Jesus – Three Minute Bible

August 4, 2026July 28, 2026

1 Timothy 6:11 (Part 4) – Love

A crystal heart with a Cross in the center (Grok)

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

Summary: Love, the poet says, is a ‘many splendored thing.’ Yet when it comes to describing what those ‘splendors’ are, we sometimes get stuck.

One thing we can be fairly confident of when we focus on Paul’s advice to Timothy is that he wasn’t suggesting Timothy pursue romantic love.

Sometimes, of course, it is the other way around. Romantic love pursues the man! Many a young pastor has discovered that they are more popular with the fair sex than they could have imagined. Sometimes even older ones fall victim to this trap. (Satan isn’t proud when it comes to subverting God’s church. There is nothing he will not stoop to.)

The kind of “love” Paul recommends pursuing is quite different.

When we talk about the love Paul is referring to, it is easy to ‘zone out’ and let our minds wander to some other topic. Godly love can sound ‘churchy’ and maybe even a bit stuffy. After all, we are talking about a God who has been around a long, long time and who in ancient times was responsible for plagues, people dying in battle, and sending Jesus to the cross.

Maybe if we substitute “nice” for the word “love,” God will let us get by with that.

The word Paul actually used is, of course, the Greek word “agapē.” Agapē is often referred to as “godly love” to set it apart from other forms of love. It includes affection but runs very deep in terms of being willing to make sacrifices for the one you love.

One way to think of agapē is as a kind of ‘selfless love.’

This makes sense when we consider the two Great Commandments as Jesus summarized them.* The first is to love God above all else, including yourself. This means that we put God’s will above our own. Interestingly, putting God first guarantees our thoughts and actions will reflect his love because “God is love” (1 John 4:8).

The second Great Commandment does something similar. It simply says we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Here again we sacrifice putting ourselves first so that we can treat our neighbors as God would have them treated.

Application: Love well.

Food for Thought: What does loving our neighbor look like?

* Matthew 22:37-40

Please click ‘’Continue Reading” for comments.

August 3, 2026July 28, 2026

1 Timothy 6:11 (Part 3) – Faith

But you, man of God, flee from all this, andpursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

Summary: Paul’s emphasis on pursuit evokes images of running after something. In this case, we are running after an attitude of trust.

How are we supposed to “pursue faith?” Is it running away from us? Interestingly, when we look for faith in our own lives, it can seem to be elusive.

What is faith?

Simply put, faith is another word for trust and confidence in someone or something. Hebrews famously defines faith this way:

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

You can have faith in things you see, touch, and feel, but it is not as challenging as faith in things we do not see.

As a Christian, we put our faith in … what? God? Jesus? The Bible? (Oh, wait. We can “see” the Bible!)

Those who believe in Jesus believe in someone who has gone to prepare a place for us (John 14:2). He is not here in the flesh, but he does promise to come back for us (John 14:3).

And that is what we have faith in. We are trusting that Jesus won’t leave us behind; that he will come and get us at the proper time.

So how do we pursue faith? How do we chase after having trust in Jesus?

The answer is probably different for each of us. After all, we are all in different places in our relationship with Jesus. However, there are some common threads we can all make use of.

One is to keep our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2). The writer of Hebrews compares faith to running a race. If you have ever run a physical long-distance race, you know the challenge of believing you can finish.

Another thread is to keep our minds focused on where Jesus is. This is the place we pray about when we pray the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13): “… your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven….”

A third thread is to remain in Jesus:

“Remain in me, as I also remain in you… apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

It requires effort to stay in Jesus. He was using a vine and its branches as an illustration. If the branches lose their grip, they lose contact with the source of their life.

Application: Make it your goal to stay focused on Jesus all day, every day.

Food for Thought: What other ways of pursuing faith come to mind?

Please click ‘’Continue Reading” for comments.

August 1, 2026July 28, 2026

1 Timothy 6:11 (Part 2) – Godliness

Picture of a cross with light radiating out from it (Grok)

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

Summary: If we are to pursue godliness, we need to understand what that means and what we are to run toward.

But you, man of God … pursue… godliness.

The Greek word Paul used is “eusebeia,” a word that means “reverence, respect, … piety toward God, [and] godliness.”* When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught them to begin with, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name… “ (Matthew 6:9).

To “hallow” the Lord’s name is to show the ultimate respect — to honor God’s name as holy. Reverence, respect, and piety are all wrapped up into godliness when we honor God as holy. Godliness, then, is not a one-time ‘tip of the hat’ to God. Godliness is a way of living, a way Paul says we should pursue.

How do we pursue an attitude like godliness? Paul provides a clue in 1 Timothy 3:16 —

“Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great:

He appeared in the flesh,
    was vindicated by the Spirit,
was seen by angels,
    was preached among the nations,
was believed on in the world,
    was taken up in glory.”

Paul is telling us that the source of true godliness is found in Jesus Christ. Jesus, in turn, explains the secret to godliness this way:

“Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John 5:19)

It is often said that“Imitation is the highest form of flattery.” A Christian version of this saying might be, “Imitation is the highest form of respect.” Another way of saying this is “Imitation is the highest form of godliness.

If we can learn to imitate Jesus’s love for the Father, and imitate the Father’s love for all people, we are pointed in the right direction. If we actively pursue godly love (agapē), we are pursuing godliness.

Application: Strive to love as God loves.

Food for Thought: How is Christian godliness different from following the Old Covenant laws?

*”G2150 – eusebeia – Strong’s Greek Lexicon (NIV).” Blue Letter Bible. Web. 24 Jul, 2026. <https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g2150/niv/mgnt/0-1/>.

Please click ‘’Continue Reading” for comments.

July 31, 2026July 28, 2026

1 Timothy 6:11 (Part 1) – Righteousness

A man is chasing a bus called "Righteousness" (Grok)

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

Summary: Looking closely at the word “righteousness” opens the door to new insights about how the word is used.

In our last meditation, we asked the question, “What are we to do instead of being ‘eager for money’?” In this verse, Paul answers the question with typical Pauline conciseness.

‘Pursue better things!,’ he says. Pursue “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.”

Let’s begin with righteousness.

Righteousness, unfortunately, is a word that is often misused and misunderstood. Like many other words such as “judging” or “love,” righteousness has different meanings depending on the way it is used.

The world uses the word “righteous” to mean “morally right,” but unfortunately for the world, without God there is no standard for what is “morally right.” For those who know God personally, God is the definition of all that is “right.” God, therefore, is righteous.

One of the main points of the Bible is that man is not God and is not capable of being “righteous” in a godlike sense. Hopefully we can all agree that this is true. However, the word “righteous” still has meaning for us.

The first meaning is what the theologians call “imputed” righteousness. “Imputed” is a fancy word that means God can decide to call somebody righteous if he wants to (even though we don’t technically qualify as righteous).

For example, God considered Abraham a righteous man. The Bible says:

“Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6)

It is hard to beat that kind of righteousness! It is like getting an A+ on a college exam even though you misspelled your own name.

Paul explains how this applies to us when he writes:

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Jesus, who is God, extends his righteousness to those who are his sheep.

But what about the other kind of righteousness? What about righteous living?

When Paul tells Timothy (and us!) to “pursue righteousness,” he has something very specific in mind. He is not saying that we should conform to the Old Testament covenant law. Instead, he wants us to abide by the New Testament covenant law: Love (agapē). As Jesus so succinctly put it:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

Application: Love God and others as God loves us.

Food for Thought: Why is personal righteousness in our Christian lives important?

Please click ‘’Continue Reading” for comments.

July 24, 2026July 23, 2026

1 Timothy 6:6 – Godly Goodness

Picture of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. (Grok) — Jesus being tempted in the wilderness.

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

Summary: Paul’s statement about godliness is challenging because it forces us to think about what godliness means.

What is the most important thing in life?

Be careful! This is a trick question!!

When we use the word “life,” it helps to remember that we live two lives at once. Remember this from Paul’s famous letter to the church at Rome?

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:15)

What Paul is describing is the struggle between the two lives he is living. One life is tied up in the world of the flesh; the other is a resident of the spiritual realm. Our spirit, with the help of the Holy Spirit, wants to do what is right. Our flesh, on the other hand, wants to please itself.

When we ask the question, “What is the most important thing in life?,” the first thing we need to think about is which “life” we are talking about. Are we thinking in terms of the flesh, the body that gets old and dies, or are we thinking in terms of our eternal spirit?

When it comes to our eternal spirit, the most important thing in life is Jesus. Period.

There is nothing we need more and nothing that comes even close in importance. Jesus is everything.

Godliness is all about being Jesus-like. Jesus always puts the will of his Father first.

Remember when he was called out into the wilderness just after he was baptized? (Matthew 4:1-11)

In that story, Jesus is “led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1). But it wasn’t like, “Okay, Satan, let’s get this over with.” Instead, it was God’s will that Jesus sit there and wait for forty days and nights without food before he was tempted.

Godliness is not about feeding the flesh, about our comfort, or about pleasing ourselves. Godliness is all about God. And you know what? If we can please God, even just a little bit, there is contentment and great gain in that.

Application: Always keep our eyes on Jesus!

Food for Thought: How does making Jesus our number one priority affect our “other life” in the flesh?

Please click ‘’Continue Reading” for comments.

June 9, 2026June 10, 2026

1 Timothy 5:1b – Little Brother

Jesus hands the man with the spilled apple cart a better apple glowing with life. (Grok)

Treat younger men as brothers…

Summary: Paul’s instruction to Timothy about younger men is part of our Lord’s plan for setting things right in the world.

Life is hard without Jesus.

I remember, when I was very young, hearing someone say, “Too bad life doesn’t come with an instruction manual!” It was a comment that seemed to capture all the confusion of life’s many decisions and turning points.

May 25, 2026May 28, 2026

1 Timothy 4:11 – Context Matters

Picture of a quiz on a student's desk. The question is "List 10 things Paul instructed Timothy to "command and teach" (Grok)

Command and teach these things.

Summary: Understanding Paul’s words in this passage involves humble self-reflection and an honest assessment of what our role is in the Body of Christ.

This verse has to be one of the shortest and most direct sentences that Paul has ever written!

May 21, 2026May 23, 2026

1 Timothy 4:8 – The Life to Come

A man works out with two angels watching. (Grok)

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

Summary: Does godliness have a value? It turns out that it does.

Perhaps you have heard it said that this is a “dog eat dog” world?

As gruesome as that saying is, the reality of a world without Christ is much worse. When it comes to “getting your way” in the world, the shortest distance between you and what you want is probably at the end of a good, stout club.