Our Master, Jesus Christ, “is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matt. 24:44). He sets the servants of His Word as the watchmen and overseers of His household (Matt. 24:45). He commands them to keep, guard, and “fight the good fight of the faith” entrusted to them (1 Tim. 6:12), “each according to his ability” (Matt. 25:15). Just as Christ “made the good confession” before Pilate (1 Tim. 6:13), so His servants stand before the Church and the world, and by their preaching the Lord strengthens faith and grants increase to His Church (Acts 16:5), the “pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). St. Timothy, Paul’s friend and son in the faith, is an example of such a faithful and wise servant, set over the household of God in Ephesus to nourish in “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness” (1 Tim. 6:11). The Lord still appoints men like Timothy to bear fruit that will abide (John 15:16), so that the whole household may confess and bear witness to the One “who gives life to all things” (1 Tim. 6:13).
Source: LCMS Lectionary Summaries—Feasts & Festivals
Read: Acts 16:1–5 & 1 Timothy 6:11–16
Pray: Lord God, you have surrounded us with so great a cloud of witnesses. Grant that we, encouraged by the example of your servant Timothy, may persevere in the course that is set before us, to be living signs of the Gospel and at last, with all the saints, to share in your eternal joy; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (LBW p. 36)
