"Have no part at all in the wrong things that young men like to do. Believe. Have love. Follow what is right. Live at peace. Do these things along with others who have a clean heart and talk to God."

"Keep out of foolish quarrels. You know that they start fights. The Lord's servant must not quarrel or fight. But he must be kind to all people. He must be a good teacher to them. He must be patient with them. When he corrects those who are against him, he must do it in a gentle way. It may be that God will turn their hearts to know what is true." 2 Timothy 2:22-25

If you take a first look at this passage, Paul sounds pretty rigid and like a spoil-sport. One of the indictments of Christianity for years has been that it takes all the fun out of normal living. But a second look teaches us a few important things. Paul is talking to Timothy who is, we’d say today, a second-generation leader of the church. Timothy was younger but was probably already about 40 at the time this was written. If you think of him as a mature leader of the church, these paragraphs do not sound that restrictive. Paul knew that people are going to look at the leaders of a church and make a determination about their integrity and the caliber of that church. So Paul is saying first to act adult, show your faith and express love to people, live a decent and peaceful life-style, hang out with good people and pray, “talk to God.” Not really that limiting.

Paul also knew that when you begin to proclaim your faith (in a skeptical world) you’re going to run into opposition and disagreement. In fact, there are some people (not that many but some) who hate the idea of faith, particularly Christian faith. Occasionally we run into them in a town like Palm Springs. Paul’s advice? Don’t get into arguments. Stay away from bickering and quarrels. Even if you win, you will lose. If folks with opposing opinions can get to us and get us to argue and quarrel, they basically win. Remember, it’s easy to bait someone who has beliefs and faith-based standards. It’s hard to pin down someone who does not have faith – what do they have to lose.

Paul wanted Timothy to be a witness to the community of the love and grace of the new church in their midst. We are very much the same. We’re committed to making Desert Oasis Chapel an instrument of God’s grace, a place where people can come and absorb the message of God’s love and acceptance. In the next year, people will come through our door who are very skeptical about God, about Jesus, about church, about almost any doctrine and about you and me. That’s okay, we just have to welcome them and never demean them with cute sayings, sexual innuendoes or double entendres, no come-ons or responses to any of those that they might initiate. Instead, let’s show interest in them, integrity about our reason for being here, and a lot of tolerance of their differences from us. They might be checking out our doctrine but, much more, they are observing our attitudes. We want to show them warmth, even fun, but always respect. It’s not that hard.