[Week 25] Six Words Worth Chasing (1 Timothy 6:11)

This week, we are memorizing 1 Timothy 6:11.

• Check out my latest Scripture Memorization song here: 1 Timothy 6:11
• If you're new here, see my introduction to this series here.

"But you, man of God, flee from these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness."
— 1 Timothy 6:11 (CSB)

From the Doorpost to the Pursuit

Last week, in Joshua 24:15, we learned about the crossroads at Shechem where Joshua asked the Israelites: who will you serve? We ended with God’s answer in Micah, the simplest summary of what God requires to serve him: do justice, love faithfulness, and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).

This week, Paul commissions Timothy with something remarkably similar. And we are going to walk through those words one at a time, so you can really understand what they meant to a 1st century Hebrew and then I’ll give you a challenge for this week.

So, in 1st Timothy, Paul is writing to Timothy, a young leader he left in Ephesus to shepherd a church that was under siege from the inside whom he calls his “son in the faith”. Since Paul left, false teachers had moved in and turned religion into a business. They treated "godliness as a means of gain" (1 Timothy 6:5). And just before this verse, Paul just described the damage these teachers were producing: envy, strife, abusive language, constant friction, and the love of money as "a root of all kinds of evil" (1 Timothy 6:4-10).

Then, in verse 11, Paul elevates Timothy in a way that is not immediately evident. He calls him “man of God”.

Man of God

Now, while we might use "Man of God" to describe someone we respect or admire. It is not a compliment. It's a commission.

In the Old Testament, this title belongs to Moses (Deuteronomy 33:1), Samuel (1 Samuel 9:6), Elijah (1 Kings 17:18), Elisha (2 Kings 4:9), and David (Nehemiah 12:24) to name a few. And every one of them was someone who chose to stand between God and a people who had gone sideways, calling them back to follow God’s ways.¹

Paul places Timothy in that line. And in the entire New Testament, Timothy is the only person who receives this title directly.

But I want to highlight this: this charge isn't only for pastors or prophets. If you've made the choice at the doorpost, if you've decided to serve God, you are a man or woman of God. That title comes with a job description, and Paul puts it in one word: pursue.

The Greek word Paul uses, diōkō (διώκω), is not a polite suggestion to think hard about something, it is a command and it’s a hunter's word and a military word. It carries the image of chasing something down with intensity and relentlessness, an unwillingness to give up. It's the same idea behind Psalm 23, where goodness and mercy don't gently follow you, they chase you down.² And we see God using this as well in Deuteronomy 16:20, where God commands, "Justice, and only justice, you must pursue" (Deuteronomy 16:20). That kind of pursuit. All-in. Never give up. Relentless.

So what does Paul tell Timothy to pursue? Six words: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Let’s dig into the Hebrew ideas that Paul was trying to communicate behind each of these words.³

Righteousness, Tsedeq (צֶדֶק)

Let's look at the first word Timothy is supposed to pursue: Righteousness or tsedeq in Hebrew (pronounced tse-deck). So, what we just saw in Deuteronomy 16:20, God tells his people to pursue justice, but there is more going on there than meets the eye.

Earlier in Deuteronomy 16, God tells Israel to set up a system of justice. Appoint judges and officials. Judge the people fairly. Don't show partiality. Don't take bribes. "For a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous" (Deuteronomy 16:19). From beginning to end, it only makes sense that this is a passage about, justice (mishpat), not righteousness (tsedeq).

However, at the climax in 16:20, the word God uses changes.

The CSB and all other mainstream translations read, "Justice, and only justice, you must pursue" (Deuteronomy 16:20). But the Hebrew doesn't repeat mishpat here. It says tsedeq, tsedeq. Righteousness, righteousness you shall pursue.⁴

So, why the switch? Because tsedeq is the standard that governs justice. God isn't just saying "be fair." He's saying your justice must be absolutely right. Straight. Without bend. The translators rendered it "justice" because of the surrounding context, and they're not wrong, but, in the Hebrew, God is doing something deeper. He is applying tsedeq, the quality of absolute rightness, to how Israel must live out their judgements (mishpat). It's the plumb line that everything else gets measured against.

And that's what tsedeq means at its root: straightness, conformity to a standard. This isn’t abstract moral perfection but a path that doesn't curve from God’s way. It's doing right by God and by your neighbor, giving each person what is truly due according to God’s standard.

Here is what righteousness really looks like based on some of God's instructions in Scripture:

It's returning what you found to its owner because it was never yours (Deuteronomy 22:1-3). It's paying back what you've wrongfully taken and adding a fifth on top, because making it right means making it more than even (Numbers 5:7). It's paying your hired workers before the sun goes down because they depend on it and it's the right thing to do (Deuteronomy 24:14-15). It's turning your heart back toward your children instead of toward your next promotion (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). It's approaching with curiosity and swallowing your pride for the sake of your spouse, because "a person's insight gives him patience, and his virtue is to overlook an offense" (Proverbs 19:11). It's not harvesting all the way to the edges, or using up all, of what you've earned, but leaving margin for someone who needs it (Leviticus 19:9-10). Tsedeq isn't a principle you agree with. It's a way of life and the way that God has set forth for us.

Godliness, Yir'at YHWH (יִרְאַת יְהוָה)

This was the most interesting word on the list for me, because it's the one that doesn't belong to the Hebrew world at all. Look through your Old Testament, you won't find the word "godliness" anywhere.

However, when the Septuagint translators needed a Greek word for the Hebrew phrase yir'at YHWH, "the fear of the LORD," in Isaiah 11:2 and 33:6, they chose eusebeia. Not phobos (terror). Eusebeia. Reverent, whole-life devotion.⁵ That's the bridge. In the Hebrew mind, godliness, an abstract idea, is the fear of the LORD, a concrete action.

But what does that actually look like?

I wrote about this when we studied Proverbs 31:30, and I want to echo it here: the fear of the LORD is not an emotion. It's covenant language. It means giving the correct weight to who God is, and living like it. Loyalty, reverence, and obedience flowing from relationship. Not being scared of God, but having such a clear view of who He is that it shapes everything you do.

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7). Not the end. The beginning. It's where everything else grows from.

And when you look at the people in Scripture who are described as "fearing God," you see exactly what that looks like.

The Hebrew midwives feared God more than they feared Pharaoh, and it led them to defy a king's direct order to save the lives of babies (Exodus 1:17, 21). Abraham feared God, and the angel confirmed it at the moment he withheld nothing: "Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me" (Genesis 22:12). Joseph, with absolute power over his brothers in Egypt, chose restraint: "Do this and you will live, for I fear God" (Genesis 42:18).

And the Proverbs 31 woman? Everything in that poem, the strength, the generosity, the wisdom, the fearlessness, flows from one source: "a woman who fears the LORD" (Proverbs 31:30).

When you give God the correct weight, the rest falls into place.

And this is where godliness hits your daily life. Because every one of those examples of righteousness, paying your workers on time, returning what isn't yours, leaving margin for someone who needs it, all have a moment where nobody's watching, where cutting the corner would be easier, and no one would know.

Yir'at YHWH, the fear of the LORD, is why you do what you do in that moment.

It's the reason you choose to teach an uninformed customer toward a fair deal instead of charging what you could get away with. It's the reason you hold your ground when your boss tells you to lie. It's the reason you still give your ten percent when money's tight, instead of quietly trimming it back to "make it through." And it's the reason that when life is going well, you leave more around the edges to bless others instead of thinking you finally "get yours".

The fear of the LORD is the fuel behind righteousness. Tsedeq tells you what to do. Yir'at YHWH is why you do it when it costs you something.

Faith, Emunah (אֱמוּנָה)

"The righteous one will live by his faith."
— Habakkuk 2:4

Paul quotes this verse in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11. It's the hinge of his entire theology. And in Hebrew, the word emunah (אֱמוּנָה) doesn't mean what we usually think of by "faith" in English.

We tend to hear "faith" and think belief, an intellectual agreement that something is true. But in Hebrew, every word has a concrete meaning, so emunah is something you can see. It comes from the root aman (אמן), which means to be firm, to be steady, to be reliable. A Faithfulness you can observe and a steadiness you can count on.⁶

So what does emunah look like? Look at Exodus 17:12. During the battle with Amalek, Moses held his hands up over the battlefield and the text says "his hands were emunah," steady, firm, until sundown. However, he couldn't hold them alone, so Aaron stood on one side and Hur on the other, and they held his arms up and his arms remained steady. The battle was won by steadiness, sustained by community.

That's the picture of "faith". Emunah is the worker who shows up every day. The mother who doesn't leave. The friend who keeps his word, even when it costs him something. It's the marriage that survives not because the feelings never faltered but because both people kept choosing to stay and work on themselves. It's the parent who has the same conversation with their teenager for the hundredth time, with the same patience, because steady doesn't mean once.

Habakkuk isn't saying "the righteous will live by believing the right things." He is saying "the righteous will live by being steady and faithful."

We've talked about what to do, righteousness. We've talked about why you do it when no one's watching, godliness. Emunah is whether you do it again tomorrow. And the day after that, and after that. It's following through on what you say you believe and what you say you've chosen to do: serve God. Not once at the doorpost, but every morning after.

Love, Ahavah (אַהֲבָה)

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." — Deuteronomy 6:5 (CSB)

This is the Shema, the most important commandment. And, as we discussed in Week 21 on the Shema it is not a suggestion to feel warmly about God. It's a command to give everything.

The Hebrew word for love, ahavah (אַהֲבָה), is wrapped around the word hav (הב), which means "to give". So, you can measure ahavah by what it gives away. This is why Jesus says the proof of love is obedience (John 14:15), and why John says "God so loved the world that he gave" (John 3:16).

And here's where love separates itself from faithfulness. Emunah asks whether you'll keep showing up. Ahavah asks what you'll give when you get there.

I wrote about the Hebrew words for love more deeply when we studied 1 Corinthians 13:2, and the strongest word for love in Hebrew is hesed, that moves from giving once to covenant love that keeps giving even when the other person stops deserving it.

That's the love that stays engaged in a marriage when the feelings have gone quiet and everything in you wants to withdraw. It's the love that stays patient with your kids on the night when they've pushed every boundary and you have nothing left. It's choosing generosity toward the coworker who gets under your skin every single day, not because they've earned it, but because that's the kind of person you've chosen to be, and because of the God you've chosen to serve. It's not growing bitter when you get passed over for the promotion you feel you deserved, and instead choosing to bless and celebrate the person who got it.

And maybe the hardest one: it's continually loving God when life doesn't go the way you thought it should go for someone who's been faithful to Him. When you've done the right things and the outcome still hurts.

The love that Paul includes in this list is a giving of yourself that costs you something real, and you do it anyway, even when you don't feel like it.

Endurance, Qavah (קָוָה)

The next word Paul includes is the word “endurance”. Let’s see what concept that connects to in Hebrew. I honestly didn't see this one coming and I’m so excited for where it landed.

"But those who trust in the LORD will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary; they will walk and not faint."
— Isaiah 40:31 (CSB)

You've probably read that verse a hundred times. But that word "trust" in the CSB, and other translations render it "wait," is the Hebrew qavah (קָוָה). And this, qavah, is the word behind Paul's inclusion of "endurance."

Paul's word for "endurance" reaches back through the Septuagint into the Hebrew vocabulary of hope and waiting on the LORD.⁷ Biblical endurance isn't gritted teeth. It isn't willpower. It is expectancy-filled waiting.

And the concrete meaning of qavah makes it even richer. The root is defined as "to bind together, perhaps by twisting." The image is strands twisted into a cord. One strand alone snaps easily. Many strands twisted tight hold under pressure. The one who endures is intertwined with God, bound together with Him, and that's where the strength comes from.

Here's what I love about the word for "hope" in Hebrew. The noun from the same root, tiqvah (תִּקְוָה), literally means "a cord." And tiqvah is the word used for Rahab's scarlet cord in the window in Joshua 2:18-21. Rahab's endurance, her expectantly waiting for deliverance, was a cord binding her to God's promise.

It's knowing whose promises are holding up the other end of the cord.

It's pushing through the hard season in your marriage, not because you've figured it all out, but because you know God crafted it intentionally and built it to last. He’s the author. It's showing up for your kids on the days when parenting feels impossible, resting in the knowledge that God planned their lives and made you just for them and them for you. It's staying faithful in the calling God gave you even when the results are taking longer than you'd like, because you know He put you here on purpose and He's the one doing the work, you are just the servant doing the serving.

Qavah is what keeps you going when love gets expensive and faithfulness gets exhausting. You don't endure because you're strong enough. You endure because you know you're not holding on alone. Your hope is in the outcome you can’t see. It's in the God who's twisting that cord tighter every day.

Gentleness, Anavah (עֲנָוָה)

"Moses was a very humble man, more so than anyone on the face of the earth."
— Numbers 12:3 (CSB)

That word "humble" is anav (עָנָו), and its noun form anavah (עֲנָוָה) is exactly what Paul means by "gentleness."

Read that verse again. This is the man who confronted Pharaoh face to face. Who split the Red Sea. Who brought the law down from Sinai and led a nation of millions through the wilderness for forty years. The most powerful, influential human leader in the Old Testament is the Bible's definition of humility and meekness.

Because meekness is not weakness. It is power under authority of God.

The root anah (עָנָה) means "to be bowed down, to bend low." Biblical gentleness is not timidity. It's not tiptoeing around people or being afraid to speak directly. It is strength that has chosen to bow. A war horse that accepts the bridle has lost none of its power. It has submitted its power to a purpose. That is anavah.

The Septuagint translated Numbers 12:3 with the Greek word praus, and Jesus uses that same word of himself: "I am gentle and humble in heart" (Matthew 11:29). And in Matthew 5:5, Jesus quotes Psalm 37:11 directly: "the humble will inherit the land." This is also one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), not a personality trait but the fruit and attitude that the Holy Spirit grows in a life that has bent itself under God's hand.

Gentleness is last on Paul's list, and I don't think that's an accident. Let me be honest, you can “pursue” righteousness with arrogance. You can “pursue” faith while still being unwilling to admit you can make mistakes. You can “pursue” love with your own agenda. But anavah, humility, is the posture that keeps every other pursuit honest and pointed toward God. It's what prevents godliness from becoming the very thing the false teachers were doing: using religion as a weapon instead of a way of life.

So what does anavah, humility, actually look like when you’re carrying all five of those other words into your week?

It looks like approaching every conversation assuming you have something to learn, even when you’re sure you already know the answer. It’s giving the other person the benefit of the doubt before you give them a piece of your mind. It’s recognizing that the person across from you, the one you disagree with, the one who frustrates you, might have something valuable to contribute that you haven’t considered yet.

And maybe most importantly, it’s bowing to God’s ways even when they don’t make sense to you. Even when you can’t see the why. Even when your own reasoning tells you there’s a better path. Anavah says, “You’re God and I’m not, and I’m okay with that.”

This is the hardest one to talk and think about because the world will call it weakness. But, the truth is, there is incredible strength in a person who has nothing to prove, because their hope isn’t in being right. It’s in the God who is.

Anavah, humility, is how you carry everything else on Paul’s list without it turning into pride or self-righteousness. It’s the difference between pursuing God’s righteousness and pursuing your own ends.

The Thread That Holds Them Together

Now step back and look at the whole list. These six Hebrew words are not a random collection. They are the vocabulary of the covenant, and every one of them came directly from God in the Old Testament.

Tsedeq is what God requires: a life that walks straight by His standard.
Yir'at YHWH is the fuel, knowing who's watching and giving Him the correct weight.
Emunah is the rhythm, doing it again tomorrow and the day after that.
Ahavah is the cost, giving of yourself even when the other person doesn't deserve it.
Qavah is the hope that keeps you going when the cost doesn't stop.
And, lastly, anavah is the posture that keeps all of it pointed toward God as our master and teacher instead of toward yourself and your own strength.

Get these right and everything else falls into place. It's easy to skim over words like "righteousness" and "godliness" and "faith" and think you already know what they mean. But they hold so much more under the surface when we pull back the language and culture barrier.

And they converge on a verse we ended with last week.

"Mankind, He has told each of you what is good and what it is the LORD requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8 (CSB)

Do mishpat (justice). Ahav chesed (love faithfulness). Walk in anavah (humility).

This is what it’s all about and what it’s always been about.

Paul isn't inventing a new list. He is handing Timothy the very words of God, the same words the prophets already used to describe what a life that honors God looks like, and saying: this is what you pursue. Not as an abstract ideal, but as concrete approaches, behaviors, and attitudes for your Monday-through-Saturday life.

Last week we asked who we would serve. This is what serving looks like.

This Week’s Challenge: Pick One To Remember

If you're a follower of Christ, you already have some of all of these. The Spirit is already at work. But some are stronger in you right now than others, and, if we’re honest, some might barely have a pulse.

So here's the challenge for this week: pick one. Not the easy one. Pick the one that made you uncomfortable reading this. The one you wanted to skim past because it felt a little too personal.

Write it on a piece of paper. Put it where you'll see it when you wake up Monday morning or when you're getting ready for work. Let it sit there all week. Let it chase you a little.

Don't wait for it to come to you. That's not what pursue means.

Pick one. Write it down. Go pursue it.

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References

Photo by Matteo Paganelli on Unsplash