3ይ ሰሙን

I Tim 4:7 Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly.

To train: to put a conscious and condensed effort for a desired outcome.

This word is most often used in spaces related to competitive sports and events. Where one undergoes a period of time with intense preparations needed for one's respective field or competition. The aim of most training is to make the  competing individual( trainee) as capable and experienced as possible in their field. The repeated training exposes the trainee to all the things that could go awry and trains them how to maneuver difficult instances or even prevent it from happening. 

Now let us go back to our opening verse where Paul writes to Timothy to “train yourself unto godliness” or “to train yourself to be godly”. Training is required because the quality or skill in question does not come naturally to the trainee and/or the level of expertise needs to be higher. As most valuable things in life, our spiritual journey is also composed of training. Where we gradually learn to decipher the things of God for ourselves and heed to the Holy spirit's guidance. But to think that this growth should happen automatically or naturally after one is saved is far from the truth. 

As the believer grows/learns the word and spends time with the Lord, the more they understand and know him. And the things of the spirit(supernatural) then start to become natural for them. In contrast to that, when one is not investing time(training) in the study of God(godliness) then just like the under-trained trainee they are short of the knowledge and experiences that could and should have been theirs. 

So let us spend time to train our minds and spirits in the things of God and walk in the promises God has graciously given us.

1 Cor 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.

1 Tim 4:8 Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.