Wholly, Wholly, Wholly

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all, 1st Timothy 4:15.

I was struck this morning by the Apostle Paul's use of the word "wholly". In the context he had been admonishing Timothy to wholly give himself to a series of things.

1st Timothy 4:12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

1st Timothy 4:13 Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

1st Timothy 4:14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.

1st Timothy 4:15 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.

Looking back over the years, it becomes clear that there is a distinct dividing line between people I have known who became involved in church life, or called to a ministry such as preaching, or have professed faith in Christ; and those who did those same things, but wholly gave themselves to the faith of Christ.

Numbers 32:11 Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me:

Numbers 32:12 Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun: for they have wholly followed the LORD.

When that band of twelve men took off to cross the Jordan River, they probably all looked about the same. What no one could have known watching them leave is that only two of them were wholly resolved to follow the Lord no matter what it cost them. I doubt that the ten men who brought back the evil report thought that they were doing anything evil. They called it like they saw it.

Joshua and Caleb saw the promised land through the eyes of faith. They had the promise of God. They had the experience of seeing Pharaoh drown and they saw Israel defeat the Amalekites as long as Moses's hands were held up. What they saw when they crossed the Jordan River was undoubtedly troubling. What distinguished the faithful two wasn't their experience. All twelve men had experienced the exact same things. What distinguished them was that two of them wholly followed the Lord even when the circumstances seemed impossible. The other ten saw the promised land through eyes of flesh. Their arguments made perfect logical sense.

To wholly follow the Lord, is to wholly believe the word of God and to act upon it.

And, behold, the courses of the priests and the Levites, even they shall be with thee for all the service of the house of God: and there shall be with thee for all manner of workmanship every willing skilful man, for any manner of service: also the princes and all the people will be wholly at thy commandment, 1st Chronicles 28:21.

King David had given Solomon the pattern for the temple. King David got it from God. What King David fully expected was that Solomon could count on the people's help 100%. I would imagine that every second man had a different opinion of how the temple should look. Even those who believed that Solomon had God's actual plans for the temple, probably had second thoughts about how they were going about to build it. To have been wholly at Solomon’s command was to be wholly convinced that he followed God’s plan and that he was God’s man.

I suspect that pastors reading this will acknowledge that having all of the people wholly at Solomon's command was perhaps the biggest miracle in the building of the temple. Churches are plagued with people who see things though eyes of flesh. They are usually intelligent, they often love the church and would sacrifice for it, but they are not wholly given to the Lord and have great difficulty going along with things of faith.

To profit in this life, give yourself wholly to those things to which Timothy was admonished to wholly give himself. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways, James 1:8.