1 Timothy 4:6–10 – Diet and discipline to achieve godliness

Timothy was expected to teach others what he had learned. So here we see Paul encouraging him to excel in his assigned tasks. More than that, Paul also pointed out that despite his comparatively young age, there were things which he could do to become a faithful and godly minister.

There are two things that define a good minister of Jesus Christ: what he teaches, and how he practices what he teaches. So here Paul detailed for Timothy things a good minister of Christ has to do. Paul began by using the metaphor of eating. Just as eating right physical food would keep the physical body healthy, eating the right spiritual food would keep the spiritual life vibrant. To be a good teacher in spiritual matters, a worker of God must constantly nourish and feed on the Word of faith, and sound doctrines. And he must shun spiritual junk food, such as worldly, godless myths and old wives’ tales, and chatters that old women indulge in.

Paul also used another metaphor to illustrate the necessity for spiritual discipline. He went from the metaphor of eating to the metaphor of exercising. He used an athletic analogy to illustrate how a worker could attain godliness. What is godliness? Godliness can be defined as a healthy respect and reverence for God. It can only be inculcated by exercising spiritual disciplines diligently. Here Paul did not specifically detail the kind of spiritual disciplines. From the drift of his discussion here, we roughly guess that he was referring to the reading, studying, meditating, memorizing and practicing of the Word of God. While physical exercises would only be good for this life, these spiritual exercises help not only in this present life, but also prepare one for eternity. Verse 9 is better seen in connection with what he had just prescribed in verse 8. Thus, Paul was saying that spiritual discipline and exercises should be seriously considered if one desires to attain a godly life.

What is Paul saying here? In a nutshell he is saying that we can all grow in godliness. The way to go about it is to cultivate the life within us. And we do so by feeding and training ourselves on God’s Word. It is all a matter of diet and discipline. Be careful about the kind of spiritual food we partake and be careful about how we conduct our lives – we become what we practice.