In Paul’s letter to his young apprentice Timothy, he issued a fair amount of both encouragement and warnings. In the Sixth chapter, Paul cautioned him against any teaching that isn’t consistent with godliness and doesn’t come from the sound and solid Word of Jesus Christ. Then he encouraged Timothy to pursue righteousness, holy living, faithfulness, love, endurance, and gentleness. This technique of teaching between the contrasts was a uniquely Pauline device. But take a look at verses 4 and 5 and see if any modern day example comes to mind.

1 Timothy 6 (Common English Bible)

³ If anyone teaches anything different and doesn’t agree with sound teaching about our Lord Jesus Christ and teaching that is consistent with godliness, ⁴ that person is conceited. They don’t understand anything but have a sick obsession with debates and arguments. This creates jealousy, conflict, verbal abuse, and evil suspicions. ⁵ There is constant bickering between people whose minds are ruined and who have been robbed of the truth. They think that godliness is a way to make money! 

Paul warned Timothy about the “sick obsession” that leads to debates, arguments, jealousy, conflict, verbal abuse, and evil suspicions. He decried the constant bickering that resulted from this sick obsession. In his time it was the pursuit of riches at the expense of integrity.

When I read verses 4 and 5, I automatically thought about our current obsession with social media. And while that is a very modern take on ancient words, it ends in the same place; the pursuit of wealth. Consider Facebook. What began in a college dormitory as a means of connecting students has erupted into a 1.5 trillion dollar industry. According to Google, founder Mark Zukerberg is one of the top ten billionaires in the world. The love of money has surely fueled all of the changes and growth of parent company Meta, and yet we need to consider the “product” this company produces.

If you are on Facebook, you are likely to have experienced the things Paul cautioned about; debates, arguments, jealousy, verbal abuse and constant bickering. At the time of this writing, a Pew Research Center survey reported that 71% of American adults use Facebook every day. That percentage will go up if current trends continue. Clearly social media profits from human engagement that is too often based on fear, unrealistic comparisons, and anger. It truly is a place where minds are ruined and people are robbed of the truth (verse 5). What would Paul say to this?

Have you been hurt or upset by a Facebook post? I know I have. For all the good that it can bring into our lives, such as connecting families, old friends, and my being able to post these devotionals and you being able to access them every day, Facebook and other forms of social media can certainly be devilish, distracting things. It behooves us to consider how much time we are spending on social media. If we realize that the answer is “too much” what should we do with things that have become sick obsessions? Let’s read the next part of the passage:

¹¹ But as for you, man of God, run away from all these things. Instead, pursue righteousness, holy living, faithfulness, love, endurance, and gentleness. ¹² Compete in the good fight of faith. Grab hold of eternal life—you were called to it, and you made a good confession of it in the presence of many witnesses. 

Run away.

Pursue righteousness, holy living, faithfulness, endurance, and gentleness. (There is not a lot of gentleness on Facebook.)

Compete in the good fight of faith.

Grab hold of eternal life.

Turn off your screen.

The Gentle Life