1 Timothy 4:10
For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe. For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.
The verse identifies God as the living God, alive and not dead, the one in whom believers place their trust. That trust is to be placed wholly in Him, in Jesus as a living Saviour, rather than in any human preacher. He is the Saviour of all people, with a special relationship to those who believe.
Labor and suffering reproach come as a result of such trust in the living God. The labor is the human part, man's business of working out his own salvation in cooperation with God, who works within to produce both the willing and the doing. It cannot be done safely by mere human wisdom, for in mere human wisdom feet slip even on the safest path. This cooperative work is done with reverent seriousness, with fear and trembling, in line with His good pleasure. Confidence on this path comes from knowing that the hand of Jesus Christ holds firmly, which replaces self-reliance with fearless confidence and is learned only by searching and studying the Word of the living God.
The statement is fully trustworthy and deserving of acceptance, a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation, to be commanded and taught. What was charged to Timothy in it is charged to every person, and to every minister at this time. That charge includes not letting youth be looked down on but being a model for believers in speech, conduct, conversation, love, spirit, faith and purity. Being a good minister who labors in this trust means being nurtured and nourished up in words of faith and sound teaching and good doctrine, rejecting impure myths, profane and old wives' fables, and training, exercising unto godliness that benefits both the present life and the life to come. Every minister is charged to show Christlike character and bear that Christlikeness, to count the cost, to present practical faith and obedience to self as well as to others, to be a doer and not a forgetful hearer, and to watch personal character, words, conduct and teaching by living out and practicing what is preached.
Trusting wholly in Him gives courage, cheerfulness, hope and inward melody to God in the heart. It opens the windows of the soul heavenward to warming and healing light, to the sweet, warming rays of the sun of righteousness, and closes them earthward against worrying unbelief and the atmosphere of unbelief that worries the soul, leading to praise to His holy name. This trust means looking to God, hoping in Him and relying on Him as Helper who hears prayer and cares like a father, as urged upon Mary.