1 Timothy 4:14 Commentary and Bible Study

Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. What is the gift? Well, there is a debate. There's a strong case made from these verses to show that, for one thing, the gift is the commission, the commission that Timothy received to preach the gospel, to dedicate his life to it, to be constantly at it. He is to persevere with it, to put it first, to make every necessary sacrifice for it, to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. But this applies to all of us, not just pastors and ministers. We are all to be given to him, dedicated to him, because we have all been given a gift. We are all in the ministry of reconciliation. Neglect not the gift. Timothy had the gift of pastoral charge and care and preaching the gospel and the word. Never neglect it. Practice constant self-examination. Also a case is made out to show that the gift includes a special discernment or capacity to see the pastoral sense of the Scripture, because that is the most important thing in the preaching ministry. Can a person see the pastoral purpose of the passage? Not just the history and the geography and the meaning of the word derived from the study of the original language? Can they see not just the technical exegesis, but the point and the message and the theme and the purpose and what God intends to say? Is he being given that equipment? That's what the apostle means when he says, ‘Apt to teach.’ ‘Never neglect it. Search your own heart’, Paul seems to say to Timothy. ‘Make sure that the Scripture speaks to you and then you can see what it has for everyone.’ That's part of the gift, the gift of pastoral discernment. And there's something else in the gift which you can make out a case for. Part of the gift is the longing. If any man desire, reaches for, longs for the office of an overseer, a bishop, to watch for the souls of men and women and young people, then he desires a good work, even a noble work, an over-towering work, a great longing for souls and for hearts. That's part of the gift. Lose your longing, and you are dead in the pulpit. Lose your longing for souls, for people, for hearts and minds, and all is lost. The gift is a commission, a discernment, a longing. You could lose it by neglect, the apostle implies. Never neglect it. Pray like John Newton for warmth of heart every day. ‘Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy.’ It may well have been because there were prophets in those days. It is understandable that there were a limited number of prophets in the churches, because the word of God was not complete. The New Testament was just forming; they didn't have all the epistles, and God gave them a temporary, foundational ministry of prophets, inspired to speak God's truth on a lesser scale, but rather like apostles. So there would have been, as in Corinth, some prophets. And when Timothy was first appointed at Derbe, Lystra, there might well have been prophets there. And it would have been very precious for the first prototype pastor, who the church set aside and appointed, to be sealed by a prophet. What a special exercise of authenticating that would have been. So it may very well have been that Timothy and Titus and perhaps others were authenticated by a voice of prophecy.