Timothy – Teenage Rebel?

Since being on the internet these past four-years I have seen many websites and blogs, run by teens for teens, use the 1 Timothy 4:12 verse as their slogan. I have been saddened by this misuse of Scripture and that is has been twisted to fit the teenage-agenda. From what I’ve seen it truly has created a rebellion of “don’t tell me what to do” attitude in believing-teens. It’s now used as a right of passage for teens to be disrespectful and arrogant towards adults and towards correction.

As I began to research and study this chapter, history, timelines, and Jewish culture, which both Paul and Timothy would’ve been accustom to and followed as Messianic Jews, I began to realize more and more that teens who use this don’t know anything about those aspects of this passage. All they seem to see are the words “youth” and “let no man despise”.

1 Timothy 4:12-15

Don’t let anyone look down on you because of your youth; on the contrary, set the believers an example in your speech, behavior, love, trust and purity.

Until I come, pay attention to the public reading of the Scriptures.

Do not neglect your gift, which you were given through a prophecy when the body of elders gave you s’mikhah.

Be diligent about this work, throw yourself into it, so that your progress may be clear to everyone.

Timothy was given his gift of the spirit through the laying of hands and prophesying of the leaders in the Assembly. Whenever we see the laying of the hands in the Messianic Writings it was to receive the Set-Apart Spirit or to heal, except in mention to when Yeshua {Jesus} was seized by the leaders.

Matthew 21:46
But when they set about to arrest him, they were afraid of the crowds; because the crowds considered him a prophet.

Mark 5:23
and pleaded desperately with him, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Please! Come and lay your hands on her, so that she will get well and live!”

Mark 16:18
And these signs will accompany those who do trust: in my name they will drive out demons, speak with new tongues, not be injured if they handle snakes or drink poison, and heal the sick by laying hands on them.”

Acts 8:18
Shim’on saw that the Spirit was given when the emissaries placed their hands on them, and he offered them money. “Give this power to me, too,” he said, “so that whoever I place my hands on will receive the Ruach HaKodesh.”

Acts 28:8
Now it so happened that Publius’ father was lying in bed, sick with fever attacks and dysentery. Sha’ul went in to him, prayed, placed his hands on him and healed him.

1 Timothy 4:14
Do not neglect your gift, which you were given through a prophecy when the body of elders gave you s’mikhah.

1 Timothy 5:22
Do not be hasty in granting s’mikhah to anyone, and do not share in other people’s sins – keep yourself pure.

Hebrews 6:2
and instruction about washings, s’mikhah, the resurrection of the dead and eternal punishment.

*s’maikhah: laying on of hands, hence ordination, grant of authority

I think I can safely say that none who use this verse as a slogan have had s’maikhah by a body of elders. Timothy was given his gift, his ministry, and then told to pay attention to the reading of the Scriptures, and to neglect not his gift. Note, the order of which these things had been done in Timothy’s life. First he had s’maikhah, then he was told to be diligent in the Scriptures, and then he was told not to neglect the work he had been given. I think this is important. Obviously he had shown a firm foundation in the Torah that he had been given authority to command and teach about the deliverance that had come through Yeshua, and yet he still was admonished by his Rabbi, Paul, to continue to pay close attention to the reading of Scripture. In most cases, I think, teens who have taken up the authority that was given to Timothy don’t have a firm foundation in the Scripture, which is the main problem.

Aside from all of that, why is this the teen-verse? How old was Timothy exactly when Paul wrote “Let no man despise thy youth”? Was Timothy a teenage? Was Paul really talking to a 16year-old? You really have to look and consider that word ‘youth.’ It doesn’t necessarily mean a certain age. It’s a season. A 60year-old man can say that a 40year-old is in their youth of discipling, which is about how old historians and traditions believe Paul and Timothy were when Paul wrote the first letter.

Paul was a young man, about thirty, when he was converted and appointed to start his ministry as was Yeshua. In Numbers 8:24-26 we find that the age of 25-30 was when you were old enough to go into the ministry.

Acts 7:58
threw him outside the city and began stoning him. And the witnesses laid down their coats at the feet of a young man named Sha’ul.

Luke 3:23
Yeshua was about thirty years old when he began his public ministry. It was supposed that he was a son of Yosef who was of Eli,

Who’s to say that verse was talking to teens just because the word youth is in it? I feel using this as a slogan for teens is giving the wrong impression to teens and to Believers.

Sites, blogs, forums, and books for teens who use and promote this usage of the verse are causing a Rejection of Correction in teens. They eliminate the parental and elderly-presence as well as the experience and maturity from those parties. They cause children to get a sense of authority and arrogance. Sites, blogs, forums, and books for teens are all about getting the teens motivated to “get out there” for the Messiah when they have not been blessed and prophesied over by elders. While I think it’s great to motivate teens to live their lives to the fullest for the Messiah, I do not agree with them motivating them to start their own agenda, which is the case, no matter how subtle.

These teen places have truly created (as well as reinforced) a teenage-rebellion. This rebellion is not against sin, as they would have you believe, but IN sin. I personally know of several mothers who have experienced first hand a rebellious young man who feels it is his place to rebuke them, mothers of teen-age children themselves. I have seen as the parents of teens have not only allowed this Rejection of Correction, but have then also counted these spiritual Titus 2 women as lower than that of those teens, who have their own “ministries.” The Scriptures clearly warns against this as Timothy was told, even at 40, to not rebuke an elder.

1 Timothy 5:1-5
Do not rebuke an older man sharply, but appeal to him as you would to a father; treat younger men like brothers,

older women like mothers and younger women like sisters, with absolute purity.

Show respect to widows who are really in need.

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, first let them learn to do their religious duty to their own family and thus repay some of the debt they owe their forebears, for this is what is acceptable in the sight of God.

Now the widow who is really in need, the one who has been left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in petitions and prayers night and day.

I cannot imagine how it grieves YHVH to see teens rebuking elders or taking their position [or the authority over them], especially when they cannot be considered elders in any capacity according to the Scriptures. Along with many other qualifications, one who desires the place of a leader must not only be married, and to only one wife, but he must have children old enough to be in subjection. Surely children does not refer to babies or toddlers, but the age of children who can come under “subjection with all gravity.” Children must be at least 8-10 years-old to have this kind of understanding of obedience and subjection. An unruly toddler cannot understand this. A father of “children in subjection with all gravity” would have to be, at the earliest, about 30years-old.

1 Timothy 3:1-5
Here is a statement you can trust: anyone aspiring to be a congregation leader is seeking worthwhile work.

A congregation leader must be above reproach, he must be faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, orderly, hospitable and able to teach.

He must not drink excessively or get into fights; rather, he must be kind and gentle. He must not be a lover of money.

He must manage his own household well, having children who obey him with all proper respect;

for if a man can’t manage his own household, how will he be able to care for God’s Messianic Community?

I can warn you that places where teens are spending hours and hours at a time with other teens, whether they be sites, blogs, forums, books, school systems, youth groups, conferences, and other like activities, where parents’ presence or elders in the Assembly (elders, not older) is lacking, is a dangerous place to be. Places where teens are all together in one place, under their own authority is in opposition to the Fith Commandment, and it grieves me that a majority of teens today go to their youth leader or other teens for advice, rather than their own believing-parents. It is sad that Believing parents are alright with that.

I have seen with my own eyes what damage this is causing. It is causing teens to rely on each other and their own limited experience in the Scriptures (not) to encourage each other to go out and do their own thing, and not to be looked down on for their age. They are just spurring one another on in cockiness and arrogance. It has caused a pride, because their true youth does not know how to handle some affections or praises from other, especially those of the opposite sex.

It is truly causing a rejection of correction from these teenage-rebels. I do not believe Timothy was a teenage rebel, nor do I believe he would adhere to what it stands for. He would have some serious counseling sessions with the child and their parents. As he was not the youth of today’s youth-culture, but rather, a mature man, not in his youth, but a youth of his ministry.

Please, don’t consider this a discouragement but an encouragement for you to be a witness to the world as is Scriptural. YHVH gave us the Scriptures, our parents, the Set-Apart Spirit, and prayer to help guide us. Let them. Lean not on your own understanding.

Proverbs 3:4-7
Then you will win favor and esteem in the sight of God and of people.

Trust in Yah with all your heart; do not rely on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him; then he will level your paths.

Don’t be conceited about your own wisdom; but fear Yah, and turn from evil.

For those in my age-group it is important for us to be firmly grounded in Scripture, ready to give an answer for what we believe firmly, but respectfully, and to learn how to handle certain situations as is appropriate. Humility is so important for believers. If we have humility the message of Truth will be received so much better.

Shalom in Yeshua

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MJ has written 3 articles on this blog.

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