“Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts. Again I say, don’t get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people.”
2 Timothy 2:22-24 NLT
The challenge in ministry is internal. Though external forces present real time difficulties, the truth is that Christians are to never let those real problems creat unbiblical solutions. We are not to react, but rather to respond. In this context, Paul’s admonishment is helpful. The natural inclination of youth is reaction rather than response. Youth are driven by lusts. These are the temptations that Jesus faced in the wilderness: lusts of the flesh, the eyes and of pride. But these things illicit responses to problems. They do not create the measured responses of a godly man. To manage God’s people well, one must be able to deliver a measured response regardless of how one is being stimulated from the outside. Instead he must be driven from the inside. His responses to problems and problematic people must be in submission to his creatureliness as the image of God within him, fine tuned by the work of the Holy Spirit in his life and in step with the work of Jesus in this world. This will not be so if he can be as easily moved as Adam and Eve in Eden.
JOSH McGARY. COM 