Sail On

Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, 19holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. 20Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. 1 Timothy 1:18-20 

Sail On - Steering Clear of the Rocks

I would like to start with Paul's analogy of the shipwreck because it deserves a little more explanation. First of all, Paul was very familiar with shipwrecks having experienced them three times. (2 Cor. 11:25)  Secondly, it would have been an experience that any traveler would have most certainly feared. Imagine being shipwrecked at sea without life preservers or the hope of calling the Coast Guard or even calling anyone for that matter. You go into the drink, you can pretty much figure your life is over. Any seafaring individual would have known during this period of history, that a shipwreck is a life altering or life ending experience. So, Paul is using a shipwreck as an example of how our faith in Jesus Christ can end up if we ignore a couple of very powerful truths.

Let's set up a scenario so that we can extract a little more emotive stomach-churning images for the sake of application. You are sailing along on a beautiful Mediterranean windy day. You are already a little nauseous from the heaving and hoeing and the pitching of the boat from side to side and up and down, a very turbulent sea. However, you are excited about your new destination and are able to endure the rough ride and salty spray for the sake of this “boy, I should have taken the donkey” adventure. And then out of nowhere comes a squall that gets fiercer by the minute. The crew is scrambling to do what they can to keep the ship from swamping or pitching over. Finally, they take down all the sails and throw out anchors to slow the boat down and keep it from capsizing or running aground. Unfortunately, the storm is too strong, and it blows the ship into the rocks where it is jammed and then pummeled by the fierce waves that slowly but surely tear the ship apart. Needless to say, whoever is on that ship is going nowhere – they are shipwrecked. 

The rough seas are the life experiences that we all face. The ship is the purpose and will of God that we have clambered aboard to fulfill God's wonderful call upon our life. The storm is what eventually comes to anyone who is seeking to walk with Christ and to fulfill our divine purpose. For the sake of our illustration let us say that the reason why we have experienced the squall is because for some reason we have lost our way or that we have gotten ahead of God or behind God and as a result we experience a very tumultuous life altering set of events. Paul gets very specific with Timothy to tell him that what is at stake is our faith. Our faith as it would seem is our journey or walk with God. But then he describes the reason why we get shipwrecked in our walk with God.  It is because we ignore the wisdom and the biblical truths surrounding two major points: holding on to faith and a good or clean conscience.

On this blog I have taught a lot about faith and its importance so I will not reteach those points except to say that faith is incredibly important in our walk with Jesus. We cannot ignore the reality that we as believers upon setting sail to achieve God's purpose for life, will always at every excursion, over every wave, through every storm, and around every unfamiliar bend require absolute utter trust and faith in God. The captain who has great confidence in his sailing skill and stalwart ship must hold also a respect for the sea and its unpredictability. Faith in this scenario would mean listening to God's voice regarding when to set sail and when to drop anchor. It would mean to trust God to go straight into the waves instead of away from them when a storm strikes. It would mean not giving in to fear and panic and thus thwarting the mission altogether. The Bible makes it clear that it is impossible to please God without faith because faith is God's language, and we need to learn to speak it and understand it in order to navigate life’s voyage.  

Speaking a little more about faith one might conclude that a lack of faith can result in fear which gives birth to blindness and carelessness. A careless individual is more likely going to end up stuck on the rocks then one who is paying attention listening for the wind, waves and thunder and taking safe harbor well ahead of the squall that is sure to dismantle a significant future. Had enough of the sailing metaphor?  Hang on.  I’ve got more. 

There is a true story that is told here in Roanoke Rapids about a young brother and sister who had a tragic experience on what is called the Old Lake. It was late December, 1956 and like so many Decembers in northeast North Carolina the weather was mild and almost Spring like.  The young man was home from divinity school for holiday break, and he and his 16 year old sister got excited about taking their homemade sailboat out one more time. And so, they took their simple sailboat out to enjoy a quiet afternoon sail even after being urged to not do so.  It was the last time that anyone saw them alive. Because here in northeast North Carolina, December is also well known to have squalls that will flare up out of nowhere and bring stinging rain, gale force wind and freezing cold in a matter of minutes. When the young couple failed to come back, a search party was gathered and their bodies were finally found 9 days later.  This story always makes me sad as I think as a family member or friend this would be devasting news. But, let me just say, that a Christian who loses hope in God and walks away from Him in anger or disappointment is no less devastating news in the grand scheme of things. There are many more ways a person can lose their life than just passing from this world to the next. 

The other topic of truth that Paul gives us is maintaining a clear or clean conscience. In the translation above, the word is a good conscience. What that means is that we are careful to keep short accounts when it comes to our conscience. Simply put, it means maintaining an awareness of how close we are to God as it concerns our status of confessed sin or lack thereof. See when we sin our conscience is stricken with guilt and shame. When we respond to these pangs of guilt and shame we turn to Christ and ask him for forgiveness to wash us clean of our sin. This is maintaining a clean conscience. (See 1 John 1:8,9)  The conviction and emotional response in our spirit and soul are natural and God given.  Like physical pain, our body warns us that there is injury or a potential life-threatening situation. Our conscience warns us of the danger that sin is causing to our mind, our will, and our emotions. If left untreated this “rejection of truth” will bring pain, struggle, and confusion. Paul says by ignoring our conscience, we are setting ourselves up to be shipwrecked in our walk with God. We become numb to the warnings and thus become insensitive to His promptings, and even belligerent in our attitude. When we become like this we are not listening to God's voice - his directions and his warnings. God wants to lead us and help us in this voyage of life. By walking in faith and trusting in God, we sail according to His will for our lives. And when we quickly and confidently confess our sins, we know our hearts are free to follow with all spiritual sensitivity. With these two spiritual tools, we will be able to navigate this journey of life knowing that God is leading us full sail into the coordinates that He has for us – swift and secure sailing, even through the roughest of seas.  

Finally, Paul reminds Timothy of two men that he knows that have been a sad example of what he is illustrating. Surely, the object lesson is something that Timothy will never forgot.  And hopefully, we don’t either. 

Grace and Peace, 

Pastor David