on who should be the first Tanzanian bishop so they requested that I agree to be installed as Bishop until they could work it out.  That took two years.  I was thirty-six years old and certainly not a Tanzanian!  I quake today when I think of that.  It seemed an impossible task for me but in hind sight those two years were some of the most satisfying and profitable years in my entire life.

For me, I felt that I was always too young or too unprepared to do what God wanted me to do.  But to this day, I am convinced that God was right.  In our weakness we experience Gods’ extraordinary strength.