Character That Shapes A Good Life

I Tim 3:2-8

1. Live A Blameless Life3:2

Ps 37:37 Mark the blameless and behold the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace.

1. Don’t give people an excuse to have an issue with you!
2. Don’t make it practice of tiptoeing close to the line of righteous reproach.
3. Establish a pattern of right living so that no one can indict you for living below what it means to be a Christ follower.

Col 1:22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

“Above Reproach” – not deserving or worthy of rebuke or criticism.  Root idea is to take hold of, grasp. Blameless, not open to attack.  It is a high standard for leadership. It is not sinlessness otherwise this would have disqualified Paul & Timothy, Titus. “The kind of man whom no one suspects of wrongdoing or immorality due to his own indiscretion, immaturities, or imbalances.” Pg. 186, Mathis

Heb 11:26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

2. Keep Your Eyes On One Woman3:2

Gen 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Eph 5:33  However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Literally, “one woman/wife man.” “heis gyne aner”

More than a legal status Paul is talking about an attitude & action that a man has toward his wife that if correct would keep him from being a polygamist, divorced, involved in pornography because he is emotionally, physically and spiritually committed to one woman.  A “one woman kind of man,” is not a flirt, paying attention to other women.  Devoted to his wife. This phrase is an idiom for marital faithfulness.

Prov 6:29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.

Character is simply habit long continued.  Plutarch

3. Get Your Head Straight 3:2 Exercise Good Judgment 3:2c

1 Pet 4:7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

Prov 13:15 Good sense wins favor, but the way of the treacherous is their ruin.

His Caution 3:2c  “sober-minded” – a man who thinks straight. Calm and collected in spirit. Well balanced, capable of good judgment.

(Prov. 16:32)  32 Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city

4. Keep Your Desires In Check 3:2d  Live A Balanced Life 3:2d

Ps 37:4  Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Prov 24:1 Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them,

His Conclusions 3:2d “self-controlled” – wisely keeping control over one’s passions and desires.  Balanced judgment.  Not given to sudden impulse. (Gal. 5:22,23)

22     But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

23     gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

5. Live A Well Ordered Life 3:2e

In conduct and communication.

It is an observable outward quality.

“respectable”  κόσμιος, kosmios– honorable, appropriate.  Befitting admirable propriety or moderation.  A well ordered life. Put together. (Titus 2:7) Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity,

I Cor. 6:19      Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own