Paul left Timothy, a young man at this time, to pastor the most difficult church and city Paul ever had to deal with. This in my opinion spoke more about the quality and trust Paul had for Timothy considering the other options. At Ephesus, a riot once broke out after Paul's teaching was leading to people abandoning the worship of gods and dark magic. They began to burn their magic spell books, destroyed their idols of the Greek goddess Artemis and stopped worshipping her altogether. Paul had to be sneaked out of the city because the riot was so violent. It was to this city and church that Timothy was taking charge of. Timothy's age was definitely a problem, he was a young man pastoring a church of much older men and women. And so, Paul writes to him like a son and gives him advises to help him pastor and lead his flock. "The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure hear, a clear conscience, and genuine faith." 1Tim 1:5 NLT. Paul gives Timothy the a clear purpose for his work everywhere and how to accomplish it; it is so that believers will be filled with love that comes from sincerity, a clear conscience and genuine faith. Paul also tells him; "Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked." 1Tim 1:19 NLT. Cling to, hold on to, your faith in God, why? Because it was going to be tested. Timothy's faith was severly tested, and I believe like him all believer's faith will be tested too. Many things will come that will cause us to question whether our faith in God is genuine or whether God is real or not. I call this each person's faith walk with God. Paul says, cling to your faith. He also says to keep our consciences clear because some people, whether unwittingly or deliberately, will violate their conscience. Your conscience is the voice of your own spirit man and God will usually seek to lead you through it. Constantly violating it leads to dead or seared conscience. Paul says; don't do it, keep a clear conscience at all times by walking in faith towards God.
