Flee and follow

But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. – 1 Timothy 6.11

A lot of proper Christian living can be summed up with two simple words – flee and follow. We can know all the great theological truths that we want, but if we don’t know what to run from and what to run to we are in deep trouble.

Flee false teachers. Flee discontent. Flee silly arguments. Flee from the love of money. All of these things will destroy. When it comes to these kinds of thing we should be like Joseph when he ran from Potiphar’s wife when she tempted – just run. Like Forrest Gump we need to run and keep running.

On the other hand there are things to follow – righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.

There is a definite danger in just sitting here coasting along in the Christian life. If we do that we are just going to get carried downstream.

Most of us know about the example of Joseph serving in Potiphar’s house. Mrs Potiphar tried to seduce Joseph but he ‘put on his running shoes’ and hightailed it out of there. That’s the only way to deal with sin. Run, don’t walk when tempted. Don’t stop, don’t dawdle, don’t delay – RUN!!!

Go after righteousness. Pursue godliness. Chase faith. Run after love. Follow peace. Aim for gentleness.

This is what is expected from the man or woman of God. It’s put a little simpler in another place where we simply read hate the evil and love the good. Noah was know as a man who loved God and hated evil.

File the wrong – follow the right.

Some parts of the Christian life are very simple 