Let no one look down on your youth

In youth group, we just finished up a video series called "The Gospel Journey" by Dare to Share ministries. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. The gospel is clearly and creatively presented over several weeks. It also answers many questions that the average young person is wrestling with every day.

Since we finished that, I have been trying to figure out what to do next. Should I do another video series, speak topically on different issues, or go through a book in the Bible? Nothing was clearly standing out to me so last week I began talking about 1 Timothy 4:12. This verse says, "Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself to be an example of those who believe". My plan was to use this verse to tide me over a week until I decided what to teach about. However, this verse has proven to be more interesting and full of exciting truth than I originally saw.

I asked the question, "Why do you think adults tend to look down on the youth?" Various answers included but were not limited to "because they are irresponsible", "because they are self-centered", "because we think we know it all", or "because we are apathetic". While these generalizations (and they are generalizations) are fairly true; I wonder if those assumptions are part of the problem? In other words, if that is the standard we are going to hold young people to, what reason do they have to try and overcome that? Our culture essentially tells teenagers that they are no longer kids but they are also not adults. The impression that most teens have is that since I am not an adult, why should I take responsibility for anything? I'm just going to have fun until I get to a certain age (whatever that may be), then I will take life seriously.

So my challenge last week was to raise the bar of expectations. Paul told Timothy (who was likely around 30ish) to not allow anyone to look down on him simply because he was young. The way people viewed Timothy should not be based on the cultures expectation of what a young person should be. Instead he was to be an example for all believers. I think it is interesting that Paul did not tell him to go out and tell all the older people to stop judging him. He wanted Timothy to show them this truth simply by the way that he lived his life. People are always going to judge us, but we have a say in how they do that. We can either live up to their expectations or we can rise above them. I say, based on this verse, rise above!!

Next week: In what ways can we set this example?