Shipwreck: Beware of the Rocks!
Shipwreck, Beware of the Rocks!
“I am giving this charge to you, Timothy, my dear son, in keeping with the prophecies that were said over you earlier, so that you may fight the good fight, holding faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and made a shipwreck of their faith. Hymenaeus and Alexander are among them, and I have delivered them to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme.” (1 Timothy 1:18-20).
Using the meanings of the Greek words in this passage, it could be paraphrased this way:
My dear child Timothy, as someone who is closely alongside you, I am entrusting these instructions to you which are based on God’s special messages that were given concerning you earlier, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, clinging tightly to your faithful trust and your God-empowered conscience that joins together a mature moral and spiritual awareness. Two men in the church, for example, Hymenaeus and Alexander by name, have thrown their convictions overboard and caused a shipwreck of their trust, leaving their faith in ruins. I have expelled them from the church, handing them over to Satan, so that they may be taught not to slander God or speak profanely of sacred things.
If anyone can speak with authority about shipwrecks, it’s St. Paul. He survived four shipwrecks during his missionary travels on the Mediterranean Sea. The first three wrecks were mentioned by Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians (11:25), and the fourth was described in detail by Paul’s partner Luke, in Acts 27-28. He even had to endure the harrowing experience of hanging on to some piece of wreckage in the open sea for a full night and a day! Somehow, I imagine Paul floating in the middle of nowhere in the waters, singing hymns and praising God, like he did with Silas while shackled in the deepest dungeon cell (Acts 16).
Yes, Paul was all too familiar with what it means to have one’s ship veer dangerously off course in the midst of a severe storm, smash against the rocks in shallow waters, or run aground on a sand bar. So this was an unforgettable image for him as he sought to describe what it looks like when someone makes a shipwreck of his faithful trust in God. He couldn’t think of a better picture of what some of his church members were doing to their faith. Paul wanted us to see this image of a believer making a ruin of his faith and having nothing but pieces of their trust in the Lord floating in the wreckage.
Flirting with Disaster. When we find our life-ship sailing off course during turbulence, a heavy storm, a weak moment, or just plain carelessness, and we spot a rocky shoreline nearby, we need to make sure we remain at our post on the observation deck. These rocks are there to make a shipwreck of our faithful trust in God and need to be avoided at all costs. So, a word to the wise: Be on the lookout and do not approach any of these rocks in our travels on the high seas of life. Each dangerous rock on the shore has graffiti like this:
Rock #1: Believe in Yourself. This rock is easy to spot, because everywhere we turn in contemporary life we find someone saying something like this… Follow your dreams. Always trust your gut. Have it your way. Be your own boss. My body, my life. Follow your heart. I, me, mine. I gotta be me. I did it my way. If it feels good, do it. Follow your instincts. I’m free to do what I want. The problem with convictions like that is that without a moral grid, just doing what you want in life easily takes a bad turn. What if my dreams are unhealthy? What if my heart tends to be sinful? What if my instinct is to do the wrong thing? What if I would be a terrible boss of myself? What if my gut tells me to assault someone? Unfortunately, self-confidence an easily slip into self-centeredness, and we have to be careful. Taking good care of your self can all too easily turn into a self-centered life. Loving yourself because a wonderful God created you can morph into loving yourself because you are better than everybody else and you are in the process of designing your own self. Belief in God can all too easily be overpowered by a belief in oneself. We all need to be careful and watch out.
Rock #2: Ignore Scripture. God’s Word is the lighthouse keeping us away from the rocks of destruction. It is the map guiding our way and charting our course. It gives us direction if we lose our way. It reveals what’s on the Captain’s mind as He brings us home to shore. It is full of the wisdom needed to have a safe journey, to grow up during the trip, to explain our duties on the ship, to keep the crew members unified and cooperative. Scripture inspires the heart to love God and it inspires the mind to think God’s thoughts. God’s Word tells us how other ships have sailed the same journey and reached shore. And it tells us how others have been unsuccessful, and what we can learn from their mistakes. The Word tells us why we are even booked on this voyage in the first place. Perhaps most importantly, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” (St. Jerome).
Rock #3: Gather a Fun Crew. As we recruit fellow crew members for our life-ship, we need to be extra careful of who we surround ourself with. Hanging out with the wrong crew day in and day out will make the voyage miserable and ultimately unsuccessful. We often become a lot like those whom we choose to be friends with. It’s easy to be influenced in the wrong direction, to develop unhealthy attitudes, and have an increasing number of weak moments if we have people around us who encourage us to do so. The first words of Psalm 1 lay out the recipe for shipwreck if we’re not careful: “How fortunate and blessed is the one who walks in God’s ways… who doesn’t follow the advice of the wicked or walk in step with the ungodly; who submissively stand in the path where sinners walk; who spends time with those fools who mock and scorn.” When we find ourselves in the wrong company aboard ship, it’s high time to abandon that particular ship and book a spot on another one. So it’s important we aren’t careless when we choose our fellow crew members during our voyage.
Rock #4: Don’t Mind the Distractions. There are many things that can distract us from our job on ship, from obeying the Captain’s orders. These distractions only increase if we begin adopting the values of this world and not the next. We are warned aplenty about not loving the world more than the God who made the world… “Do not cherish the world or the things in the world, such as the lust of the flesh (sensual gratification), and the lust of the eyes (greedy longings of the mind), and pride of life (assurance in one’s own resources” (1 John 2:15, Amplified version). We were told not to be distracted by the worries, the riches, and the pleasures of our lives (Luke 8:14). Or to be overly anxious about life’s essentials out of mistrust of God (Matthew 6:31). Or of acquiring the distraction of an irresponsible lifestyle (Luke 21:34-35). Or even of inviting distractions by self-righteously rejecting words of wisdom (Mark 4:23-25). Instead of being tossed around by an unlimited number of distractions, we are to keep our focus on the purpose of the journey and reach the golden shore, fixing our gaze on the Captain guiding the ship. (Hebrews 12:2). Every sailor knows that distractions inevitably lead to shipwreck. “Christians should live in the world, but not be filled with it. A ship lives in the water; but if the water gets into the ship, she goes to the bottom. So, Christians may live in the world; but if the world gets into them, they sink.” (Dwight L. Moody)
Rock #5: Just Relax and Drift Away. Once we start assuming the Captain’s wheel, it is so easy to lose our way, one little degree at a time, subtly veering off course. Or we convince ourselves that the ship doesn’t even need any special guidance at all and we abandon the wheel altogether. So we drift away from our faith, our godly conscience, by gradually tolerating a little sin here and there in our lives, by making flimsy excuses for our behavior, by trying to justify ourselves for bad decisions, a little at a time. We don’t bother to challenge ourselves anymore in our behavior and beliefs and lifestyle. We get into the habit of losing interest in the voyage and want to strike out on our own, or even worse, just going with the flow of the tide. Paul describes this process very clearly in nautical terms: “We are like children, tossed like ships here and there upon ocean waves, picked up by chance gusts of religious teaching, wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, the prey of liars, deceivers, and the cunning and cleverness of unscrupulous teachers…” (Ephesians 4:14). In our ship of faith, we will tend to go upstream against the currents of the world, and not downstream in whatever direction the world wants to take us. Drifting away is the same as falling away, and it doesn’t need to happen all at once. The drift can be subtle, gradual, but soon enough will lead to our faith being left in ruins. The ship of Christ sails upstream in a downstream world.
Many More Rocks. Of course, in a fallen world there are more rocks than these that could cause a shipwreck of faith. Someone once said that somewhere there is a rock with our name on it. And we need to remember that shipwrecks can happen to anyone who becomes vulnerable to such a thing. No one is immune from having weak moments during our voyage, no one is above it all. But with Jesus as our Captain guiding us through to the heavenly shore, we don’t have to be intimidated by these rocks of destruction. The Captain of our ship is expert at navigating through the coral reefs, the sand bars, the rocky shorelines, the shallow water. Cheer up, the Captain says, and trust Me… I have overcome the world, I know how to do this, and the favorable winds of My Holy Spirit will get us home! We need not worry about the trip we’re on, as long as we are careful to leave the wheel to Jesus, continue to grow into His likeness through His Spirit, and have the spiritual savvy to repel the devil if he tries to take the wheel. We can rest in the love of Christ as we enjoy our voyage. Actually, dramatic storms on board are delightful when we are assured that the ship won’t go down! There is no reason to ever become hopeless, to fear that we will run aground. And we can even join the sleeping Jesus on board as we rest assured of His presence, even while the violent winds and surging waves threaten to sink the ship. The Lord says, Our ship will not go down. Trust Me.
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