As you’ve already heard and you’ll see, there are bookmarks and brochures around the place advertising the launch of our new churchwide teaching theme for the course of the year ahead of us. Our teaching theme is “The Household of God,” looking at vital Biblical teaching on the subject of the church. And so in service of that theme, we are going to begin a new series this morning in the letters of Paul to Timothy and Titus. In 1 Timothy 3 verse 14, Paul tells us he is writing the first letter, his first letter to Timothy, in order, he says, to give instruction “on how to behave in the household of God,” the Church. First Timothy is about how to live the Christian life in the Church of Jesus Christ.
So if you would, take a Bible in hand and turn there with me please to Paul’s first letter to Timothy. We are looking this morning at the first eleven verses of 1 Timothy chapter 1. You can find it on page 991 if you are using one of our church Bibles. There are six things that I want you to see in these eleven verses. First, verses 1 and 2, embedded in Paul’s customary, apostolic introduction, there is a priority he wants Timothy to preserve. A priority to preserve. Then in verse 3, secondly, there is a gameplan he wants Timothy to adopt as he begins his ministry in Ephesus, which is where he is located. Thirdly, in verses 3 and 4, there is a problem Timothy is to confront. Festering in the church in Ephesus there are false teachers. Fourthly, verses 4 and 5, there is a goal Timothy is to pursue. There is an objective that Timothy is seeking in the lives of these false teachers and indeed in the life of the church as a whole. And then in verses 6 and 7, there is a danger Timothy is to avoid. How did these false teachers get into this mess in the first place? And finally, verses 8 through 11, there is a template for the faithful ministry of the Word of God that Paul wants Timothy to follow. So those are our six themes. A priority to preserve, a gameplan to adopt, a problem to confront, a goal to pursue, a danger to avoid, and a template to follow.
Now before we look at those, let’s bow our heads and ask for the Lord to help us. Let us all pray.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and useful for teaching and for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Given that we hold in our hands then, O God, Your own breathed out Word that is so useful for all that our hearts need, we ask that You would wield it to that effect in each of us in the power of the Holy Spirit, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
First Timothy chapter 1 at the first verse. This is the Word of God:
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
To Timothy, my true child in the faith:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.”
Amen, and we praise God that He has spoken in His holy, inerrant Word.
Let’s look please first of all at verses 1 and 2 and notice there is a priority to preserve. A priority to preserve. This is Paul’s typical apostolic introduction, isn’t it? You can find a version of it in almost every New Testament letter. It follows a fairly standard ancient Greco-Roman letter writing convention. This was how you wrote letters. The author begins by identifying himself, then he mentions the addressee, in this case Timothy, and then he offers some greetings – “Grace, mercy, and peace.” But woven into that very standard letter writing protocol there are some subtle reminders for young Timothy of Paul’s own apostolic priorities and therefore, by inference, of the priorities that Timothy ought to adopt and embrace in the prosecution of his own ministry. Now it is typical in Paul’s letters that he begins with a declaration that he is writing, not as a private citizen but as an authorized spokesman of Jesus Christ. He is, he says, “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope.” So right away, Timothy and we are being called upon to receive the teaching of 1 Timothy not as private advice to be taken or left as we choose, but as divinely inspired apostolic testimony. This is the Word of God.
And as we take that in, don’t miss that Paul says that his authoritative apostleship came to him – look at his language – it came to him by the command of “God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope.” These are the twin realities that frame Paul’s entire apostolic ministry. “God our Savior and Christ our hope.” Salvation from God by sovereign grace and the hope of the return of Jesus Christ who will bring that salvation to its glorious, final consummation at the end of the age. It’s as though Paul were saying to Timothy right out of the gate in this letter, “Now listen, Timothy, as your work in Ephesus gets underway, there will be all sorts of pressures coming upon you, all sorts of demands on your time and attention. You’ll have to deal with false teaching. You’ll need to foster a culture of prayer. You’ll have to ordain elders and deacons, training them and setting them apart for the work. You’ll need to establish all sorts of mercy ministry. And look, it’s not going to be easy; I know that. You are going to be very busy. So please, I want you to make certain that you do not lose sight of your first priorities. Frame everything you do by these twin realities – God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope. Bend everything to the service of these truths. Never become so mired in administrative business or leadership challenges or pastoral complexities that you lose sight of these – God is our Savior, salvation belongs to the Lord, and Christ Himself is our glorious hope. He’s coming again to bring sin and sorrow and suffering to their end at last and usher in a new creation, the home of righteousness.”
Losing sight of the big priorities when things get busy is really very easy to do, isn’t it? Even in the midst of important Christian work, even while we are serving in the local church, we can lose sight of the forest because we have become so focused on the trees. Isn’t that so? And then one day it hits you. As the weariness of yet another committee meeting rolls around, you’ve forgotten what you are doing this for and what it’s all about. “Timothy, frame all you do in the household of God, shape all your work in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do everything, focus everything on the great Gospel priority of God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope.” There is a priority to preserve here, and I wonder if perhaps you’ve begun to lose sight of it yourself in all your busyness. In all the fine work you do in the Church of Jesus Christ and in the service of your Savior, have you begun to lose sight of the forest because you’ve been focusing far too much on the trees? Make sure you keep hold of the great priority. A priority to preserve.
Secondly, there is a game plan to adopt. Now we don’t know much about Timothy. In Acts chapter 16 at verse 1, we are told that Paul met him first in the town of Lystra. “The son,” Luke says, “of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but whose father was a Greek,” presumably implying that though his mother was a Christian, Timothy’s father remains unconverted. Second Timothy chapter 1 verse 5 seems to confirm that when it says that Timothy had been raised in the faith “by his grandmother, Lois and his mother, Eunice,” who, as 2 Timothy 3:15 says, “taught him the holy Scriptures from childhood.” So Timothy, to use our language, Timothy is a covenant child, raised in the faith, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But it was mom and grandma that were the formative influences on his early spiritual life. Dad was nowhere. And so it seems that when Paul found him, it did not take long before something like a father-son bond grew between them. Paul is writing, at verse 2 makes plain in 1 Timothy chapter 1, “To Timothy, my true child in the faith.” Paul has an unusual sympathy and tenderness for this young pastor. He knows Timothy’s weaknesses, his limitations very well. He knows Ephesus is not going to be an easy pastoral charge for anyone, let alone for fragile Timothy.
And so he tells him, he tells Timothy to do three things. “When you get to Ephesus, I want you to do three things.” Here’s the game plan for Timothy’s ministry in Ephesus. Look at verse 3 please. Timothy is to remember, he is to remain, and he is to rebuke. He is to remember, first of all. Look how Paul begins verse 3 – “As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia” – so, “We talked about this on the way to Macedonia, Timothy. Do you remember? None of this is news to you, but look, I know human nature and I know you and I know you are scared. I know it’s a daunting task that is before you, so I am writing to remind you here about what really matters. Here are the things I want you to remember.”
It might seem like a minor point, but it is one, I think, we are apt to overlook – the ministry of reminders is a crucial part of basic Christian discipleship. The ministry of reminders. It’s not good enough to tell people the truth and then move right along. We need to remind them again and again and again of the same old truths because we forget. Don’t we? We make excuses. We prevaricate and we delay because we are intimidated or afraid or just plain lazy, and so faithful discipleship, especially when it comes to shaping Christian leaders like Timothy, must engage in the ministry of reminders. If you are discipling someone – I hope you are seeking to disciple someone and not just be discipled yourself – do not think that your job is to blow their minds with amazing new ideas. That’s not your job. Your job is the ministry of reminders. Keep telling them about what really matters, over and over and over.
First, remember. Second, “Remain, Timothy.” Look at verse 3 again. “As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus.” Central to the reminder Paul gives to Timothy is the call to stay at his post. “Remain at Ephesus.” It seems there was a natural timidity, a temperamental fragility to Timothy so that faced with conflict, his first instinct was to run. And so what Timothy needs is a simple reminder to tough it out. “Remain at Ephesus. Stand your ground.”
During the Korean War, a large army of Chinese infantry assaulted a Canadian battalion defending Hill 677. The Canadians were outnumbered 10-to-1 in the immediate combat zone and in the larger battlefield by a proportion of about 30-to-1. With his battalion completely encircled by the enemy and abandoned by supporting units and without any possibility of resupply, Lieutenant Colonial Stone issued the order to his troops – “No retreat. No surrender.” And rallying behind that command and against overwhelming odds, the battalion held out against mass infantry assaults right through the night. Overrun by the enemy on three different occasions, they called in artillery fire directly on top of their own positions. After fierce firefights and intense artillery barrages, eventually the Canadians had exhausted all their ammunition and all their supplies. And at the last, the Chinese actually withdrew, suffering enormous casualties of about 5,000 dead and many more wounded. The Canadian casualties totalled 12 killed and 35 wounded.
So look, it’s not theologically profound. Sometimes what’s needed, you know, in the service of Jesus Christ isn’t theological profundity. Sometimes what’s needed is a simple call when the battle rages hot and our instinct is to tuck tail and run, just to stand your ground. Hold the line. No retreat. No surrender. Your Commander in Chief, King Jesus, has called you to your post. Don’t you desert it.
And as hard as that can be, the third thing Paul tells Timothy to do, the third part of his gameplan for ministry in Ephesus may be the hardest of all. “Remember. Remain. And now Timothy, I want you to rebuke.” Verse 3, “Remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.” There were leaders, at Ephesus it seems, who were going astray themselves and leading others astray along with them. And Timothy has to deal with them. “Charge them not to teach different doctrine.” That word “charge” is a command word, an authority word. The time for pleading with them is over. Timothy is not to negotiate with them. He is to charge them, command them. And that’s not easy or comfortable to do, especially for a man with the temperamental sensitivities of a Timothy. And in our own pluralistic society, when tolerance and inclusivity are so highly prized, it is an increasingly challenging responsibility to this day, isn’t it? But Christian leaders need to understand that faithfulness to the Word of God requires more than our own positive, private, steadfast adherence to the truth. It requires a zero-tolerance policy towards error. And that’s hard, isn’t it? It’s uncomfortable. “Charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.” But that is part of the ordinary task of everyone engaged in Christian ministry – a zero-tolerance policy toward error.
A priority to preserve. A gameplan to adopt. Then thirdly, Pau outlines the problem that he wants Timothy to confront in more detail. Look at verse 4 please and notice the three marks of false teaching. Paul highlights the content of the false teaching – they are not to teach any different doctrine. The source of the false teaching – they are not to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. And the effects of the false teaching – it promotes speculations and not the stewardship that is from God by faith.
The content of the false teaching – they are “not to teach any different doctrine.” I love Charles Hodges famous boast that there is no new idea that had ever come out of old Princeton Seminary during his time. He didn’t mean that there was no creativity, no intellectual rigor, no fresh thinking; he simply meant that old Princeton was committed to teaching the faith once for all delivered to the saints, remaining true to the pattern of sound words given to us in the holy Scriptures. No different doctrine. They were resolved to stick to the old paths. And so look, here’s the principle that Paul is giving to us. As you interpret the Bible, if no one in the history of the Church has said this thing that you discovered in the text, if this is not part of the testimony of 2 millennia of Christian reflection on the Word of GOd, it’s just not safe to believe it. Stick to the old paths. Don’t teach any different doctrine.
Secondly, Paul warns Timothy about the source of error – they are not to “devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies.” Now it’s not entirely clear exactly what Paul has in mind by “myths and endless genealogies,” but nevertheless, the general problem he is addressing is crystal clear, isn’t it? These false teachers began to supplement the Word of God. For them, the Bible just isn’t enough. They were supplementing the holy Scriptures with myths. Maybe that is a reference to the invented narratives of false religion. And they were appealing to endless genealogies, likely a reference to the kind of fanciful filling in of the backstories of names that you can find in the genealogical lists in the Scriptures, something that was common among the rabbis and had become common even among of the early cults and Gnostic sects in the first century.
But whatever these “endless myths and genealogies” refer to precisely, the key point is – the source of authority for the false teachers isn’t the Bible alone; it is the Bible “plus.” Do you see that? They are building their ideas on Scripture supplemented with other sources of authority. And when you do that, when you supplement the Bible with other sources of governing authority for your doctrine and teaching and your Christian living, those other authorities begin to become the lens through which you understand the Bible. They become the principle interpretive grid and the Bible becomes subordinate to them. And now, the opinions and doctrines of men and not the very Word of God Himself has come to govern your heart.
And so as you read a Christian book or listen to a podcast or tune into the public ministry of some teacher or preacher, if the primary source and the final authority for the ideas that are being propounded is not the Word of God plus nothing, there should be alarm bells ringing loud and clear in your mind. Turn off the radio. Switch off the podcast. Close that book. Throw it away. It’s poison. It’s poison. That’s what Timothy is to confront in Ephesus. The Bible “plus” is never safe.
The content of the error. The source of the error. Thirdly, Paul warns Timothy about the results of this error. It leads, he says, to speculation. Do you see that language in the text? Verse 4. Speculation doesn’t sound all that terribly dangerous to us, does it? After all, we speculate all the time. “What will heaven be like? What must it have been like when darkness covered the earth as our Savior hung between those two criminals outside the city walls? How did Peter fell that first Easter Sunday morning when he raced to the tomb and found it empty?” We speculate all the time, and there’s no harm in it, not usually at least. But that’s not what Paul has in mind here at all. The word that’s translated as “speculation” here is much more sinister. It carries the idea of needless conflict, of unfruitful debate, of unedifying disputes. These false doctrines were running the risk of tearing the church apart. Do you see? One mark of false teaching is the disruptive effect that it has on the fellowship of the local church. Often false teachers – often false teachings, rather, attracts personalities who are driven by their eccentricities to seek out confrontation, to agitate for their errors and throw angry denunciations at those who refuse to give any quarter to their strange ideas. Watch out for those who say they are “contending earnestly for the truth” when in fact they are merely living for the next fight.
So there’s a priority to preserve, a gameplan to adopt, a problem to confront, then fourthly in verses 4 and 5, there is a goal to pursue. Timothy is to charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine but with what outcome in mind? What would be a win when Timothy goes to his study and has a sit-down meeting with these false teachers? He’s going to deal with them. He has an appointment lined up. What’s a win for that meeting between Timothy and these false teachers? Look at verse 5. “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.” “The aim of our charge is love.” Now isn’t that striking? Confrontation, rebuke, correcting other people’s errors – that sounds awfully harsh. Don’t you agree? Especially in our late-modern ears, we have made a cultural idol of tolerance. After all, contemporary definitions of love suggest that, “Unless you unconditionally endorse and validate my moral choices and refuse to question my beliefs, you can’t possibly love me. For me to feel loved, you must affirm me, my lifestyle, and my values.” The obvious problem with that, of course, is that it only works in one direction. “You must affirm me. Agree with me. Never question me. But I’m not required to reciprocate because that would require that I surrender my convictions in service of yours. No, I don’t need to affirm your choices or endorse your values. You must surrender all your convictions to make room for mine.”
That can’t possibly be love. It’s so lop-sided and so abusive. It’s not love. But Timothy confronting the error of the false teachers, that really is love; it really is. “The aim of our charge is love.” You walk into the kitchen, and the cupboard doors for the cupboard under the sink are open. Your four-year-old is sitting on the kitchen floor and suddenly time slows to a snail’s pace as you see him raising a bottle of Clorox bleach to his lips. Now what do you do? Do you shrug and say, “Each to his own. Far be it from me to question your choices!” You scream at your four-year-old, don’t you? “Put that bottle down right now!” And you smack the Clorox from his hands and you get in his face and you say, “Don’t you ever touch that again!” Now what is that? What is that? That’s love. It’s love. Who would think it was anything else. He was about to drink poison! False teaching is poison for the soul and it is love for pastor Timothy to confront it. And should his confrontation succeed and get through and turn them back to the truth, what will the outcome be in their lives? It will be love in their lives, won’t it? “The aim of our charge, our goal in your life, is love. Instead of the contentious speculations that are dividing the church, we want you to begin to love the Lord Jesus and love His people again as you were supposed to do. That’s the goal.”
And you’ll notice in the text that love like that springs from only one kind of soil. It can only thrive in one kind of soil. It comes “from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.” Think about those three phrases for a moment. They really are describing, Paul is describing the marks of false teaching – these are the fruits of the faithful ministry of the Word. This is what the Word of God does when it begins to penetrate. Are you moved to Christian duty by a heart that really wants the glory of God and the good of others? A pure heart? Or does your conscience constantly accuse you and assail you because you are living a lie – claiming to follow Jesus Christ while pursuing a life indistinguishable from the world? Do you have a good conscience? And is your faith in Jesus Christ the real thing? It’s not all talk. It’s not all for a show. You cling desperately to the obedience and blood of Christ alone for salvation and you trust Him with the governance of your life, day by day, walking by faith and not by sight. Yours is a sincere faith. A pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. These are the fruits of the Word of God having its way in your soul. Where they are lacking, the Word isn’t getting through. And like soil robbed of vital nutrients, the tree of love can’t grow there. It will be stunted and deformed. It can’t bear fruit. Now look at your life. Is the Word getting through? Do you have a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith? Or have the toxic weeds of bitterness and contention begun to grow in your Scripture-impoverished life?
There is a priority to preserve, a gameplan to adopt, a problem to confront, a goal to pursue. Fifthly, in verses 6 and 7, there is a danger to avoid. “Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.” Confidence, let’s remember, is no indicator of being right. We all know people like that, don’t we? Seldom right but never in doubt. These people at Ephesus, they are the social media TheoBros of the day. They are as ignorant of the truth as they are supremely confident that they are right.
I know it’s tempting when you meet people like this just to sort of roll your eyes and move right along. Verse 6 should give us all pause. Look how this kind of thing happens. Here’s how they got into this mess. Verse 6 – they swerved, Paul says, from a pure heart and good conscience and sincere faith and “wandered into vain discussions.” It didn’t happen overnight in a sudden paroxysm of error. It was a process, an incremental erosion. Think about those millionaire mansions in Malibu. They were built yards and yards from the cliff edge, but there’s been erosion, and one day the kitchen is on the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. Beware the subtle erosion, not the sudden change, the subtle erosion of conviction. Most people who fall into error don’t run into it, lurch into it. They meander into it and no one notices. But eventually, if it’s left unchecked, the whole edifice of their Christian lives comes tumbling down onto the rocks of soul-shattering untruth. We all need to be wary of the subtle danger of spiritual erosion in our own hearts.
There is a priority to preserve, a gameplan to adopt, a problem to confront, a goal to pursue, a danger to avoid, and then finally, there is a template to follow – a better way to do ministry than the one followed by these false teachers. These men wanted to be teachers of the law, Paul says. They don’t have a clue what they are talking about. But in verses 8 through 11, Paul wants to make sure Timothy does know what he’s talking about and how to use God’s law correctly. In particular, he says, the law of God has a special role in exposing our sin. Verse 9, it “is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient.” And if you cast your eye over Paul’s summary of the law, it’s clear he is really reflecting on the Ten Commandments, isn’t it? The lawless and disobedient, the ungodly and sinners, the unholy and profane – that seems to refer to the sins forbidden in the first table of the Law, the first four commandments that have a reference to our duty toward God. People who strike their fathers and mothers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine – that summarizes the teaching of the remaining six commandments; our duty toward our neighbor.
And Paul is saying that a principle use of the moral law of God is to show us our sin and our need of Jesus. It’s meant to remind us that we cannot rescue, save or redeem ourselves. We need His deliverance and mercy and grace. Christ alone is our only refuge from the condemnation of God’s holy Law. This is the understanding of the law of God, Paul says in verse 11, that accords “with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God” that has been entrusted to him. Understood properly, the Law and the Gospel agree perfectly in exposing our sin and pointing us to Jesus. The aestheticism and legalism of the false teachers at Ephesus, they were distorting what God wants. But we use the Law of God correctly when it brings us to the end of all self-confidence and brings us to lay our deadly doing down and cast all our hope in the obedience of Jesus who keeps the Law in place of helpless sinners and pays the penalty for all the countless ways in which we have broken the Law and rises in vindication that we might be declared righteous in the sight of God with the righteousness of Christ reckoned to us and received by faith alone. That’s the template for the ministry that we need. “Preach this message, Timothy. Believe this message, people of God.”
So let me ask you this as we wrap up. Are you fascinated by theological curiosities? Do you spend more time than you care to admit online drawn into arcane, unprofitable debates? In all honesty, have you grown impatient with the old, old story of Jesus and His love? If the latest juicy controversy is more engaging to you than the person and work of Jesus Christ, you are already in very serious spiritual danger. And these verses offer a sober summons to you to repent. They’re a callback to the simplicity of the Law and the Gospel. But please understand, as you see that, the list of sins exposed in Paul’s summary here are meant to do more than merely rebuke us. They are meant to tell us how wide and deep the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God really is. Read back over the list in verses 9 through 11, would you? Would you read it over? Look at verses 9 through 11. There isn’t a person within the sound of my voice who can say Paul isn’t talking about them. And the point is, it’s for just such people that we have this marvelous Gospel of the glory of the blessed God. “I have good news for you!” That’s what Paul is saying – you who are described in these verses. “Mercy for you! Grace for you!” Leave all your endless controversies and empty speculations. They will leave your heart bitter and shriveled and cold. And turn back to Christ in whom there is mercy and grace for every sinner, every sinner. For you, if you would but turn to Him.
So dear friends, may God help us to fix our eyes on Jesus, keep us from swerving from the truth, wandering into error, so that we might bear the good fruit of love from the Word-nourished soil of a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Let’s pray together.
Father, how easy, how easy to get sidetracked with empty speculation, to get hot under the collar about foolish things other people are saying, to be sucked in to empty debates and fruitless controversies. Please, have mercy on us for becoming more engaged in those things than we are with the wonderful good news about Jesus, for filling our eyes with things that only poison the soil of our souls. Instead, teach us once more to drink in the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God. To drink in the pure, spiritual milk of Your Word that our hearts might be nourished again by the truth as it is in Jesus, and bear the fruit of love to the glory and praise of Christ. For we ask it in His name, amen.